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Diagnosis of canine diabetes - Laboratory tests

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

• Blood glucose concentrations
• Urine glucose concentrations
• Fructosamine - more commonly used in cats.

Blood and urine glucose concentrations

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.

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 mmol/l (180 mg/dl) in dogs. If the blood glucose concentration exceeds this threshold, glucose is excreted in the urine.