Tag: diabetes

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Living With A Diabetic Pet

Finding out that your pet has diabetes doesn’t have to spell doom.

New Delhi, September 14, 2019: Believe it or not, the recent surge in the occurrenceof diabetes isn’t limited to humans – it is also being found in dogs in rapidly growing numbers. Mostoften, diabetes in older dogs is identified as Diabetes Mellitus, and happens because your dog’s pancreasbecomes unable to produce enough insulin tomaintain healthy blood sugar levels. 

  Diagnosis & Symptoms
 The earliest signs of diabetes in dogs is an increasein thirst and urination. However, by the time thesesymptoms are noticed, often the pet has had highblood glucose for a while. Hence routinely checking theblood glucose in older dogs as a part of regular annualscreenings is advisable. When your pet’s blood reportshows a high glucose value, your vet may want tocheck for other conditions before concluding that yourpet is diabetic. Other signs of diabetes include loss ofappetite, lethargy, vomiting, rapid weight loss. As soonas you see any such symptoms in a middle-to old-agepet, please consult your veterinarian immediatelyand check your pet’s blood glucose as well as otherparameters as suggested by your vet. The mean ageof onset of diabetes in dogs is eight years. Juvenilediabetes can occur in dogs, but is quite rare. Diabetesis seen more in certain breeds (Dachshunds, MiniaturePinschers, Labradors) than others and hence doesseem to be influenced by genes.

  Treatment & Management
 The treatment of choice for all diabetic dogs isInsulin injections given subcutaneously at 12-hourlyintervals. Your veterinarian will prescribe the idealinsulin for your pet and will teach you how to measurethe dose accurately and inject your pet. Sometimesfluid therapy and other treatments are required inthe early stages to address secondary conditionsresulting from prolonged high blood glucose.

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Pawssible Medication For Regulating Insulin Levels

According to a recent research best trained alert dogs have the potential to detect fluctuation in blood glucose.

University of Bristol in collaboration with Medical Detection Dogs has concluded a new research which states that the best trained alert dogs have the potential to vastly improve the quality of life of people living with Type 1 diabetes. As per the report published in Science Daily, on average, trained dogs alerted their owners to 83 per cent of hypoglycemic episodes in over 4,000 hypo- and hyper-glycaemic episodes that were examined. A hypoglycemic episode is a condition where blood sugar drops dangerously low and if left untreated, can lead to unconsciousness or even death.
The findings confirm that alert dogs can help Type 1 patients regulate their blood sugars in a non-invasive way and avoid the risks of hypoglycemic episodes and hyperglycemia.
Lead author Dr Nicola Rooney from the Bristol Veterinary School, said: “We already know from previous studies that patients’ quality of life is vastly improved by having a medical detection dog. However, to date, evidence has come from small scale studies. Our study provides the first large-scale evaluation of using medical detection dogs to detect hypoglycemia.”

In this study, researchers from Bristol, assessed the reliability of 27 trained glycaemia alert dogs, whose owners provided six to 12 weeks continual worth of blood records detailing every time the dog was alerted.
Medical Detection Dogs respond to the odor of human disease and help owners live with life-threatening diseases. Familiar with their owners, dogs are conditioned to respond with alerting behaviors when their owners’ blood sugar levels fall outside a target range.
Encouraged by the alerting behavior of their pet dog, if such out-of-range (OOR) episodes occur, the patient can take appropriate action, usually by administering insulin or eating to retain the right glucose levels.

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