Survey About Management of Diabetes Mellitus in Dogs and Cats Among Veterinarians in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe

This study aimed to obtain information on veterinarians’ experience regarding the management of diabetes mellitus (DM) in the United Kingdom and Europe. A questionnaire consisting of two parts (part 1—DM management [28 questions]; part 2—demographic information [9 questions]) was made available online in three languages (English, German, and Czech) to be completed by European veterinarians from May 2022 to February 2024. In total, 488 veterinarians completed the questionnaire. Most respondents worked in first-opinion practice (396/488 [81.1%]) and diagnosed DM in 2–4 dogs (206/488 [42.2%]) and 2–4 cats (250/488 [51.2%]) per year. In both dogs and cats, most respondents recommended twice daily insulin injections (398/488 [81.6%] and 440/448 [90.2%], respectively). Poor owner compliance and the presence of comorbidities were considered the main challenges in DM management by 220/488 (45.1%) and 179/488 (36.7%) veterinarians, respectively. Nevertheless, most owners were willing to start treatment, and only 80/488 (16.4%) respondents for dogs and 114/488 (23.4%) for cats reported that >1 in 10 pets were euthanised after DM was diagnosed. Our results suggest that the management of diabetic pets in Europe fairly corresponds with DM management guidelines, although challenges preventing their full implementation exist.