Science Digest: What is the epidemiology, risk factors and mortality for diabetes mellitus in cats?
5 August 2025
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common endocrinopathy in cats, but the incidence risk for newly diagnosed cats is not well understood.
New research from the Royal Veterinary College, published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, has shed new light on the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes for cats with diabetes mellitus (DM) under UK primary care practice.1
Using electronic health records data of cats from primary veterinary care practices participating in the VetCompass program during 2019, signalment was compared between cats with a confirmed DM diagnosis and a random sample of non-cases, to investigate risk factors.
The annual prevalence of DM in the study was 0.39%, consistent with that reported in a previous study of an insured population of cats2, but lower than reported in an earlier study of cats under primary veterinary care.3 The incidence risk was 0.14% and the mean adult body weight of diabetic cats was 5.9kg.
Crossbreed cats, male sex, neutering, and increasing age were identified as important risk factors for DM. Purebred cats overall showed 0.71 times the odds of a diagnosis of DM compared with crossbreeds. Burmese and Burmillas had increased odds of DM, whereas Bengals and Ragdolls had decreased odds of a diagnosis. Male cats had almost 2.0 times the odds of a diagnosis compared with females (69% of cases were male and 36% female). Intact cats had 0.85 times the odds of a diagnosis compared with neutered cats. The mean age of cases diagnosed with DM was 11.8 ± 3.5 years, and the odds increased with age when cats were 9 years old or older.
More than half (51%) of diabetic cats had died or were euthanised by the end of the 3-year follow-up period, with a median time from diagnosis to death of 68 days. Euthanasia rates were high, accounting for 93% of deaths, with 40% of these occurring within 30 days of diagnosis and 20% within 3 days. This suggests a need to improve understanding of the clinical, welfare, and human factors affecting the decision to euthanise, to improve the welfare and longevity of diabetic cats.
Limitations of the study are that a final diagnosis of DM was not validated by an internal medicine specialist (although a diagnosis of DM is easier to make than most other endocrinopathies); some cases may have been missed if DM was not recorded in the electronic health record; the exact date of diagnosis couldn’t be confirmed in >25% of cases; neuter status at the time of DM diagnosis wasn’t investigated; and several previously reported risk factors associated with DM cats, such as meal frequency, diet, or outdoor access, were not investigated.
Take home message
Early mortality and euthanasia rates are high in cats with diabetes mellitus, and male sex, neutering, increasing age, and crossbreed cats are important risk factors. Burmillas and Burmese cats were predisposed to DM, whereas Bengals and Ragdolls had protection against DM. These findings could help reduce the high early mortality rates of diabetic cats, offer additional information to advise health care plans for aging cats, and inform owners of disease risks associated with increasing age.
References
1Waite O, Gostelow R, Wright E, Jepson RE, Brodbelt DC & O’Neill DG (2025) Frequency, Risk Factors, and Mortality for Diabetes Mellitus in 1 225 130 Cats Under Primary Veterinary Care in the United Kingdom in 2019. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 39 (4), e70161, https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.70161.
2O’Neill DG, Gostelow R, Orme C, et al. (2016) Epidemiology of Diabetes Mellitus Among 193,435 Cats Attending Primary-Care Veterinary Practices in England. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 30 (1): 964–972, https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.14365.
3McCann TM, Simpson KE, Shaw DJ, Butt JA & Gunn-Moore DA (2007) Feline Diabetes Mellitus in the UK: The Prevalence Within an Insured Cat Population and a Questionnaire-Based Putative Risk Factor Analysis. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 9(1): 289e299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfms.2007.02.001.