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Can animals / your pets sense when you are not well...


My teenager loves small dogs, especially Yorkies
 
My cat Paddy saved me last year when I fell into a coma, he went upstairs to my wife who was asleep in bed and pawed her face until she got up and he took her downstairs to where I was.
 
Robinredbreast said:
My teenager loves small dogs, especially Yorkies
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Scrappy. Is a Cairn terrier.. He's been clipped. He normally looks like Dougle from the "magic roundabout", but we (the dog & I.) make concessions.. My wife is not a dog person. He drags half of nature home with him.. (We live in a rural'sh area.)

Thank the force we don't have kids.. She's more the "disciplinarian"...lol
 
philchap1 said:
My cat Paddy saved me last year when I fell into a coma, he went upstairs to my wife who was asleep in bed and pawed her face until she got up and he took her downstairs to where I was.
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My dog knows about as much about diabetes as my "new" DSN.. I was testing & treating a mild hypo during an appointment & she didn't even notice.. She did wonder why I "looked bored" though..
 
Jaylee said:
My dog knows about as much about diabetes as my "new" DSN.. I was testing & treating a mild hypo during an appointment & she didn't even notice.. She did wonder why I "looked bored" though..
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She was probably miffed you didn't share the jelly babies.
 
AndBreathe said:
She was probably miffed you didn't share the jelly babies.
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It turned out she kept her own "stash" for such emergencies, in a cupboard above the sink in the surgery..

To be fair. I have had nearly 40 years experience of "masking" my lows.. I reckon I could pull it off playing poker..!
 
Ivr got a sensitive, gentle, thoughtful yellow Labrador older lady (Millie) and a young scruffy black Labradoodle lad (Archie) who is highly active, very loving and completely bonkers. Of the two of them it is Archie who is sensitive to illness of all kinds. If it's something like flu, BG going too high or a tummy bug he will just sit as close as possible, preferably with his chin on your knee or his paw touching your foot - almost like he's trying to reassure you. If it is something centred on one area (headache, trigger finger, pulled muscle) he will keep trying to sniff and lick that area.

He also reacts quite specifically to visitors who are ill - he will sniff, whine and lay at their feet - we often know that someone is ill before they do.
 
When we have a good cat relationship, our cat would love to roam around us, Cats will extend the Paw of Compassion.

Sometimes this is literal, as when they lay their paw on our arm or leg. Sometimes it’s a head rubbed across our cheek or forehead, sometimes it’s curling up near us. But our cats do seem moved to comfort us when they know we are down.
 
My current dog is nursing minded and always try to look after us when we are not well. When I had wisdom tooth problems...she would constantly try to lick that part of my jaw. Any blood or scabs and she is watching like hawk for opportunity to clean them away...when you have cold she will lie quietly next to you and after a sneeze, squeezing herself even closer if possible and rest her chin on your hand. Friend of mine lost her dog and when we were talking about it...mine moved closer to comfort her...it was very different behaviour from her usual 'come and fuss at me' approach.
Even when neighbours cat was poorly, my terrier who usually finds it totally irresistible to tell the cat off or chase it if possible...she left the cat to sleep on our dustbin...definitely not the usual approach from her!!
 
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Not really senseing illness but as I have many medical problems I have to sleep in the living room. A few years ago when we still had six cats (now five) who share the living room with me, I was woken with two of the cats trying to pull me off the bed and the other four meowing loudly. I thought there must be something wrong so got out of bed and found the six cats sitting in a circle in the middle of the room. They started calling at me again so I got on the floor to see what was wrong. Ten seconds after I got down we had a minor earth tremor, they had sensed that it was about to happen.
Gerald
 
I have 2dogs and I would say that they both know when things are not ok. The strangest thing is that Misty will come and not leave me alone and Bonzo gos to my wife
 
definitely can.. especialy dogs and cats... I can tell that cats can even make you pain lower...
 
I ended up in ICU twice with life threatening sepsis and my old collie knew I wasn't well. They understand, especially dogs.
 
On the same vain. My toddler wakes up crying when I'm having a hypo in bed. When I'm ok he sleeps through.
 
My 2 cats will wake me up in the night if my blood sugar is low. And over the last year I have had 2 colds- both of which have left me in bed for a day. The older cat- mother- who is almost 2 sat on my chest for most of the day and would not leave me unless the kitten- was with me.
 
Update:
Had a UTI last week. so off to the doc for some antibiotics!
Curled up on the sofa. wrapped in my duvet to sweat it out! Woke up to a collie sitting on my chest (luckily the light one) and licking my forehead clean of sweat (BG had fallen to 3.2), Old fat collie was curled round my feet!
 
Our Scottish Terrier is sadly no longer with us, but she managed 15 very happy years which is way above average for the breed. A couple of years ago she was most unhappy when I woke up one morning with the mother of all headaches. She whimpered for an hour or so, looked totally stressed out and refused to have anything to do with me. The headache turned out to be a subarachnoid haemorrhage.........I was lucky to survive that one!
 
Soph my lab who is not a trained diabetics dog literally saved my life last year I'd gone to sleep and felt this gentle thumping on my legs she persisted getting up and heavily laying down again On my legs until I woke and thought I don't feel good took my bloods and they where way low I should have been in a coma but until I put my hand on my tin of meds she kept going She now just pushes me out of bed when I have a hypo and looks at me as if to say go your not good. She also knows when I'm depressed or in a manic phase of my bi polar.Also if you are looking for assisance dogs may I recommend a visit to cufts they are often there and you can speak to people face to face to find out requirements as most have stritct policies.
 
Cruft
 
I have 2 dogs.. My black lab Roy certainly knows if my wife or I are unwell and becomes very attentive and cuddly which @ 90+lbs can be a bit "heavy". More importantly tho our rescue cat Leisha maybe saved my life not once but twice as I was upstairs tidying the back bedroom and next thing I know my disabled wife had come through with my diabetes bag as Leisha gad been running from me to herring to get Annie to come and help me. My Bloods Glucose level was 3.5 and I was potentially about to slip into a coma. Annie gave me some glucose and I slowly came round until I was "with it" again. About 6 months later she was jumping on my chest at 3am and my BG level was 3.8. Not sure what she senses but I'm sure glad she does!!! I'd hardly ever been below 5 before or since so I've
 
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