In summary, I think it is plausible that domestic cats can detect the levels of acetone in a diabetic person’s breath and measure that against their health and well-being. They can therefore potentially alert the diabetic person’s partner to problems.
This is a discussion article. A story prompted me to write it. The Evening Standard’s headline today is, “Cat who saved diabetic owner’s life among finalists in National Cat Awards”.
The story concerns Ms Jameson in Liverpool, UK. She is a diabetic and her blood sugar level dropped dramatically. She was about to go into a diabetic coma. She was upstairs in the bedroom slumped over her bed. Her partner, Ray Sherwood, was downstairs asleep in front of the television. Their cat, Willow, was concerned. She woke up Ray by biting his leg!
She led him upstairs to his wife. He called an ambulance and her life was saved. For some reason, Ms Jameson’s blood sugar level had dropped to dangerous levels. She says that her cat saved her life and, importantly, “Since I came home from hospital, she has been very protective of me. I’ve noticed how she puts her nose to my mouth a lot, I think she’s checking I’m breathing.”
She could be right but I wonder if Willow is checking the odour of her breath. And in so doing checking whether Ms Jameson is well.
I speculate that Willow detected that her owner was unwell by the scent of her breath as she lay on the bed. She detected a difference in the smell and that alerted her to a problem.
Cat smelling owner’s breath
Cats do detect the smell of their owner’s breath. You may have noticed after eating some strongly flavoured food that your cat, who was sitting next to you, sniffs the air. They are picking up the smell of your breath. It is quite a subtle feline behaviour. You can see their nose wrinkle up slightly as they sniff. They don’t perform the Flehmen response. It’s a straightforward sniff! Domestic cats are very sensitive to their human companion’s body odours. They recognise their owner though smell and vision.
RELATED: Do fragrances interfere with the human-to-cat relationship and cause health issues?
Acetone
The breath of a person with diabetes smells of acetone. Hypoglycaemia is a significant cause of acetone in the breath. My suggestion is that cats pick up the smell.
And they can gauge whether their owner is healthy by measuring their owner’s behaviour and presence against the smell of acetone on their breath in a close cat-human relationship. This is not a scientific assessment.
Assessing dogs
Science has been involved in assessing a dog’s ability to detect the smell of a diabetic’s breath. They wanted to find out whether a dog could specifically isolate the smell and then place it against a hypoglycaemic breath sample.
The results were inconclusive but one dog managed to do it. Another study asked, “Do dogs sense hypoglycaemia?”
They reviewed studies about dogs being trained or untrained sensing hypoglycaemia to alert their owner. Apparently, several reports and observational studies do provide evidence that animals can perform this task. However, they state that more work is required.
Cats’ noses are not as good as dogs’ nose but they do have a very superior sense of smell compared to humans.
My suggestion is reasonable; that Willow was able to detect that her owner was ill. It seems plausible to me that she deliberately woke up Mr Jameson to help.
