Got very tough news at the vet today. My just about to turn 7 year old Visla diagnosed with diabetes, 600 glucose level. She'd suddenly dropped over 10 pounds.
I got the insulin and syringes and will give her the first injection tonight with her food. Will go back next week to spend a day measuring her glucose curve.
Of course when I got home I immediately started researching online, and was surprised to learn, if she survived that long, there's a 75 percent chance she'll be blind with cataracts within 9 months, could form overnight. I've lived with a blind dog, they do well, still wasn't expecting the additional gut punch. Vet didn't mention.
There's a wide range of life expectancy information. I'm all about quality of life, so I'll start preparing myself.
If anyone here has experience please share. Please don't hold
back the hard truths. I want to make the most informed decisions I can for her.
Since I've always been fortunate to work from home, we've been almost inseparable. Goes everywhere with me. Replaced both her ACLs so we could keep doing our hikes. Damn I love this dog. Please no diabetes jokes. [Reply]
We took care of our diabetic Bichon for 4-5 years and he lost his eye sight with cataracts the last couple years of his life. He lived until he was 15...miss him every day.
Some breeds like Bichon's are prone to diabetes and Cushing's which he had as well. Gave him 8 - 10 units twice a day. Only bad thing was he needed it early so usually got up at 4 or 5AM and feed him and then gave him his shot.
We also started making our own food as well. We would routinely make once or twice a week a batch of 1lb ground turkey + 1lb ground chicken cook that down, drain off the grease if there was any and mix cooked barley in it (typically 2-3 cups worth).
We started out with this recipe but since he could somewhat see he tired of this since it is not the most pretty thing to look at.
having said that, my friend's cat was diabetic, and they gave it a shot every day. I give my cat a shot once a week. It's not a big deal, actually. Give them a treat they love and while they take their first bite, you do the injection. Takes about 30 seconds. [Reply]
Guys, this has been super helpful, and encouraging. Thank you so much CP!
I'm feeling much better today having administered the insulin a couple times and I believe already noticing a difference in the water consumption. The next big task is to figure out food. My vet is recommending Royal Canin Glycobalance, which appears to be about 5x normal dry food. I'm willing to do that if she likes it. If I'm doing the math right this is all in going to turn out to be about 300/month more, and that's probably understating how much the vet costs will be. Dirk, I'm going to look into the homemade recipe, thanks for posting that. Thanks again to everyone for the help. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jerryaldini:
Guys, this has been super helpful, and encouraging. Thank you so much CP!
I'm feeling much better today having administered the insulin a couple times and I believe already noticing a difference in the water consumption. The next big task is to figure out food. My vet is recommending Royal Canin Glycobalance, which appears to be about 5x normal dry food. I'm willing to do that if she likes it. If I'm doing the math right this is all in going to turn out to be about 300/month more, and that's probably understating how much the vet costs will be. Dirk, I'm going to look into the homemade recipe, thanks for posting that. Thanks again to everyone for the help.
We bought our insulin through Chewy it was a little bit cheaper than the vet and you can order it online.
We trialed and errored a bunch of the brands "diabetic" food but they put so much crap in it and our dog would just turn up his nose at all of them lol. He was such a finicky eater but the problem was no eating no insulin which means he could get pancreatitis fairly quickly and didn't want that so we went the home food recipe route. [Reply]
I had a diabetic dog that got very sick very fast. He was `12 . I was fine taking care of him until he started having seizures that looked painful to me. I took him to the vet and had him euthanized. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
We bought our insulin through Chewy it was a little bit cheaper than the vet and you can order it online.
We trialed and errored a bunch of the brands "diabetic" food but they put so much crap in it and our dog would just turn up his nose at all of them lol. He was such a finicky eater but the problem was no eating no insulin which means he could get pancreatitis fairly quickly and didn't want that so we went the home food recipe route.
You can also get insulin from Walmarts pharmacy at like 25 a bottle. Novlin N is what I get. [Reply]
Pet health issues are the worst. You want to help them with every fiber of your being because of the unconditional love and companionship they bless you with. Had my buddy die in my arms March 30th and still haven’t gotten over it. I sincerely hope you get it under control and have many more great years with her! [Reply]
Originally Posted by JohnnyHammersticks:
Pet health issues are the worst. You want to help them with every fiber of your being because of the unconditional love and companionship they bless you with. Had my buddy die in my arms March 30th and still haven’t gotten over it. I sincerely hope you get it under control and have many more great years with her!
Sorry to hear about your recent loss. Man it's tough. Consider we usually spend more time with our animals than most of our family members, and it's totally uncomplicated. Thanks, and hang in there. [Reply]
I spoke with my veterinarian and she said feeding habits contribute to a lot of problems.
Don't feed dogs "people" food. Aside from well known toxic foods like chocolate, there are 30+ toxic foods that dogs should not be fed. Google them.
Do NOT make your own dog food. While this may sound like a good idea, dogs are susceptible to too little or too much protein. There's a reason that dog's eating the family cat's food will cause organ damage. Cats need more protein and dogs can't handle that. Kidney damage is the result.
Find a good quality dog food and stick to the recommended feeding routine. If you want to give them a treat give them a beef bone. They'll love that more than any store bought "treat". [Reply]