Diabetes in dogs

[Yorkshire lass]

Hi my name is Louise and I don't have diabetes myself but my dog does. This site was recommended to me by a friend on a doggy forum. I hope you don't mind me asking about the dog.

Does anyone have any experience of canine diabetes? Blue was diagnosed in January and is so far proving to be insulin resistant. His glucose is not coming down at all despite his insulin dosage being increased. In addition to his diabetes he also has pancreatitis. As a result of his conditions he is now dangerously under weight.

We are very concerned about him and will do anything to make him better. Any comments or advice will be gratefully received.

 

[hanadr]

I have no experience, but my berother is a vet in Surrey who has canine diabetic patients and Iknow some do very well. I'm sure there are websites for canine diabetes. Google for them.
Hana

 

[jopar]

diabetes in dogs is very difficult to maintain for obvious reasons..

His pancreitis will not be helping him and is probably what is behind some of his blood glucose problems, once the vet has got this under control his diabetes should improve and be easier to handle..

You would have to run this by your vet, as I'm not sure how this would effect his pancreaitis...

If you are feeding your dog, Any dry food, mixer or complete then this will have quite a lot of carbohydrate in it in the form of wheat, rice etc... Even tin meat will have a wheat/rice etc mixed in to bulk it out... So changing his diet to a more pure meat based one would help to reduce his carbohydrate intake, protien from meat would have a slower impact on blood glucose levels and hopefully lead to better blood glucose for him... But as I said you NEED to run this past your vet because of his other medical condition, so any changes doesn't compremise this...

I would avoid giving him any treats that are biscuit based, or training treats from the shop, but offer diced cooked meat or a nice roasted marrow bone..

Not sure how you get his blood glucose levels, I know it's pretty common to use a urine dip stick to determin how much glucose, There is a blood glucose meter designed for dogs but this costs over £100 and no idea how much the test strip are for it... I do wonder though if the human BG meter is the same!!! Mind you I wouldn't facny getting a blood sample from a grumpy rotti (or any other dog) by pricking their paw pad, or ear though..

Hope you find some answers, all settles and gos well

 

[cocacola]

Not sure how you get his blood glucose levels, I know it's pretty common to use a urine dip stick to determin how much glucose, There is a blood glucose meter designed for dogs but this costs over £100 and no idea how much the test strip are for it... I do wonder though if the human BG meter is the same!!! Mind you I wouldn't facny getting a blood sample from a grumpy rotti (or any other dog) by pricking their paw pad, or ear though..

Hope you find some answers, all settles and gos well

Blue is a very good boy and very co-operative :lol: Lou has been having a really bad time over the past few months trying to control his BG levels.
As you can imagine, Blue can't just get up in the middle of the night and take himself out for a wee :roll:
Lou, I also wondered how you are managing to take his BG, do you use urine strips? Are urine strips as reliable as BG monitors?
Apparently you can use human BG monitors on dogs according to this site http://www.vetinfo.com/ddiabt.html

The normal range for blood glucose for dogs is around 60 to 110 mg/dl or 3.9 to 6.1 mmol/L.

http://www.k9diabetes.com/monitoring.html
Lou I have a spare new monitor (human) if you need one. Not sure how many strips I have though.
Do you know what his levels are? Do you know what insulin he is on?

 

[Yorkshire lass]

We do test his urine. As his diabetes isn't yet undercontrol we know to expect his glucose levels to be high. For now we have told to check for ketones, a trace is okay but anything above that and see the vet stright away. We also have an expected level for the glucose which he has remained within. He has a fructosamine test every fortnight and the problem is it's not going down, it's still in the mid 600s and it should be around 400 I think in diabetic dog. His blood glucose is so high at the moment it is off the scale of the small meter the vets have. Also that tests just shows what it is when tested the fructosamine shows an average over two weeks.

We are not happy with feeding him hills I/d but even the homeopathic doesn't want to mess with his diet too much until he's stable. We mostly feed him half soaked hills and half white fish or white chicken meat. The homeopathic vet said to give him more real food and reduce the hills. We (including the homeopathic vet) have an aspiration to getting him back on raw food if possible.

I have tried to join a canine diabetes forum but it's taken a while to be approved. TBH I will do anything to help him so I am open to all suggestions.

 

[cocacola]

Hi Lou, there is lots of info on the K9 diabetes website.

http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=9

 

[CarbsRok]

y

 

[Yorkshire lass]

Thanks Chris, that is the one I've registerd with but I haven't been approved yet.

We have had to change his food to a zero fat diet as to complicate matters he also has panacreatitis .


He is on caninsulin at the moment. The vets are doing a glucose curve today and have permission to perform what ever tests they need to try to get him well again.

 

[haggis1972]

hi there i dont know if this helps but a friend of mines dog had his pancreas removed, and he now feeds his dog a teaspoon of pigs pancreas (which he gets from the local abbatoir- you would need a letter from your vet for this) and mixes it in with his normal buscuits , he cant be given any treats otherwise he is really sick, he was also castrated, hope this helps
sara

 

[hanadr]

A good treat for a diabetic dog is garlic liver.

Buy a bit of beef liver. Cut into tiny pieces
crush some cloves of garlic in a little oil.
Marinade the liver in the garlic overnight and then spread on a nonstick baking sheet.Bake in a medium oven for about 20 minutes, until hard and dry.
Easy to carry about with you in a bag and dogs love it.
i was introduced to it as a training treat several years ago.
Hana

 

[jopar]

I would watch the garlic

Garlic is/can be Poisonous to dogs, so needs to be used with extreme caution...

It is similar to chocolate/coaco one of it's nutrients a dog can not process or break down and this can lead to a dog being very ill or even cause death.. Onions also fall into this group of foods, that dogs can't handle..

Some owners do give Garlic in small amounts, as a fle remendy? With saying that working in kennels we used to have owners come in with dogs, tell us what food they ate, then hand us several packs (depending on length of stay) milkyways or other childs sized chocolate bar!!! Saying that Frido, enjoys one of these every afternoon etc etc...

Needless to say, little Frido didn't get his treat through his stay! We had no intentions of aiding and abetting owners poisoning of their dog... In the past refusal of these treats with an explination of the errors of their ways was tried, but many owners would get quite snooty about it indeed, so now it's a case you smile sweetly, except the treats, and put them on the side... When owner returns from the hols, and enquire you fib and said yes Frido enjoyed his treats!!!!

 

[cocacola]

Lou has now registered with K9 diabetes forum. Hopefully she will be nearer to making Blue's life more comfortable for him and get his BG under control.

 

[JANROU]

good treats for all dogs are raw veg such as carrot, cauli and brocoli, ours love all veg now although it took them some time to get used to the texture of some things.

 

[jopar]

Carrots, now you'll talking...

My dog loves a carrot and will sit by my side, as I'm peeling the veg, in hope of getting one.. Any left over veg ends up in his bowl...

This one I find hard to fathom out, there are those who say you shouldn't give vegetables such as carrots whole, but cutinto small pieces, as they can find them difficult to digest... But my dog doesn't eat them whole, not seen any dog do that as yet... Jones will lay there with carrot held between his paws, and munch away savory every morsel of it.. So it might have started as a whole raw carrot, but it diffently isn't whole when it hits his stomach :lol:

I know the forum that your friend has joined, hopefully she should get some good advice sadly finding inforamtion of diabetes within dogs is difficult, partly because there isn't that many around.