Laboratory tests for the Diagnosis of Canine Diabetes

Laboratory tests used for confirming a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus are:

• Blood and urine glucose levels
• fructosamine
• glycoslated haemoglobin

Fructosamine and glycosylated haemoglobin are more commonly used in cats.

Blood and urine glucose levels

Reference blood glucose values for normal dogs are given below. Remember that reference values differ from laboratory to laboratory. It is important that you use the reference values for your laboratory when interpreting results.

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Reference blood glucose in non-diabetic dogs*
mmol/l	mg/dl
3.5 - 6.1	63.1 - 109.9

*Clinical chemistry. In Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy XIII Small Animal Practice. Bonagura J ed. Saunders, Philadelphia, 2000. p. 1215

The renal threshold is around 10 - 12 mmol/l in dogs. If the blood glucose concentration exceeds this threshold, glucose is excreted in the urine.

Persistently high blood glucose and glucosuria are indicative of diabetes mellitus.