Does anyone know whether diabetes is hereditery ? Our 13 year old labrador has diabetes and now her daughter who is 11 is starting to drink alot more water so i'm worried she is starting with it too.
The 13 year old was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago now and we did ask the vet if it was hereditery. At the time he said studies have been done and there are some patterns but it wasn't proven so i thought i would ask if anyone has had any experience of dogs from the same family having diabetes.
We will take her to the vet to get it checked out but we also have another of the daughters and i'm hoping they all don't end up with it.

According to Malcolm Willis it is uncommon as a genetic defect but can be inherited via autosomal recessive process. So think the answer is unlikely.

Older dogs just as older people have a tendency towards Diabetes. It also seems to be exacerbated in overweight dogs. I do on the other hand find it interesting that both of yours are Labradors, a friend's Lab is suffering from it at the moment and some years ago I had a diabetic Labrador! Any dog CAN get it but Labradors possibly seen more prone than most??

Best wishes, John

Thanks for your replies. Hopefully the kennel club survey will shed some light on the subject. It will be interesting to see if there are any links between certain breeds.