2018 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program: Seattle, Washington, June 14 - 15, 2018

In sum, metabolomic profiles differ between non-fasted diabetic and healthy dogs, with some parallels to those found in fasted dogs. Metabolomic alterations may give insight into the pathogenesis of canine diabetes. Future studies to confirm these findings and develop targeted assays to detect metabolites that may be used as biomarkers of canine diabetes are warranted. Some studies had shown serum cortisol concentration increases, and corticotropic hyperplasia due to environmental stressful agents. This observation explains physiological effects caused by stress. Nevertheless, few studies have tried to correlate chronic exposure to stress with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in dogs, and hyperadrenocorticism (HAC) development. The present work aimed to clarify whether dogs with pituitary-dependent HAC (PDH) were more exposed to stressful situations throughout their lives when compared to healthy animals. A 25-item questionnaire regarding temperament, socialization, social interaction, level of environmental enrichment and daily habits was developed. Owners of both recently diagnosed PDH and healthy dogs were invited to answer the questionnaire. Twenty newly diagnosed PDH dogs were included in the study. Subjects were matched with forty healthy dogs (control group) by sex, age, and breed (1:2 ratio). Exclusion criteria for the control group were: HAC suspicion, chronic glucocorticoid therapy, and glucocorticoid's exposure over the last month. Odds ratio estimates (OR) and 95% confident intervals (95% CI) were reported, and P-values less than, or equal to 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Dogs with HAC were more than ten times more exposed to neutering (OR = 11.4, 95%CI: 1,38 -94,06, P < 0,05). However, no other significantly correlation was found between social isolation, confinement, exposure to canned foods or plastic toys, phobias or separation anxiety, and HAC. Even variables under study considered potential stress relievers did not suggested any protective effect. These results emphasize neutering as a potential risk-factor to HAC development and instigate further studies on possible mechanism behind. is used to evaluate pancreatic endocrine function and predict which patients will become diabetic after pancreatectomy. The purpose of this study was to describe the CTA characteristics of the pancreas in cats with chronic DM and to compare those findings to healthy control cats.