Posted on 03/11/2008 2:13:52 PM PDT by JJR RNCH
Does anyone have a pet that is diabetic??
Good luck with your dog.
Barron gets 28 units of insulin twice a day but his numbers are still high.
Wouldn’t it be same as a human pretty much, low carb , careful on the sugars or foods that become sugars ?
Custom diet with out the fillers, all protein ?
lots of play and exercise , long walks ?
We have had two Schnauzers that have been diabetics. We give our current Schnauzer two injections of Vetsulin per day. The sad part is diabetes quickly leads to blindness. Good luck.
for got I gave him a WD Product
What about incremental changes over a few months too his diet vs all at once...... Most Dog foods are filled with carbs as fillers. Has to be a contributing factor. Has too !
Good luck with yer Pup !
Stay safe !
I don’t have any advice, but I hope things work out for your pup.
Dry , Large breed, dog food .......has lots of carbs in the fillers used.
The Weight Managament dry version has as well a lot of glutens and corn etc in it’s ingredients.
This wet canned version is prime cut and seems to have less....... note the can to weight ratio of yer pup per day !
Good luck !!!
Thank you. I’m gonna contact his vet this afternoon about the food situation. It is hard to look into his eyes knowing if I don’t get a handle on this that I’m gonna lose him.
As well do a search for Diabetic Dog Food........one with specific information;
Good looking pup......take care !!
Thanks again. Just contacted his vet about changing his food.
What does your vet say? We boarded our cat with the vet until he got her numbers where he wanted them, then when we brought her home, we gave her a shot of insulin in the morning and another in the afternoon. We also had to watch her diet, giving her more protein than carbs (and she loved ice cream).
She actually looked forward to her shots—she viewed it as a “petting opportunity” and would come get us around the time she was supposed to get them.
One important thing is the timing—we always had to make sure it was pretty close to the right time, or it would throw her off a bit.
She passed away last fall, aftering having lived I think around 8 years with diabetes—plus she was a “throwaway” cat, just appeared on our doorstep one day, so no telling how old she was when she got here, or what her history (medical, feeding, treatement, etc.) might have been. We think she might have been around 14-15 or so.
Good luck with your fella. Be patient, it might take awhile to get it under control, but it’s worth it.
Hi JJR, I am the one with diabetes while my critters are luckily all fine.
I an REALLY surprised your vet did not advise a diebetic dogfood, which I assume exists. I’ll bet they’re awful expensive though, and once you’ve seen the prices you’ll consider a diet of peoplefood consisting of food grade meats, either cooked or raw. Mass market dogfood is absolutely stuffed with fillers - usually a carbohydrate based on corn, wheat or rice. It’s what I feed mine, and I don’t worry about it.
But me, I have to watch out for white foods - potatoes, pasta, rice, corn, breads/pastries (oh, and sweets).
Something you need to watch out for with the insulin. High blood sugar over a period of time will accrue damage to organs without being especially fatal by itself. LOW blood sugar, such as that induced by an overdose of insulin, can cause fugue state, coma, even death. When police officers pull over “drunks” who only turn out to be diabetics, that’s the fault of low blood sugar. So ere on the side of high while experimenting.
Please do experiment, though. You can add bulk to his diet with green beans, cooked greens if he will eat them, and there’s s diabetics’ pasta of the brand name Dreamfields available. You can order that stuff by the case online if your grocery store doesn’t carry it yet. (Ground/tree nuts make a decent snack in moderation, but may be poisonous to a dog - check with your vet.) Um, cheese is good, check the carb content of processed meats.
Interesting problem. I thought it a PITA when I had to figure out *my own* diet. It seemed formidable, yet turned out to be doable.
Oh, and spread out his meals throughout the day to even out his highs and lows.
Good luck, write back with any questions.
Duh, me.
Summoning she who holds the Doggie Ping List.
And now for this important DOGGIEPING Announcement!
