Prevalencia de diabetes mellitus en perros adultos con sobrepeso en Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disorder of carbohydrate metabolism because of a relative insulin deficiency. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in overweight dogs over 7 years old. The blood glucose levels using the glucometer were determined on a total of 250 dogs that presented symptoms associated with the disease (polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia, lethargy). The percentage of hypoglycaemic animals was 26.8%; no animals were found with glucose levels indicating the presence of the disease. The data were analysed in a mixed general linear model through PROC MIXED in the SAS vw 9.3 (2013), which used the methodology of restricted maximum likelihood (REML) and the Satterth Wait procedure to adjust the means of the degrees of freedom. The analysis revealed that no significance relation exists between age and blood glucose levels (p>0.05). However, glucose levels correlate with diet and breed size. The dogs that consumed homemade food presented high values of glucose, 67.66 mg dl-1, within the normal ranges of glycemia. Similarly, large races possessed on average a glucose level of 70.55 mg dl-1. Symptoms of polyuria and polydipsia were present in all animals; polyphagia and lethargy occurred in 1.2% of animals. It is concluded that there is no prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the studied dog population of Cuenca, Ecuador.