Dog Diabetes

[herefordlovinglady]

My bosses dog was just diagnosed with diabetes. Have really never heard of a dog getting this. The vet prescribed 2 shots a day of insulin and to watch his diet.

Would like to hear of other people who have dealt with this and what you do for your dog.


My first question was shouldn't they check the blood sugar, how can they be sure that the dosage is correct without monitoring the blood sugar?

 

[Tenderft chick]

I worked for a vet and my brother recently had his dog diagnosed with this. The vet they were seeing at the time recommended they euthanize him immediately. I was shocked when I walked into the room and Cody was playing with my little niece and the vet was saying he could die any minute.......Finally talked my brother into going to the vet I used to work for, after I called and talked with them about condition of dog. The first vet btw only did urine test no blood glucose test. Still can't believe how they said this was dead dog walking, sorry I have seen worse cases where they are almost comatose and have come back

Anyways my vet had them come in they did blood work and gave him insulin the next day and prescibed a dose twice daily but then scheduled another day long appointment to do a blood glucose curve to make sure the amount they prescribed would work for the dog. The vet usually has any animal on insulin come in at least once a year to have this done unless symptoms change then done more frequently.

What the blood glucose curve test is, you give the dog their insulin (sometimes they want to do it, check with vet) then they test the glucose levels shortly after administration, then about every 2 hours until the end of the day (the last check is about 5 or 6) from that they can usually decide for sure what the dosage should be.

For food they have the dog on a Science Diet W/M(not a big proponent of SD but with diabetes usually the best) I like to also work with a holistic doctor also to help control the diabetes and maybe feed a better diet, but not currently in this situation anymore. I used to foster (for 2 yrs a cat that was diabetic and hard to maintain).

Hope this helps

 

[vettechmomof2]

The blood is normally checked by the vet hospital with either a blood glucose curve, just a random blood glucose check and normally a fructosamine level.

At home the blood def. can be checked by the owner but many owners will not. If they are interested in that then they should be talknig with their vet.

They can also monitor the glucose level through a urine dipstick. Not a very accurate reading but gives the owner a nice heads up to then speak with their vet.

Many animals can and will develop the different types of diabetes. Most of the animals are treatable but it is something that normally will not go away and many times they also have other health issues going on at the same time so many people choose euthanasia due to cost of the meds,time of treatments and care involved.

Once you get into the routine it really is not that difficult to care for an animal with diabetes but their are things you should watch out for such a hypoglycemia(low blood sugar).
Your boss should have gone over all of this with his vet and if not then they need to be calling the vet back with these questions to get answers or find another vet. This is normally a lifelong disease that they will need to learn to live with.
Wish them my luck and thanks for trying to look out for them.

Also depending on the type of insulin prescribed the number of injections per day can vary.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Diabetes in dogs is not as common as it is in cats, but it is by no means rare either. Yes, they should have checked the blood sugar level so that they had a firm diagnosis for diabetes and a starting point to compare to as they adjust the insulin dose. Glucose in the urine usually means the dog is diabetic, but not always and can be caused by other diseases or toxins. However, the dose of insulin that they start on is generally not the "correct" dose. What most vets do is start on a low dose of insulin, because the amount of insulin required is different for each individual and has absolutely nothing to do with weight or breed. Unlike most other medications, when even if there is a wide range of theraputic doses that dose is still based on size (for example a 50lb dog will need somewhere between 5mg and 15mg, a 100lb dog will need between 10mg and 30mg, etc), insulin dose is based soley on how that patient is responding. A 50lb dog may only need 20U and a 20lb dog may need 40U. You start on a low dose and check the blood glucose each week and increase the amount of insulin each week until the dog's symptoms are under control and the glucose is within the target range. It can be extremely frustrating because it can take weeks or even months to get the diabetes under control and while insulin and routine glucose/fructosamine checks to make sure that the diabetes is controlled are not expensive, it can get expensive to take the dog in for weekly glucose checks for weeks on end with no end in sight while the owner is waiting for the diabetes to come under control.

If your boss has internet access, there are tons of resources for pet owners of diabetic dogs.