I've lost my list! I did a deep clean of my computer and I guess inadvertently deleted the folder I kept the ping list in.
I've recaptured a few names, but if you were previously on my ping list and would still like to be on the list now, please let me know... I'm gonna have to re-build the list from scratch!
My parents dog, a Border Collie, was just diagnosed as diabetic.. It’s only been since January that they have been giving the dog insulin. It takes some time to level them off. If you have questions, give me a shot and I’ll try to help you.
Please put me back on your list. I wondered what had happened to you.
That is HIGH.
Has your vet been doing blood-work?
What about diet and feeding times? Consistent diet? Are you allowed to up and down the amount of insulin?
Done! Ping anyone else you know who you think would want to be on it. :~\
LSA (posting on hubby's account)
Do you give the insulin at the same time each day AFTER the dog has eaten?
Let you dog drink as much water as he likes - it will level off. He needs that to flush the excess sugar out of his system.
You NEED to get the tests done. That will help you fine tune the insulin does and learn how to adjust the dose. Have you had the glycemic curve done?
Lower the carbs and UP the protein. Check the package on what you are feeding him.
The symptoms are similar but how you treat each one is different. If you know which kind try to do some searching on the internet for information. As you already know, you need to get those numbers down. Do you also test the urine?
I knew I’d forgotten something.
Dried beans like pintos come cheap and can serve as bulk in moderate doses. Just look out due to carb content that’s only partially compensated by protein content. Save some bucks and spare the sodium with bagged instead of canned.
Our last dog was diagnosed with diabetes when she turned 8 years old. She was put on Prescription Diet K-T (a low calorie food) by the vet, and we ended up feeding her a LOT more than before she was diagnosed, and she still lost weight (that she needed to lose). (Most commercial foods are WAY high in carbs and even sugar.) She was insulin dependent, and we just got used to giving the shots twice a day, and she didn’t seem to mind them.
She did go blind from cataracts after about a year or so, but we sprang for cataract surgery, and never regretted giving her eyesight back to her. She died four months after the surgery from an unrelated cause, but what a great four months she had!
My advice would be to put him down but after spending $800 in medical bills on an adopted cat that I only had for 6 weeks and had to put down due to liver cancer then another $1,600 on the replacement fat cat that fell off my bed and broke her hind leg, I'm not the person who has any credibility when it comes to offering pet advice.......LOL!
BTW, the fat cat (Squeek) is still with me and is the most worthwhile $1600 I've ever spent........
I have a good friend who’s a vet. I can call him and ask if you’d like. :-) Let me know!
My sister had a diabetic Corky. The dog was put down after about a year of trying to get it under control.
I also had a friend with a diabetic cat who tried without success to control it. The Vet told her that it was very difficult to control diabetes and not to feel bad about putting it to sleep.
Its sad but don’t feel like you are a criminal if you put the dog to sleep.
I spent $4k on a sick cat(cancer) that I eventually had to put to sleep. I spent money I could have use elsewhere plus prolonged the misery of an animal.
Pets come into our life to give us love, joy and affection but there comes a time for them to be set free.
John
Scary, wonder how you know WHEN they are drinking too much water?
Please add me to your list!
Innova has some grain-free stuff (Evo) for cats. I assume they do for dogs too.
Eagle Pack might be low-carb.
Wysong is expensive, but is rumored to be very good.
You could also try a BARF (bones and raw food) diet (there are also some commercial brands of this too). There are instructions all over the Internet. That might bring his blood sugars under control the quickest.
Our animals are getting too many carbs in their canned/packaged food; it's contributing to diabetes, obesity, renal failure, etc.
I had a dog diagnosed with diabetes and she got an insulin shot at 6 am and 6 pm every day for a year or two. The vet also prescribed a dog food available from the vet (I/D?), dry or canned. She did very well for the most part. Where the shot was given (on her tummy or elsewhere) seemed to make a big difference in how effective the insulin was, since it would be absorbed better in different places.
