DIAGNOSIS OF DIABETES-MELLITUS IN A BULL BY MEANS OF BUTYRATE INFUSION

A 9-month-old bull was presented with a history of runting and glucosu ria. The bull showed major signs of diabetes mellitus, such as polyuri a, pulydipsia, polyphagia, emaciation, glucosuria, and ketonuria, but persistent hyperglycemia was missing. Because in an intravenous glucos e tolerance test glucose disappearance was only insignificantly more r apid in a non-diabetic age-matched control than in the diabetic bull a butyrate-stimulated insulin response test was performed. Insulin resp onse to bun rate infusion was markedly impaired in the diabetic bull c ompared with the non-diabetic bull. At necropsy hepatic cirrhosis was noticed and suggestive signs for diabetes mellitus were seen in liver and kidneys.