Vets are seeing a spike in feline diabetes and it is showing up too late to catch easily.
The soft purr, the lazy stretch, the extra nap after breakfast, it all feels pretty harmless until you realize your cat might be showing signs of diabetes right under your nose. More cats than ever are being diagnosed with diabetes and even more are slipping through the cracks without anyone noticing until it becomes a crisis. It is not just overweight seniors anymore. It is younger, active cats, even ones that seem healthy on the surface.
Owners are missing it because the signs do not always look serious at first. A little more water here, an extra trip to the litter box there, maybe a few extra naps. It all gets chalked up to aging, weather, or mood. By the time many cats get diagnosed, their health is already sliding fast.
1. Indoor cats are moving less and that is where the trouble starts.
Cats that spend their whole lives inside are not chasing prey, climbing trees, or pacing their territory like their wild relatives. Instead, they nap in a sunbeam for six hours, bat a toy mouse once or twice, then wait for dinner. Over time, this low energy routine can throw off their entire metabolism. The less they move, the less efficient their bodies become at processing glucose, according to experts at Science Direct. And it is not just about being overweight. Thin, under stimulated cats can develop insulin resistance too.
Throw in the fact that most indoor cats are free fed dry kibble all day and you have a recipe for disaster. Dry food is convenient but it is also packed with carbohydrates. Cats are obligate carnivores. Their bodies were never designed to handle high carbohydrate diets. So when they are constantly snacking and barely moving, their blood sugar starts creeping up and nobody notices until it crashes hard. By then, the damage has already begun.
2. A surprising number of cats are drinking more water and no one is catching it.
You might think more hydration is a good thing and most of the time it is. But for cats, a sudden uptick in water intake can be one of the first signs that something is wrong. Diabetes pulls water out of the cells, making your cat thirsty in a way that seems subtle at first, as reported by Cornell Feline Health Center. You refill the bowl more often or notice the sound of licking in the middle of the night. It does not scream emergency, so it slips under the radar.
The mistake happens when that increased thirst is dismissed as normal. Maybe the weather got warmer or the litter is dustier than usual. Maybe they are just getting older. But that water increase often goes hand in hand with more urination, a little extra fatigue, and small appetite changes that are easy to miss. If those signs are brushed off for too long, the underlying blood sugar issues keep building and the eventual crash can come fast.
3. People assume fat cats are healthy if they are still affectionate.
When a big fluffy cat sprawls across your lap and starts purring, it is hard to picture anything being wrong. They still play sometimes, they still want treats, they still seem happy. That is where diabetes hides best, in cats that are overweight but otherwise charming, as stated by PDSA. People joke about their chunkiness and post photos, but the extra weight is quietly putting strain on their organs and messing with their blood chemistry.
Because these cats are usually the sweet ones, the ones who beg for food and follow you to the kitchen, it is easy to misread their behavior. They are not being affectionate because they feel great. They might be trying to tell you they are hungry even though they just ate, because their cells are not getting the energy they need from food anymore. By the time the lethargy and vomiting show up, the insulin crash has already hit.
4. Routine checkups are missing blood sugar shifts until it is too late.
Veterinarians are great at spotting the obvious signs, but routine visits do not always catch subtle blood sugar problems unless someone asks for a closer look, according to International Cat Care. A quick exam and a few basic blood panels might not show the creeping changes in glucose tolerance that happen before diabetes fully kicks in. Cats are especially good at masking symptoms, so unless they are already in crisis, it is easy for early warning signs to slip by.
Some cats pass their yearly checkups with flying colors but are already on the edge of insulin resistance. The clues are in small shifts, like slightly elevated glucose or mild weight gain combined with low energy. But without tracking those changes over time or asking for more targeted tests, no red flags go up. That delay in diagnosis means treatment starts later, and that makes management harder in the long run. Early detection only works if you know what to look for.
5. Steroid use for unrelated issues can quietly trigger diabetes in cats.
Some cats are prescribed steroids for chronic conditions like asthma, skin allergies, or inflammatory bowel disease. These medications can be life changing in the short term, but there is a major tradeoff that often gets overlooked. Steroids interfere with how the body uses insulin, and over time, they can push a borderline cat straight into diabetes. It does not always happen right away. Sometimes the effects build slowly over months or even years.