I sympathize with what you’re going through, although your dog seems to be having much more trouble than mine did. My first hint that there was a problem was that she was drinking a lot of water. When she suddenly staggered around one morning as if drunk or having a stroke, I was horrified. She’s no longer with us, but it took me a long time to get out of the habit of thinking I had to be home at 6 PM to give her the shot!
Our dog Jack, a Jack Russell Terrier, got diabetes after eating some rib meat that had too much fat; it gave him pancreatitis (along with our other dog). That morphed into diabetes for Jack, and he was on insulin for a couple of years until we lost him last Fall. It’s hard to balance the sugar with Jack Russells, as they are so active, but we gave him insulin shots every 12 hrs. for two years. He lost weight and was awfully thin, again, probably more due to his breed.
He had a good life, including the last two years, and probably would have lived a long time if the pancreatitis that started it all hadn’t been so severe. We had to try several types of insulin to find the right one, and there are lots of dog foods you can use that are diabetic friendly. I used to slice off round pieces of canned diabetic dog food, which is very bland, and load it up with garlic powder (not garlic salt)and bake it into dog crunchies, and he loved those.
Best of luck, it takes patience and a good vet to get through it, but many dogs live well for years. For some reason, it seems easier to treat in cats, don’t know why. My friends with a diabetic cat never had problems if they had to miss a dose or whatever.
Warning to everyone: we learned the hard way not to feed dogs people food. The vets see it all the time, though we all know people who feed their dogs straight from the table with no apparent ill effects. I’ll never do it again, except for carrots or apples or the like.
Yes. I had a diabetic dachshund and later a diabetic cat... each late in life. I gave the dog injections but not the cat. The dog slipped his collar and wandered off when we were on a camping trip in the Ozarks. Since he had to have his injections three times a day, we figured he was in a coma and dead within 24 hours. It was sad but actually not a bad way for him to go. He loved camping. So we carved his initials on the picnic table. With the cat, about half the weight of the dog, the vet and I decided to let her have lots of water and let the disease run its course. She died about a month after diagnosis.
My grandma and grandpa had a daschund with diabetes and they had to give him an insulin shot every day. Eventually he would just lay down and roll over when he saw the syringe, it just became part of his daily routine. He lived a very long life.
Just so cat lovers don’t think I’m evil, this was a very old cat to begin with and this was about ten years ago. The vet said that my choices were limited and suggested that we euthanize her. I probably should have gone with the insulin. I now have a big young cat and certainly if he shows signs of diabetis I would want to intervene. And actually, our 14 year old dachshund we have now is probably diabetic. He drinks a lot of water and can’t seem to keep weight on although we feed him more and richer food than our cattle dog. But what do you do? He’s happy, we carry him in and out. We bathe him every other day to treat his chronic skin condition... could that be diabetes related?
My cat has had diabetes since 2002 and is just fine....he’s going to be 15 in June...He gets 3 units twice a day....he knows when it’s time and sometimes runs because....yes I can be a little rough with the needle...He was getting 6 units at once but that wasn’t controlling the sugar so now it’s twice a day....Has the vet changed his amount or kind???? Ozzy gets Humulin N....good luck, hope it works out for you and pooch.
I use Wellness Core which has no grains in it. It's a great dog food. Google it.
If your vet is insisting on Pedigree then I'd be looking for a new vet. Seriously. He's just not educated on dog foods. He can't be or would NEVER be insisting on Pedigree.
Take the bag of Pedigree and look at the first 5 ingredients. You're going to find corn, wheat or rice depending on which type of Pedigree you have, and then more corn. Nasty stuff. All those grains translate into carbs which is the last thing a diabetic needs.
I think if you do a lot of research and maybe find another vet you'll get your dog on an even keel.
I would definitely consult another vet about changing his dog food to one specifically for diabetic dogs.
Just read all the posts and see that you did.. Great! Good Luck and what a sweet doggy!
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