Canine Diabetes Mellitus: Advances, Challenges, and Insights from the Literature

Diabetes mellitus is a multifactorial and complex endocrinopathy, characterized by an increase in blood glucose levels, involving a heterogeneous group with metabolic changes in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, resulting in the inability or inefficiency of producing the hormone insulin, manufactured by the pancreas, an organ of mixed function, which has the characteristic of producing hormones that are directly linked to the maintenance and concentration of glucose in the blood. There are two main types of diabetes mellitus, Type 1 or insulin dependent and Type 2 or non-insulin dependent. The main objective of treating a diabetic patient is the suppression of primary clinical signs through insulin therapy. Ketoacidosis is one of the complications of this disease, characterized by a lack of insulin in the body, or when insulin metabolism is altered, as a result of which the body searches for alternatives for energy supply. Other complications are cataracts, which occur when glucose penetrates the lens through passive transport from the aqueous humor, causing swelling in the eyeball and rupture of the lens fibers. Hypoadrenocorticism, insulinoma and insulin overdose are the most common factors causing hypoglycemia.