Canine Diabetes Info
The signs are excessive water drinking, frequent urination, leaking of urine, heavy panting especially after a meal, a nail polish smell breath, constipation, no appetite, weight loss, this usually happens in middle aged dogs but can happen sooner.
When you notice signs of frequent urination or leaking of urine take you pet to the vet immediately, it may just be a UTI, but with diabetes the sooner the diagnosis the better, your pet should be put on insulin that day of diagnosis, there are no holistic cures for diabetes.
At times diabetes may not show up, if you are given a drug for excessive urination Detrol etc, and your pet is still leaking urine or has excessive panting go to the vet again.
You can do a urine test at home to check this, you can buy a bottle of Keto-Diastix or Diastix, you dip these in the urine and it will show positive for glucose and/or ketones.
Once diabetes is diagnosed your pet will require 2 injections of insulin per day with the same meal every day.
Most likely you will be prescribed human NPH insulin or Vetsulin/Caninsulin, NPH is more cost effective and works with most pets, Vestulin/Caninsulin is more costly and you use more of it, there are a few pets who do not do well with NPH and stick with the Vetsulin/Caninsulin.
The best thing you can do is home test you pets blood glucose with a glucose meter, a human or pet meter, this way you can tell how your pets body is working with insulin and food over the course of a day.
If your pet was put on bladder control drugs the vet should be stopping these drugs as with getting insulin injections the urine leakage should stop
Be really careful when taking your pet to a pet store that has an in house vet, make sure you understand the syringe and the units on it. A pet owner was misinformed at pet store the wrong dose was given to the pet by an incompetent vet tech or staff member, this resulted in the dogs death 1 day later.
When diagnosed my pet and I had a vet with limited knowledge on diabetes, I was not told about doing a blood glucose curve, they had determined my pets insulins needs by taking one blood draw every week and keep uping her dose of insulin, this was wrong. I don't want any pet owners to go thru what happened to us.
Don't believe it when some vets tell you the dog will have a very hard life, this may force you into the decision of putting your dog down, this is not true at all, once your pet starts on insulin and a diet change they will get well. You can also feed different diets other than the prescribed foods from the vet. If you feel you cannot handle this disease there are people and organizations that find homes for diabetic pets.
Always get copies of all of your pets lab tests, xrays etc. I have found with diabetes, most pet owners will switch vets, especially after months of no lowering of blood glucose or the pet does not seem to be getting any better. The vets are hesitant to give copies of these records, demand them, you paid for them.
Over the years I have heard terrible stories from pet owners with pets with diabetes and how some of the vets were treating this disease.
Knowledge is power, if you feel uncomfortable with the vet, go to another, usually your gut instinct is correct.
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