Caring for a Diabetic Pet

First, I'd like to say that I'm not a vet. This is written from the standpoint of a pet owner who cared for a diabetic pet. I just hope that my experience can be of some use to other pet owners in the same situation.

If you have selected this link, you have probably recently found out that your pet has diabetes. Humans who develop diabetes are usually able to control it through diet and oral medication. Unfortunately, the pills don't work on animals, so the only recourse is insulin injections. I imagine there are a lot of pets who have been put to sleep because their owners were intimidated by having to administer daily shots. Hopefully, if you're in this position, you'll read this page before taking any action.

My dog Sasha was always a little on the thin side. She was a pure-bred Samoyed with AKC registration papers, so I toyed with the idea of letting her have a litter of puppies. Although there is nothing in the world cuter than a litter of Samoyed puppies, I finally did the responsible thing when she was about six and got her spayed. She put on a lot of weight very rapidly after that and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it off of her. About a year later she started to urinate in the house. I took her to the vet where they tested for infection and other illnesses, but they couldn't figure out what was going on. One morning I woke up and it seemed she had lost a significant amount of weight over night. I took her back to the vet where she was diagnosed with diabetes.

Our vet was very reassuring when she explained the treatment to us. She assured us that the insulin and syringes were not expensive and that many animals seemed to almost welcome the shots. I think she was a little concerned that we would just give up on Sasha, but that was never an option.

The insulin and syringes ended up running about $30 a month, so it wasn't really expensive. We found that they were considerably less when purchased from Wal-Mart. The vet was right about the ease of administering the shot as well. There were a few times, especially at first, when we'd do something wrong and Sasha would yelp, but for the most part, she didn't seem to notice. She always got a treat after her shot, so as soon as she was finished eating, she'd walk to the cabinet where we kept her needles and wait for someone to come take care of her.

The actual injections themselves hardly rated as an inconvenience. We did have to be careful with what we fed her. Humans on insulin have to test their blood sugar levels to determine how much insulin to administer. With animals, they get the same dosage at the same time every day. This is accomplished by also giving them the same amount and type of food at the same time every day. Even so, they need to make trips to the vet every six months or so to be tested and have the insulin adjusted if necessary. We also had to watch her to make sure her energy level didn't change or she didn't start having accidents in the house again. If these things happened, we'd have to take her in for tests.

There were some inconveniences with living with a diabetic pet, but for the most part, the vet was right, it was very much something that anyone could live with with just a little bit of patience.

If you are living with a diabetic pet, or suspect your pet may be diabetic, we learned a few things to watch out for that might help. These are just some observations from my personal experience, so please also talk to your vet if you have questions.

1. Weight gain. An overweight animal is very susceptible to diabetes. I learned after the fact that when an adult dog is fixed, their metabolism slows way down. I have since heard that you should cut their food by as much as half after a dog is fixed.
2. Excessive thirst. Diabetics drink a lot, so watch the water consumption. A sudden change in how much water they crave is a really good warning sign both of the onset of diabetes and of an imbalance in insulin levels in dogs that are already being treated.
3. Accidents in the house. Diabetic animals have to urinate more frequently. If a previously housebroken animal starts having accidents in the house, make sure the vet checks for diabetes.
4. Sudden weight loss. Apparently, when diabetes reaches a critical stage, the body will just start burning everything trying to get the energy. A sudden drop in weight can be a warning something is very wrong.
5. Eyesight problems. With Sasha, I started to notice some small problems with her vision. I wish I'd taken immediate action, because she woke up one morning totally blind! Friday night, she could see. Saturday morning, she was blind. She managed very well being blind and lived for several years after the loss of her sight, but I can't help but think if I'd noticed sooner, I might have saved her vision. If I had another diabetic animal, I'd test his or her vision frequently.