Of Diabetes and Dogs

First of all, yes, that’s a raw marrow bone, and no, she doesn’t get them anymore (and not a moment too soon, as they reek of, well, dead animal parts).

I think I have one of the few diabetic greyhounds in the country, and I’ve been getting loads of e-mails from frustrated doggie mommies and daddies, exasperated with their quest to stabilize their beloved’s blood sugar.

Disclaimer: I am not a veterinarian. My Ph.D. is in Applied Linguistics from New York University, yet I have managed to amass a storehouse of knowledge about diabetes in dogs and how to deal with it. I can tell you what worked for me; I am not giving direct medical advice regarding the dog in your care.

Let’s get started:

• It took a year to get Violet Rays regulated, and that’s not unusual.
• After spending $15,000 going to three vets, who either fired us (saying they couldn’t help Violet) or we fired (because they couldn’t help her), I met with a specialist near Miami whose first question was: What is your commitment to this dog? I had no idea what he meant at first. He was essentially asking whether I was willing to do some work to heal her, and deal with some ups and downs. If not, I should euthanize her. Naturally, I found that shocking. Meanwhile, last week at the dog park I met a woman who said, "Yeah, I had a dog who became diabetic, and I couldn’t deal with the shots and stuff so I put her down." Don’t adopt a diabetic dog unless you can deal with some health-related drama and trauma. Oh, and needles and blood.
• The specialist then gave me what I thought was surprising advice: Stop going to the vet. Huh? I eloquently replied. If I was committed to helping Violet, the least expensive, most effective way to do it would be from home, with me drawing all the blood and charting her progress. His prescription was to purchase an Accu-check Compact monitor and prick the black part of her lip, after it has been warmed or after she has exercised (so the blood is freely flowing). I should take a reading of her blood sugar once an hour at first, and eventually decrease that to once or twice a day (before giving her insulin), and finally to a couple of times a week. If her blood glucose is under 147, go down a unit, if over, go up one, but never more than one, as that could lead to crashing, seizures, and coma.
• Keep Karo syrup in the house, and if the reading goes below 50 (Violet’s was 15 once), put about a tsp. of it on her gums. If she’s still upright and conscious, give her a meal rather than the Karo.
• Insulin, exercise, food, and stress level all combine to produce the blood glucose number, so if one of those variables is significantly different than usual, the dog’s mood and energy will be affected.
  • As exercise increases, insulin need decreases.
  • As stress increases, insulin need decreases.
  • As food amount increases, insulin need increases.
  • As quality of food increases, insulin need decreases.
• Notice that last one. My experience has been that animal proteins cause Violet’s blood sugar to spike, whereas protein from low-glycemic index grains, such as quinoa and barley (and also starches like sweet potatoes), cause it to increase slowly, then decrease slowly, in a perfect curve. I tried raw food and I tried holistic animal-based food, and, for Violet, a vegetarian holistic diet (PetGuard Organic Vegetarian or Evolution, not Evo by Innova, which is a grain-free food) produces the best results by far.
• Find a good holistic vet. They are usually less expensive and far more knowledgeable about prevention and natural remedies than traditional vets. Mine chips any tartar from my dogs’ teeth for free (it’s $400-$900 at my regular vet, depending on whether I want anesthesia), and has taught me how to do it myself.
• Find a mentor. There’s nothing worse than going it alone–trust me. Likewise, there’s nothing better than having someone to talk to about your challenges. Who knew mine would be a traditional vet at a specialty hospital?
• Be confident that you’re doing what you need to do and that your dog will be fine. I don’t care what Cesar Millan says: Not only do my dogs understand what I say, but they know how I feel. They sense the energy of giving up and of insecurity. And if affects their energy and their blood sugar. When I am especially worried, Violet’s sugar dives. Every time. She carries my energy.

Gray Matter: Dogs now use Vetsulin rather than human insulin (which I knew Violet was allergic to, yet none of the vets believed me until the last guy). Vetsulin is pork-based, and pigs and dogs are very similar biologically, so Violet has no negative reaction. She would die, shortly, without Vetsulin (and would have died even sooner with human-derived insulin), so I feel morally justified in using an animal-derived product to treat her and save her life. Her food and snacks and supplements, which do not need to be derived from animals, are not.

My specialist also told me that when people are diagnosed with diabetes, they go to "diabetes school." They take a class that teaches them how to manage their illness. Yet when dogs get diagnosed, we rely completely on the vets to do everything for us, resulting in unnecessarily-high medical treatment costs, and feelings of helplessness for the "owner."

Empower yourself by educating yourself, finding a holistic vet and trying different low-glycemic index foods until you reach an acceptable level. Don’t "chase the perfect curve," meaning, don’t strive for blood sugar of 80-150 all day–it’s not going to happen. Diabetic dogs can feel fabulous a lot of the time, not-so-good some of the time, and bad occasionally. That’s your goal, and it’s easily reached.