Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How hospital stress affects blood sugar and hormones in cats
By Koomgun, Kanoklada et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2025·Department of Companion Animal Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Influence of hospital-induced stress on blood glucose concentrations, serum concentrations of cortisol, thyroxine and bile acids, and behaviour in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 10 healthy cats showed increased blood sugar levels when taken to the hospital, likely due to stress from the visit. The study found that it took about 6 hours for their blood sugar levels to return to normal after the stressful experience. During this time, the cats also exhibited higher heart rates and stress scores compared to when they were at home. This suggests that stress can affect test results, so it's important for cats to be given time to calm down before any blood tests are done.
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Abstract
ObjectivesStress-induced transient hyperglycaemia may complicate the diagnosis of disease-related hyperglycaemia in cats during hospital visits. This study aimed to define the optimal acclimatisation period for reliable blood glucose measurements and determine the effect of hospital stress on physiological (heart rate [HR] and respiratory rate [RR]), behavioural (Cat Stress Score [CSS]) and metabolic (glucose, cortisol, total thyroxine [TT4] and bile acids [BA]) variables in cats.MethodsA total of 10 healthy cats were evaluated at home and during hospitalisation. Blood glucose was measured hourly for 10 h after withholding food. HR, RR and CSS were determined at T01, T04 and T10. Serum cortisol, TT4 and BA were evaluated at T01 and T10.ResultsStress-induced hyperglycaemia was observed in the hospital. The acclimatisation cut-off time for the cats' return to euglycaemia was 6 h. Cats with hyperglycaemia had a higher CSS than cats with euglycaemia (<0.001). Elevated HR, RR, CSS, glucose and cortisol concentrations were observed in cats at the hospital compared with those at home (<0.001), while BA concentrations were significantly lower at the hospital (<0.001). Significant interactions between time and place were identified for CSS, cortisol, BA concentrations (<0.001) and glucose (  0.009). Notably, CSS and concentrations of cortisol remained stable when the cats were at home but decreased over time in the hospital. Conversely, BA concentrations were stable during the period in the hospital but decreased over time at home. There was a moderate positive correlation for serum cortisol and CSS (ρ = 0.6621;<0.001) and for blood glucose (ρ = 0.4999,<0.001).Conclusions and relevanceStress from hospital visits impacts clinical and laboratory results in cats. Our study would suggest that healthy cats that experience stress-induced hyperglycaemia should be acclimatised for at least 6 h before re-evaluation. Similar studies in sick cats should be conducted.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40230085/