Feline diabetes care shifts as oral treatment options expand

A pair of veterinary podcast episodes is spotlighting how quickly feline diabetes care has changed, with a focus on newer oral SGLT2 inhibitors, nutrition, and case selection. In VETgirl’s “Updates in Treatments for Feline Diabetes with Dr. Chris Byers,” sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, and dvm360’s “Beyond insulin: What’s new in feline diabetes,” the discussion centers on moving beyond a one-size-fits-all insulin model toward individualized management that can include oral therapies such as velagliflozin and bexagliflozin for carefully selected, newly diagnosed cats. Those options arrived after FDA approvals for Bexacat in December 2022 and Senvelgo in August 2023, giving veterinarians the first approved oral treatments for feline diabetes in otherwise healthy cats not previously treated with insulin. (fda.gov)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the shift is meaningful, but it comes with guardrails. FDA materials and recent consensus guidance stress that oral SGLT2 inhibitors are not interchangeable with insulin, are contraindicated in cats previously treated with insulin, and require careful screening for ketones and concurrent pancreatic, hepatic, or renal disease because diabetic ketoacidosis, including euglycemic DKA, remains the major safety concern. At the same time, expert guidance continues to emphasize nutrition, monitoring, and remission planning, with low-carbohydrate feeding and individualized diet selection still central to care. (fda.gov)

What to watch: Expect continued discussion around which newly diagnosed cats are the best candidates for oral therapy, how practices standardize early monitoring, and whether longer-term real-world data change how remission and safety are discussed. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)