Hypoglycemia in dogs and cats is a condition of lowered blood sugar (blood glucose) and can be caused by a variety of factors. Environmental factors such as poor nutrition, stress or cold can bring on hypoglycemia as can certain parasites. Risks are elevated in animals being treated for diabetes, suffering from certain tumors, liver disease, bacterial infection and certain hereditary conditions.

Hypoglycemia is particularly important to watch out for in toy dog breeds under 3 months of age. These animals have an underdeveloped ability to regulate their blood glucose. Coupled with a high requirement for glucose at an early age, juvenile toy breeds are particularly susceptible to a condition known as Juvenile Hypoglycemia.

Veterinary pet insurance comes into play in the treatment of conditions of which hypoglycemia is a symptom. With numerous potential causes, it is difficult to know for certain if you coverage will protect you in treating those issues. Generally, with young dogs, you will be covered. Unless you have an existing plan, it may be difficult to secure pet health insurance for dogs or cats over the age of 8 years.

Signs and Symptoms: Animals experiencing low blood sugar may exhibit loss of appetite, loss of coordination, lethargy, twitching and seizures. In extreme cases, blindness or coma may result. Any of these symptoms should immediately warrant a visit to the vet.

Important action: As mentioned, hypoglycemia is a symptom of underlying cause. Absent knowledge of that cause, we hesitate to recommend any home action be taken. Obviously, a call and visit to the vet are your best course of action. However, if you’ve had past experience with your pet and hypoglycemia, are familiar with the symptoms and strongly suspect your pet is suffering from lowered blood sugar levels, you can rub Karo® syrup on its gums until you can get it to the vet. This should be considered a bandaid solution as there is still an underlying cause that needs legitimate veterinary care.

Treatment: Treatment of hypoglycemia will be threefold. Your vet will perform tests to measure your pet’s blood glucose concentration, may administer glucose orally or by IV and will obviously want to diagnose and treat the underlying condition causing the imbalance. Again, as there are multiple potential causes for hypoglycemia, listing all possible treatment for those causes is outside the scope of this individual post.

You will need to maintain your pet’s medication when you take him home and carefully monitor his eating and activity levels.

How can veterinary pet insurance help with hypoglycemia: As stated, hypoglycemia is the result of an underlying cause. In many cases, your pet health insurance will cover treatment of conditions from which hypoglycemia results and the actual treatment of the lowered blood glucose will be included in that coverage as part of the condition. Some causes of hypoglycemia include insulin-producing tumors. While likely covered, treatments may put a significant dent in your allowable expense. Check with your provider and work with your vet to get all your facts together.