Canine Diabetes-Diabetes in Dogs

The symptoms are: excessive water drinking, excessive urination, spots of urine, urine leaking, heavy constant ting, if your dogs breath may smell like nail polish remover or have a smell like alcohol or medicine, if your pet is getting constipated, or if you notice your pet's back is arched.

First vet visit:

Your vet examines your dog and will take a blood and urine test, this will tell how much glucose is in the bloodstream and in the urine. A normal dogs fasting blood glucose is between 75 and 125, when your dog is diagnoised with diabetes your vet has seen through testing that your pet's blood sugar is over the normal limit for your dog. You are then advised about changing the dog's diet and the vet will instruct you on how to give insulin to your pet..

Are you feeling down now, scared, maybe even teary eyed? Diabetes is not a death sentence for your pet. At this point you are feeling that you wished you would of known the signs (how would you? most people don't know these things, most people are not aware that pets get diabetes, I didn't know either) My dog is a diabetic, she has been a diabetic for 6 yrs and is in the beginning of her 7th yr with diabetes, she is now 11 yrs old.

Now Breath: There are diabetic dog owners worldwide. We manage our pets diabetes with diets and insulin . There are help groups devoted to their diabetic pets.

You can do it: You can manage your pet diabetes, you can feed other foods besides commercial dog foods that will lower their blood glucose. You can give insulin injections, everyone is scared to do this at first, don't think for a minute you can't, when you look into your pets eyes and see the love their how could you not want to attempt to do this? Don't worry you will be a lot more comfortable doing this after a few days after a month you will be a pro at it.

Getting your dog regulated: It may take a few months to get your pet regulated, it does not happen overnight most pets eat two meals a day 12 hours apart with an insulin injection 30 minutes after they eat.

Your vet may have instructed you to come in for an office visit the following week to test for blood glucose and see how the food and insulin are working together, at this point you may be told to add or decrease food or change the insulin dose. Your vet may want to see you again the following week. The vet wants to make sure your pets blood glucose is going down a bit. Your vet may want to do a curve. A curve is taking a sample of blood every 2hrs to see where the glucose levels are at the 2 hr intervals, this shows when the insulin starts working, when it reaches its peak action and when it starts to wear down.

What to always have on hand:Syrup! Corn Syrup, Maple syrup. If you don't have this on hand be sure to buy it. Don't forget.

Canine Diabetes can be managed it takes some time and understanding on your part, and your pet will be much happier and they will start becoming their old self again.

Note: Most dogs are started out on NPH Insulin or Vetsulin, if your vet prescribes R insulin caution this not the choice for diabetic dogs, only experienced pet owners should use this type of insulin, it will bring glucose down very fast, question your vet if this is precribed.

If your pet is a diabetic I urge you to join one of the forums for diabetic pets, all owners have pets with diabetes,  please email me for any information you may need.