November is Pet Diabetes Month. People are often surprised to hear that pets can get diabetes just as people can, but it is not an uncommon disease in our domestic pets. Dogs get the Type 1 diabetes which can have a genetic basis, whereas cats are more likely to get the Type 2 disease which can be related to being overweight. However, unlike in people, treatment in pets always involves injecting insulin. People are often worried about this, but we have hardly ever known anyone who was unable to give the injections after a bit of coaching!

The makers of Caninsulin have set up an online Diabetes Risk Assessment on their website www.petdiabetesmonth.co.uk (from where I stole this lovely picture, hope they don't mind!) so have a look at that. We also have some information in our factsheets library on diabetes in pets which is worth a look. (It's under Articles on the right)