How does Diabetes cause comas?
Diabetes can cause a coma from too much sugar; and the treatment for Diabetes, insulin, can cause a coma. Too much insulin causes the blood sugar to plummet. If blood sugar falls so low that the brain doesn’t receive what it needs to function, the pet falls into a coma. This insulin-shock coma is treated by getting sugar into the pet. The opposite problem, too high a sugar level in the blood also causes a potentially fatal coma. When the blood sugar level is too high, sugar pulls water from the cells and the pet becomes dehydrated. The pet develops acidosis and loses sodium, chloride, potassium and other electrolytes it needs to keep functioning. These pets lapse into a coma. Pets with a sugar-caused diabetic coma are treated with fluids, electrolytes—especially sodium and potassium—and insulin.
