RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS OF THE 28th ECVIM-CA CONGRESS

Hypoglycaemia has not been reported in healthy dogs. The goal of this study was to determine if healthy working dogs experience hypoglycaemic episodes at night. Twenty‐two apparently healthy New Zealand working Huntaway dogs (median age 4 years, IQR 2‐6, range 1‐10) were fitted with continuous blood glucose monitors (4 readings per hour) for 4 days. During that time, the dogs were worked according to their usual regimen and were fed complete balanced diets once daily between 6pm‐8pm. Nocturnal hypoglycaemia was considered when serum glucose was < 3.5 mmol/L at any point between 12am‐6am. Nine of 22 dogs (median age 3 years, IQR 2‐5, range 1‐8) experienced a median of 4 (IQR 2‐22, range 1‐79) hypoglycaemic (<3.5mmol/L) episodes (median total readings 96, IQR 72‐96, range 72‐96) of which 6 dogs experienced a median of 2 (IQR 1‐14, range 1‐78) severe hypoglycaemic (<2.5mmol/L) episodes (median total readings 96, IQR 78‐96, range 72‐96). In 5, 2, and 2 of the dogs, glucose was <3.5mmol/L for 1, 2, and 4 nights, respectively; whereas, in 5 and 1 of the dogs, glucose was <2.5mmol/L for 1 and 4 nights, respectively. One dog with a glucose of <3.5mmol/L and a second dog with a glucose of <2.5mmol/L had 9 and 1 glucose readings > 6.66 mmol/L, respectively. To our knowledge this is the first study that documents episodic nocturnal hypoglycaemia in apparently healthy dogs. Our findings suggest that episodic nocturnal hypoglycaemia may be a normal physiological phenomenon in dogs.