Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 May 14;4(2):27.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci4020027.

The Big Pet Diabetes Survey: Perceived Frequency and Triggers for Euthanasia

Stijn J M Niessen  1 , Katarina Hazuchova  2 , Sonya L Powney  3 , Javier Guitian  4 , Antonius P M Niessen  5 , Paul D Pion  6 , James A Shaw  7 , David B Church  8
Affiliations

The Big Pet Diabetes Survey: Perceived Frequency and Triggers for Euthanasia

Stijn J M Niessen et al. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Current pet diabetes mellitus (DM) treatment necessitates the active daily involvement of owners and can be costly. The current study aimed to investigate the owner population which opts for euthanasia instead of DM treatment. A survey was designed using multiple feedback steps and made available online to veterinarians world-wide. A total of 1192 veterinarians completed the survey and suggested a median one in 10 diabetic pets are euthanased at diagnosis; a further median one in 10 within one year because of lack of success or compliance. Perceived most important motivating factors included "presence concurrent disease" (45% respondents); "costs" (44%); "animal age" (37%); "problems obtaining adequate control" (35%); "pet welfare" (35%); and "impact owner's lifestyle" (32%). Cats in Canadian (odds ratio (OR) 2.7), Australian (OR 2.3), rural (OR 1.6) and mixed (OR 1.7) practices were more likely to be euthanased because of DM diagnosis, while cats presented to referral/university were less likely to be euthanased (OR 0.6). Dogs were more likely to be euthanased because of DM in Canadian (OR 1.8), rural (OR 1.8) and mixed (OR 1.6) practices. The survey results suggest that benefit exists in improved DM education with emphasis on offering a choice of treatment styles ranging from intense and expensive to hands-off and cheap.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; euthanasia; insulin injections; quality of life; survey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Clinicians’ answers to the survey question “If diabetic animals are euthanased/treatment is stopped/not started, how important are the following factors?” Factors indicated by numbers on X-axis; 1. costs; 2. welfare of pet; 3. too much impact on lifestyle of owner; 4. injection problems; 5. problems obtaining adequate control; 6. concurrent disease; 7. Age of the animal; 8. other (additional issues reported by the respondents and rated according to importance).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Clinicians’ answers to the survey question "According to you how important are the following compliance issues encountered in your practice?” Compliance issues indicated by numbers on X-axis: 1. owner having injection difficulties; 2. cat causing injection difficulties; 3. dog causing injection difficulties; 4. inappropriate insulin storage; 5. injections not given at right times; 6. owner does not stick to feeding protocol; 7. other (additional issues reported by the respondents and rated according to importance).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Clinicians’ answers to the survey question “According to you, how much are owners of diabetic animals concerned by the following issues?”: 1. hypoglycaemia; 2. diabetic ketoacidosis; 3. having to inject their animal; 4. costs of treatment; 5. quality of life of the animal; 6. lifestyle changes that the owner has to make.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Clinicians’ answers to the survey question “How much do the following issues worry you as a vet?”: 1. hypoglycaemia; 2. diabetic ketoacidosis; 3. costs; 4. quality of life of the animal; 5. difficulties in obtaining rapid and adequate control; 6. difficulties of getting the owner on board with the treatment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Niessen S.J.M., Powney S., Guitian J., Niessen A.P.M., Pion P.D., Shaw J.A.M., Church D.B. Evaluation of a quality-of-life tool for cats with diabetes mellitus. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 2010;24:1098–1105. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2010.0579.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Niessen S.J.M., Powney S., Guitian J., Niessen A.P.M., Pion P.D., Shaw J.A.M., Church D.B. Evaluation of a quality-of-life tool for dogs with diabetes mellitus. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 2012;26:953–961. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2012.00947.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fall T., Hamlin H.H., Hedhammar A., Kämpe O., Egenvall A. Diabetes mellitus in a population of 180,000 insured dogs: incidence, survival and breed distribution. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 2007;21:1209–1216. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2007.tb01940.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. O’Neill D.G., Gostelow R., Orme C., Church D.B., Niessen S.J.M., Verheyen K., Brodbelt D.C. Epidemiology of diabetes mellitus among 193,435 cats attending primary-care veterinary practices in England. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 2016;30:964–972. doi: 10.1111/jvim.14365. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kraus M.S., Calvert C.A., Jacobs G.J., Brown J. Feline diabetes mellitus: A retrospective mortality study of 55 cats (1982–1994) J. Am. Anim. Hosp. Assoc. 1997;33:107–111. doi: 10.5326/15473317-33-2-107. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources