Sumi Update 1-20-2010
Sumi Update
Well, because life hasn’t been exciting enough, and we aren’t paying enough in terms of medical expenses, we’ve had a new adventure with Sumi. As you know, she has a very difficult time with her back legs since she blew a disc in her spinal canal in July. She does fine on cement and carpet, and for Christmas Steve bought us a special pet gate so that she can be kept only on carpeted areas of the house – no linoleum or hardwood for her. She struggles a bit on snow and ice but we manage…and she can’t resist climbing up snowbanks. Apparently mountain goats are pug ancestors. It’s humorous to watch because her back legs kind of splay – maybe I should be discouraging it but I like watching her enjoy herself because she doesn’t have as many pleasures now as she used to.
Anyway, Mom noticed while we were in Cheboygan that Sumi was drinking an awful lot of water – like finishing whole bowls and needing refills. That’s unusual for a pug who isn’t very active because her motion is limited to carpet and cement. And one morning she barreled into my parents’ bedroom to get them to take her out to pee early in the morning, which is also weird for a pug who I ordinarily have to wake up in the morning or she’d sleep all day. So Mom jokingly suggested, “Maybe she has diabetes”.
Well, the second night back home from Cheboygan, Sumi peed the bed. As in, my bed. I rolled over and felt something wet and honestly thought, “My goodness, I peed the bed!” Then I realized it was her. And she was just sleeping in it. And so was I. So I knew that something was definitely wrong at that point.
Steve and I worked together to collect a urine sample. It was quite the production with me walking her on a short leash and every time she looked like she found a spot, he would try to put a little Rubbermaid container underneath her, but she would then move on. Finally we got what we needed and I drove it to the vet’s office. Unfortunately, the vet called and said that she had a lot of sugar in her urine and ketones, which meant that she definitely has diabetes. We took her in for bloodwork and made sure everything else was normal and it was. Then we learned how to give her subcutaneous insulin shots.
So now Sumi gets panicky when she hears me getting her syringe ready and she probably can smell the insulin, so she jerks when we poke her often making it necessary to poke 2 or 3 times before we can actually push the insulin in. Sunday night, she peed the bed again. So yesterday she spent the day at the vet to see how the insulin was doing and how her glucose was and her numbers were in the high 400s, and they should be at or lower than 200. So we increased her insulin dose. We’ll take her back in a week to see how she’s doing then. It’s apparently a trial and error process to get right.
Canine diabetes is less common than feline diabetes, and so there’s more research out there for feline diabetes. One thing that is known is that canine diabetes CANNOT be fixed by diet and exercise. It is like type-1 insulin-dependent diabetes. There is some scientific literature that links chronic back injuries and pain in cats to increased stress hormones leading to insulin deficiency, so maybe that’s what happened in Sumi, but there isn’t the same kind of research in dogs. Who knows?
All I know is that if anyone was going to end up with a diabetic dog, of course it would be me.
Well, because life hasn’t been exciting enough, and we aren’t paying enough in terms of medical expenses, we’ve had a new adventure with Sumi. As you know, she has a very difficult time with her back legs since she blew a disc in her spinal canal in July. She does fine on cement and carpet, and for Christmas Steve bought us a special pet gate so that she can be kept only on carpeted areas of the house – no linoleum or hardwood for her. She struggles a bit on snow and ice but we manage…and she can’t resist climbing up snowbanks. Apparently mountain goats are pug ancestors. It’s humorous to watch because her back legs kind of splay – maybe I should be discouraging it but I like watching her enjoy herself because she doesn’t have as many pleasures now as she used to.
Anyway, Mom noticed while we were in Cheboygan that Sumi was drinking an awful lot of water – like finishing whole bowls and needing refills. That’s unusual for a pug who isn’t very active because her motion is limited to carpet and cement. And one morning she barreled into my parents’ bedroom to get them to take her out to pee early in the morning, which is also weird for a pug who I ordinarily have to wake up in the morning or she’d sleep all day. So Mom jokingly suggested, “Maybe she has diabetes”.
Well, the second night back home from Cheboygan, Sumi peed the bed. As in, my bed. I rolled over and felt something wet and honestly thought, “My goodness, I peed the bed!” Then I realized it was her. And she was just sleeping in it. And so was I. So I knew that something was definitely wrong at that point.
Steve and I worked together to collect a urine sample. It was quite the production with me walking her on a short leash and every time she looked like she found a spot, he would try to put a little Rubbermaid container underneath her, but she would then move on. Finally we got what we needed and I drove it to the vet’s office. Unfortunately, the vet called and said that she had a lot of sugar in her urine and ketones, which meant that she definitely has diabetes. We took her in for bloodwork and made sure everything else was normal and it was. Then we learned how to give her subcutaneous insulin shots.
So now Sumi gets panicky when she hears me getting her syringe ready and she probably can smell the insulin, so she jerks when we poke her often making it necessary to poke 2 or 3 times before we can actually push the insulin in. Sunday night, she peed the bed again. So yesterday she spent the day at the vet to see how the insulin was doing and how her glucose was and her numbers were in the high 400s, and they should be at or lower than 200. So we increased her insulin dose. We’ll take her back in a week to see how she’s doing then. It’s apparently a trial and error process to get right.
Canine diabetes is less common than feline diabetes, and so there’s more research out there for feline diabetes. One thing that is known is that canine diabetes CANNOT be fixed by diet and exercise. It is like type-1 insulin-dependent diabetes. There is some scientific literature that links chronic back injuries and pain in cats to increased stress hormones leading to insulin deficiency, so maybe that’s what happened in Sumi, but there isn’t the same kind of research in dogs. Who knows?
All I know is that if anyone was going to end up with a diabetic dog, of course it would be me.
posted by Kate @ 12:50 PM
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