Diabetes Mellitus
There is one report of diabetes mellitus in a Pygmy goat secondary to a hyperplastic pars distalis of the pituitary gland. It was hypothesized that the abnormal pituitary was excreting excessive amounts of growth hormone, which led to permanent stimulation of the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas, resulting in their exhaustion and degeneration and the associated clinical manifestation of diabetes mellitus.
The affected goat showed chronic pronounced weight loss, polydipsia, polyuria, hyperglycemia, glucosuria, and ketonuria. Fasting insulin concentration was 5.5 μIU∕mL compared to a normal level of 45 ± 9 μIU/ mL in healthy goats (Lutz et al. 1994).There is one other report of diabetes mellitus in a goat of unknown cause (Akdogan Kaymaz et al. 2001). Otherwise, the disease is considered rare in this species, though diabetes mellitus has been induced in goats experimentally using alloxan (Schwalm 1975; Prasad et al. 1985; Kaul and Prasad 1990) or streptozotocin (Cheema et al. 2000; Mushtaq and Cheema 2001).