is there anyone out there who knows if there is any connection to a dog who had taken pheno for about 6 years then was being weaned off the drug and now has developed high blood sugar which is now teetering on becoming full blown diabetes.please help if there is anyone out there who knows or has any information about this..thank you thank you. janet k.

[Yogi]

though I have had experience with both, I have never seen Pheno be a contributing factor to diabetes. Pheno drawback that is most common is higher intake of water and more urination. Diabetes is generally linked to overweight issues and high fat foods. Also to high cholesterol.

I'm not aware of any link, but phenobarbitol does have an affect on the liver, and the liver plays a role in the regulation of blood glucose levels, so I suppose it might be possible, if the dog were suffering from liver damage. The happy news about that is the fact that the liver has a remarkable ability to repair itself if it's not too far gone.

I'm Jnaet's husband. The vet started insulin (4 units) because the ketones had gone up. It's been a few days and the ketones are normal and his blood glucose is around 250. The vet upped it to 5; he's trying to determine the levels.

Is it possible that normalcy can return so that the dog gets in balance again with his own insulin or there's a reduction required in the amount of injected insulin? How would we see that? Thanks Alan

[Yogi]

in most cases as with humans, diabetes is brought on primarily from being overweight. In cases where the weight is reduced, whether human or K9, the use of insulin is either decreased or is no longer needed at all. If the dog is not overweight than the vet will need to run the blood work up more than once to monitor in order to determine if the insulin needs to be increased or reduced this is dependent on what the lab results show. If you are asking is it feasible that in time the dog may not need insulin injections, the answer is yes. It can happen this is just depending on what the blood lab work shows and the dogs weight. Keep in mind in small dogs especially, even a 1lbs overweight can create problems.

That's very hopeful news. Our dog is overwieght. He's a ten year old mini-poodle at 22 lbs probably should be 16-18 lbs. He lost two pounds in the last couple of weeks-we now have him on a pretty strict diet.

How will we knew if he gets better as far as the diabetes as he takes off pounds?