Glipizide may be of benefit in treating cats with type II diabetes if there is existing pancreatic beta cell function. Perhaps 20% to 30% of newly diagnosed cats may benefit (improvement in hyperglycemia) from glipizide, but there is no way to predict which cats will benefit in advance of a trial. It has been suggested that there are two situations when a glipizide trial can be recommended: 1) If an owner refuses to consider giving their animal insulin injections, often due to a fear of needles, and 2) the cat appears to be relatively well controlled on quite small doses of insulin and the owner would strongly prefer to no longer give insulin.¹

While glipizide could be useful in treating canine patients with type II or III diabetes, by the time dogs present with hyperglycemia, they are absolutely or relatively insulinopenic and glipizide would unlikely be effective.