Lab’s Nose Knows When Diabetic Emergency Lurking

The Denver Post ^ | October 27, 2017 | Lynh Bui

[nickcarraway]

Slash the chocolate Lab jumped into Kate Rondelli’s bed in the middle of the night Tuesday, licking her face to wake her up.

There was trouble.

The dog led her to her son’s room, where Rondelli tested her 4-year-old’s blood sugar levels: Over 400 milligrams per deciliter, more than twice the maximum range desirable for the little boy with Type 1 diabetes.

Rondelli quickly gave her son, Mylon, insulin to stabilize his levels, averting a possible medical emergency.

“His nose is always working,” Rondelli said.

Slash is a diabetes detection dog, trained to alert Rondelli when her son’s blood sugar falls or spikes to potentially dangerous levels. The dog and his new family visited the Bunker Hill Fire Station in Prince George’s County, Maryland on Wednesday to get acquainted with first responders as part of Slash’s training.

Service dogs can be protective of their owners, so Rondelli and Slash’s trainers wanted to make sure that if firefighters have to be called to the house for a medical emergency, Slash would be familiar with people in uniform and stand down to let medics treat Mylon.

The dog visited the firehouse in Brentwood twice so that “when we show up for a call, not only Mylon but Slash is familiar with us being there and us being in close contact with Mylon,” said James Key, acting battalion chief for the Prince George’s County Fire Department. “The first time Slash will meet us is not when we come with lights and sirens.”

Erin Gray, with the organization that trained Slash, said diabetes dogs, like bomb-sniffing or drug-sniffing dogs, are trained to detect smells as a way to alert people to trouble.

[cableguymn]

My wife is type one. Our basset hound gets nervous and stays by her side when she’s high or low. He’s never had any training but he works better than her dexcom continuous monitor.

[nickcarraway]

Dogs are amazing.

[AlaskaErik]

I have a chocolate lab, but all she does is retrieve the morning paper from the end of the driveway.

[GnuThere]

Dogs never fail to amaze me; what a gift they are to us humans.

[nickcarraway]

Verily.

[pops88]

I got my 2 poodles from a breeder who is type 1 diabetic. She raises her dogs for temperament to be potential service dogs. All her dogs alert for her blood sugar levels. If they could only cross a poodle with a German Shepherd to produce a smart, obedient dog that doesn’t shed. You can practically see the wheels turning in the poodle’s heads deciding if it’s worth it to them to obey, whereas my Shepherd just does but sheds a couple dog’s worth of hair a year. In a perfect world....

[rjsimmon]

My wife has chronic pancreatitis and her Springer Spaniel reacts when her Lipase is on the rise, which is the early warning of an acute attack. The nose of a dog is remarkable.