Urine glucose
Urine ·Also called: GLU urine, glucosuria, sugar in urine, glycosuria
What it is
The kidney reclaims glucose from the filtrate until the amount arriving exceeds its transport capacity. Beyond that point, glucose spills into urine. The threshold is a useful landmark, and it sits considerably higher in cats than in dogs.
Why your vet measures it
Together with a high blood glucose, sugar in the urine supports a diagnosis of diabetes. It is also a monitoring tool at home — though it lags behind the blood, and modern management increasingly relies on blood measurements instead.
What a positive result can mean
- Diabetes mellitus
- A blood glucose pushed past the kidney threshold by severe stress, occasionally seen in cats
- Fanconi syndrome, a kidney tubule disorder well recognised in Basenjis
- Recent intravenous glucose-containing fluids
What a negative result means
- A negative result is normal, and is what a well-controlled diabetic pet should usually show
Dogs and cats differ
A cat's kidney threshold is considerably higher than a dog's, so a stressed cat with a strikingly high blood glucose may still have no sugar in the urine. When a stressed cat does spill glucose, it is more suggestive of genuine diabetes than the blood value alone.
Questions worth asking your vet
- Does this, with the blood glucose, confirm diabetes?
- Should I be testing urine at home, or is blood glucose monitoring better?
- Were any ketones present as well?
Related terms
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