Area dog owners, here’s your chance to contribute to an important advance in animal health and get a free evaluation of your own pet’s health status!
Experts at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine invite owners to enroll their dogs in a study that will establish guidelines for a blood marker for diabetes. Those registered for the study will bring their dog to the veterinary college on Saturday, October 25, 2025, for a brief physical exam and a blood draw. In return, the owner will receive a detailed report of the exam along with results of a comprehensive blood test.
Dr. Arnon Gal, a boarded specialist in both small animal internal medicine and veterinary pathology, has been studying and treating diabetes in pets for more than 20 years. He and Dr. Denzel Adam, a veterinarian pursuing specialization in internal medicine, want to introduce the use of a marker for long-term blood sugar levels—called hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)—into veterinary medicine.
Preventing Diabetes in Dogs
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common endocrine diseases in dogs. It requires lifelong insulin treatment. Unlike people, dogs with diabetes rarely go into remission.
“Ultimately, we hope to make it possible to identify dogs at risk before they develop diabetes,” says Dr. Gal, “so that one day veterinarians may be able to intervene early and prevent the disease entirely.”
HbA1c is already widely used in people to monitor long-term blood sugar levels and alert individuals identified as pre-diabetic to take steps to prevent the disease. Recently, a portable blood test machine that tests HbA1c in dogs became available. Dr. Adam conducted a validation study to show that the machine reliably measures HbA1c in dogs.
During the validation study, the research team determined the cutoff point for diagnosing diabetes in dogs.
“What’s most exciting,” says Dr. Gal, “is that we believe there is a ‘gray zone’ between this cutoff and the top of the healthy range. This zone may represent pre-diabetes in dogs—a stage where blood sugar changes are beginning but diabetes has not yet fully developed.”
Eventually, the researchers will conduct a longitudinal study that follows dogs identified as in the pre-diabetes “gray zone” to see whether they go on to develop diabetes.
Gathering Data on Canine Blood Sugar Levels
The current study will gather blood samples from young, healthy dogs to establish strict population-based reference intervals for HbA1c. The study focuses on young dogs to avoid introducing data from dogs that, with increasing age, may have developed hidden conditions affecting insulin resistance and blood sugar.
Limiting the dogs’ ages to between 6 months and 2 years provides the most accurate baseline values and ensures a strong data set for identifying dogs that are truly at risk.
How to Participate in the Study
If you have a healthy dog between 6 months and 2 years old, you can contribute to this important research and, at no cost to you, receive useful information about your dog’s current health status.
- Complete a short online questionnaire to provide your dog’s age, breed, etc. and your contact information. Here’s the link: go.vetmed.illinois.edu/DogExam or use the QR code.
- Dr. Adam will contact you before the October 25 event to collect details of your dog’s medical history and assign an exam time.
- Bring your dog to the location on the veterinary campus at the University of Illinois at your scheduled time. The physical exam and blood draw, conducted by veterinarians in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s small animal internal medicine service, will take approximately 20 minutes.
- Within 2 weeks, you will receive by email a work-up of your dog’s health, including:
- A complete blood count and chemistry panel
- A comprehensive interpretation of the results, provided by Dr. Adam, integrating the dog’s clinical history, physical exam findings, and laboratory results
Participants in this study not only gain a free checkup for their pet but also help advance veterinary medicine and contribute to research that could protect countless dogs from diabetes in the future.
