[joyagirl1013]

Hello, my name is Joy and I'm proud mom of three-one is a freshman in college and then I have 2 middleschoolers. In 2004 we dog sat a beautiful lab for over 10 weeks after answering an ad in our local paper. Before that we had not had a dog in our family for several years. We are proud family members to a princess cat and a much less but VERY vocal DSH cat. After our charge left our care unexpectedly (major snow storm enroute) we signed onto petfinder.com (that night!) and fell in love with a dog named Missy. In said snow storm, we drove over an hour the next day to meet this Missy only to find she was already involved in an adoption process. While at the shelter we opted to look through the book of available dogs. Not really seeing anything that caught our attention as the 'right' dog for us, I found I kept going back to the dog with the neat name...Willa. We asked to meet her and she was such an ill behaved dog, such a frightened dog but her eyes told a different story. We left but could not get her off our mind and drove that drive again in another snow storm (in March mind you!) to meet Willa again. We were in love. Despite her ill behavior and inability to descend stairs, we put in an application. A week later she came home with us. She failed puppy training the first time she went...she's much to social and had a very hard time listening to her trainer or her mom and dad so she was asked to leave class. We bought many, many books to work w/her on our own. Sadly, she seemed untrainable. One last shot before we would just accept her as is (she was from W. VA and pretty skiddish as well) we took her to a local and much less expensive training class where she loved her teacher and loved to earn her treats from her teacher. Mommy had a lot to learn as well. We spent many months battling for that Alpha spot (dad won out in the long run and he didnt even do the 2nd class). Before you think I'm just plain crazy...I'll fast forward. Willa has been such a wonderful part of our family, although her feline sisters are still not so happy with her presence after all these years, the princess cat ran to big little sister when the birds were attacking her this summer and I wish I could relay the eye conversation Willa had as Princess cat (named Precious) hid UNDERneath Willa's belly...priceless.
Last spring Willa became quite ill. She had a very serious bladder infection and her urine was bright orange, she was lethargic, not eating and vomiting. Can't say for sure but after serious antibiotic care and vet saying he believed she had some sort of poisoning she began to improve. Less than a month later someone accidently fed her one serving of food from the bag we believe had gotten her sick and yup, it started all over again. We have since switched her diet to a combo of human food and natural dog food. She was doing much better (went from a scraggley 60 lbs up to 80 lbs (she is a lab, brittney spaniel and other mix) until last week.
She began urinating all over the house and not little bits, but what appears to be gallons. She was wiping her water bowl clean within seconds of a clean water fill and urinating outside normally other than what appears to have been continual need to urinate. Finally got her into the vet today to discover w/urine test only (blood test results tomorrow morning) that she probably has Diabetes.
The vet said she has a good prognosis. My husband had begun to detach from her b/c he just couldn't bear the thought of loosing her. So this is not so bad. But does anyone have any experience with a diabetic dog? Poor baby is locked downstairs until we can get her urinating under control (she normally sleeps on my bed w/me...she's a very spoiled large dog now back down from 80 lbs to 63 lbs).
Sorry for such a long intro...I'm just feeling a bit apprehensive about what to do for her other than her prescribed insulin (yes, I'm sure my vet will advise me tomorrow but I'm sitting here getting antsy). Thank you.

[Lara's mom]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I've had a number of foster dogs pass through my home who were diabetic to get their food to insulin ratio regulated before going on to their forever homes. Trust me; it isn't nearly as frightening as it sounds. It is a manageable disease and with good care, a diabetic dog can live a happy life.

The first step is getting a definitive diagnosis. Once you have that, it is a matter of calculating the amount of food the dog eats per meal with the correct amount of insulin to administer. I can imagine that right now that sounds hopelessly complicated and you're thinking that you won't be able to do it. Believe me when I tell you that you can!!!

Your vet will probably want to put Willa on a special diet that meets her needs as a diabetic and teach you portion control because the amount of food she eats determines how much insulin she will require.

Now, for the part that seems to scare people the most - administering the insulin injections. At first it may seem that you feel that you just can't do it. Again, let me assure you that you can. It isn't nearly as difficult as you are probably imagining. They are easy injections to administer because they are sub-cutaneous. In my experience, dogs do not find these injections painful at all and you will learn how to administer them with no trouble.

Your dog will still enjoy walks, play time, etc. Your vet will explain everything to you in far greater detail than I can here and will show you how and where to administer the injections. He/she will teach you the difference between hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia (low blood sugar and high blood sugar) and how to treat each one. Again, it isn't difficult. Willa will require occasional blood and urine tests but apart from that, you can do everything she needs yourself.

Willa will be a happy and healthy family member, despite having diabetes. Six months from now, you will wonder why you were so worried!!!

Good luck and please let us know how both you and Willa are getting on.

[joyagirl1013]

Thank you! Your post is very reassuring. I'm not so worried about giving her the injections. You see, my husband is a kidney transplant patient (nope, not diabetes, childhood kidney disease) and while he was on diaylisis I had to inject him with epogen. And Willa did not even seem to mind having her blood drawn yesterday =0) So I think I can do this....
Again, thank you very much b/c I am nervous about her health in general.
Joy

[joyagirl1013]

Is there a forum for medical issues for our dogs? I don't want to bombard this area w/a vent but if its okay, can I this one time?
My dh called our vets office today to get our dog in for her glucose workup, insulin whatever we needed to do as I was instructed to call when I spoke to the vet on Wed (his office is closed on Wednesday).
Dh was told they were too busy on thursday, closed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of course and the next available appt was Monday at 11:30.
I'm livid. Her glucose is at 400 where I was told normal range is 75-150...I would think, especially since I told him this is now going on over 2 weeks, that there would be some way to get my dog in for her insulin. I'm worried sick about her, she is drinking like crazy and I can't deny her water and yet there is the constant accidents in the house.
Okay, vent over....I just hope my dog will be okay.

[Lara's mom]

In all honesty, my suggestion would be to start looking for a new vet. You need someone who will be a partner with you in providing the best health care possible to your dog. This vet just doesn't seem interested. Do some calling around and ask specifically if the Doctor has experience with treating diabetic dogs. With a glucose level that high, your dog should have been seen immediately.

[hehong]

hi, thank you. and I also a newer.

[joyagirl1013]

Update....she's doing well, she sits quietly while she gets her injections and not sure how accurate what I'm seeing is but what an improvement! no more potty accidents and a very happy once again energetic dog!
Thanks for the advice. This is new territory for us but I'm learning of many others close by that actually have diabetic pets and getting lots of helpful information. She's on Humulin which we purchased through Walmart. We're now looking online as her vile of insulin is expensive. She's on .30 ccs.
So thank you for your help and reassurance.
Good luck to all

[Lara's mom]

I'm very glad to hear she's doing better!