The issue becomes harder to spot when the cat is being treated for something else entirely. If a cat is suddenly eating more or acting hungrier, it gets brushed off as part of the steroid side effects. If thirst increases, it might be linked to the original condition or dismissed as a coincidence. But underneath all of that, insulin regulation is breaking down. By the time the connection is made, the cat is already diabetic and the original problem just got more complicated.
6. Stress can raise blood sugar and confuse the diagnosis entirely.
Cats do not wear their stress the way humans do. A cat under pressure might not hiss or hide. It might just lick its fur more, sleep in odd places, or have a slightly off appetite. The strange part is that stress can also spike their blood glucose temporarily. That makes it harder to diagnose diabetes clearly, especially if the test is done at the vet’s office where many cats are already anxious.
What happens next is even trickier. The vet sees high blood sugar but cannot tell if it is from stress or something more serious. So the cat is sent home and told to come back later. In some cases, that follow-up gets missed or postponed, especially if the symptoms calm down for a bit. Meanwhile, the real issue is still developing quietly in the background. That delay in recognizing the difference between stress glucose and diabetic glucose is part of the reason so many cases go unnoticed.
7. Litter box changes are too easy to dismiss as behavioral.
One of the earliest clues in a diabetic cat is more frequent urination, but that often gets misread as a behavior problem. People assume their cat is being spiteful, reacting to a new pet, protesting a dirty box, or just acting out. The real reason might be that their kidneys are overworked and glucose is spilling into the urine. They are not being difficult. They are sick and trying to cope in the only way they know how.
It does not help that many cats are subtle about it. They might still use the box but go more often. Or they may pee in large volumes that dry up quickly in absorbent litter, making the evidence disappear. Some owners do not scoop often enough to even notice a change. By the time the smell gets stronger or accidents happen outside the box, the disease is usually well underway. The warning signs were there. They just got blamed on personality.
8. Weight loss in an overweight cat often gets praised instead of flagged.
When a previously chunky cat starts dropping pounds, a lot of people think they are finally doing something right. They assume the food switch or the new toys are working. They might even feel proud that their cat is slimming down. But unplanned weight loss in a cat—especially without a big change in diet or routine—is almost always a red flag. It is one of the clearest signs that diabetes is already affecting how their body handles energy.
What makes this tricky is that the cat may seem fine otherwise. Maybe they are eating more than ever and still losing weight, which feels like a good trade. But what is really happening is their body is burning muscle and fat because it cannot use the glucose in the blood. The food goes in, but the cells cannot absorb the fuel. The cat is essentially starving from the inside. If this pattern goes unchecked, the next phase is usually crisis.
9. Some cats mask every symptom until the damage is irreversible.
There are cats who seem to break every rule. They are not overweight. They are not lethargic. They do not drink obsessively or pee outside the box. They just seem normal right up until they are not. When these cats crash, it often comes out of nowhere. Vomiting, weakness, confusion, even seizures. These are the cats that make owners feel blindsided. But the truth is, their bodies were fighting quietly for a long time.
Cats evolved to hide their weaknesses in the wild. If they showed signs of illness, they would be vulnerable to predators. That instinct is still baked in, even for a pampered house cat. So unless you are looking very closely and tracking things over time, you might never see the early signs. These are the cats that need regular vet care, full blood panels, and owners who do not ignore small shifts in habits. Waiting for obvious symptoms just means catching it too late.
10. Misconceptions about what feline diabetes looks like are delaying action.
People expect diabetes to come with dramatic signs. They look for total fatigue, scary weight loss, constant water guzzling, or obvious distress. But feline diabetes often starts much quieter. The symptoms can mimic aging, personality quirks, weather changes, or other medical issues. If people do not know what to watch for, they end up waiting until their cat is in a true health crisis before they take it seriously.
Part of the issue is that diabetes in cats does not always match what we expect from humans or even dogs. It has its own pattern and timeline. And since most cats are not going to show pain or fear in obvious ways, their suffering goes unnoticed. If we shifted how we talk about feline diabetes—if we treated small changes as early warnings instead of afterthoughts—more cats could get help before their health spirals. But first, people need to know what it actually looks like when it starts.