Have you heard about the bionic pancreas?

Section of pancreas of dog. X 250. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The title of this post sounds like the setup for a punchline, but it's no such thing:  it's actually in clinical studies right now, spurred by a father's need to help his Type 1 son.  You can read the story on TheDiabetesSite, where there is a petition going to get the FDA to move it up to the top of their review list once it is sent to them.  Their goal is 10,000 signatures, and as of right now (12/28/13) they have 4,127.  This petition has implications for everyone (humans and animals) with diabetes, since the more pressure that is put on the FDA for expediting new diabetes treatments each time, the better for all of us.  

As it stands now, the bionic pancreas is a type 1 treatment and would not be practical for animals, but, as with any new idea, there is no way of knowing where it might lead others in their research and development efforts.  I urge you to sign the petition.

TheDiabetesSite.com is part of the Greater Good Network, where users click on a box to help various causes for free.  I've had a link to TheAnimalRescueSite.com since I began this blog, and I like to think that I've drawn some people to make clicking part of their daily activities. 

And, today there's a bumper crop of related articles for you.    

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• JDRF: Patient Needs Must Drive T1 Diabetes Innovation (diabetesmine.com)
• Wearing your pancreas on the outside. (northernmum.com)
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Ask your Diabetic Dog: Got Water?

Bucket-headed dog (Photo credit: Paul Kidd)

It's kind of strange to feature this topic in winter, but WebMd has an article on how much water dogs need.  After I read it, I realized that I often did not pay attention to how much Tony drank; in fact, thanks to the other two dogs in the house, it would have been hard to keep track.  What I'm thinking now is that I should have made a greater effort.  Those of you who followed Tony's story from the start may remember that my first inkling that he had diabetes was his frequent urination.  However, I never thought about keeping some kind of track of his water consumption before that.  If I had, I might have noticed the problem earlier and avoided some of his later issues.

Here's the basic requirement, according to the article:
 

 "A good rule of thumb: Make sure your dog gets at least 1 ounce of water daily for each pound he weighs. That means a 20-pound dog needs at least 20 ounces of water every day. That's more than 2 cups, or as much as in some bottles of water or soda.

To help you keep track of how much water your dog drinks, make a note of how high you fill his water bowl and how far the level has dropped the next day."

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Stop the Begging, Already!

Yeah, it's Doc

 

In my last post (the one on vegetables as dog treats), I didn't have space to address the issue of dogs who beg at the table.  Sadly, I live with one of these (Doc, a 130 lb. Great Pyrenees), and his owner is dealing with the situation by taking his own meal away from the table a lot of the time.  Since he feeds Doc AT THE TABLE nightly and gives him anything left over from whatever he had for dinner, Doc is understandably confused when he is yelled at for begging at the table.  After years of trying to change this situation, I've had to give up (one of those times where you have to go along to get along), but for those of you who are in a position of authority when it comes to the dog in question (i.e., it's your dog, not someone else's), WebMD has some help to offer in a cleverly titled article, "How to Stop Your Dog from Begging at the Table." 

Tony didn't beg at the table, but that was probably because I didn't give him table scraps very often (and never during family mealtimes) and because I rarely eat at the table myself, not wanting to deal with Doc trying to get my food.  However, my father was prone to giving him the last bite of his dinner if Tony was around, which he often was, as you can imagine.  Once he was diagnosed with diabetes, I was able to convince Dad of the error of his ways, and that stopped.  Based on my experience with Tony, of the two solutions WebMD suggests -- controlling the dog's access to the table or teaching the dog to do something else -- I think I prefer the latter.  This is probably because I had great success teaching Tony to move off the street onto grass, then sit and stay, whenever a car was approaching during our walks (there are no sidewalks in our subdivision -- you have to walk in the street.  Yikes.).  I think I could have gotten him to lie on his bed at our mealtimes without too much trouble, but if you think that you might have some problems there, there are training tip links with the article, too.

Good luck, and remember, to a dog, a rub on the belly is often just as welcome as a treat in the belly.   

(Barely) Related articles

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Good Treats for Good Diabetic Dogs

Fruits and vegetables (Photo credit: nutrilover)

I've written before about my sometimes horrifying discoveries about treats and my diabetic dog, mainly instances where I discovered that I should have checked the ingredients (high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars turn up in a lot of commercial dog treats), but I haven't often touched on treats that are better for your pet.  Recently, DogChannel.com published an article on using vegetables as treats, and I think this is a godsend.  I know quite a few dog owners who routinely feed their pets whatever they themselves are having for dinner (see my next post for more on that!), which is especially bad in many cases because said dog owners are not consuming a healthful diet themselves.

With diabetes, the treat question is more complex anyway.  Starches and sugars, really anything with a high glycemic index, can cause blood sugars to rise (and fall, too, for those who still are producing some insulin themselves), a bad situation when it comes to maintaining good health.  So, low glycemic index vegetables can be a better choice, as long as you remember that these are TREATS, not meals, and keep the portions to an appropriate size.  The article covers this issue pretty well, although it doesn't take diabetes into account.  For example, DO NOT give a diabetic dog potatoes (and if you want to give sweet potatoes, keep the serving very small -- their impact on blood sugar is not terribly high like regular potatoes, but they do have an impact, after all).  Starchy vegetables raise blood sugar almost as much as sugars do.

Having said that, I can recommend the article, based on what I've learned over the years (keep in mind that I am not a vet, just a well-read dog lover).  I remember Tony going absolutely nuts over broccoli -- he liked it cooked but still a bit crunchy.

Let me know how it works out for you.

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• Wheat: savings up, sugar levels down (thehindu.com)

Puppy (and Dog) Pill Problems?

Picture credit DogChannel.com

Our friends at WebMD's Healthy Pets page have a newish article that every dog owner should read, "How to Give Medications to Dogs."  Believe it or not, many people give up on their dogs because of this very issue (or so I have been told by several vets and vet assistants).  In my case, I had a lot of problems in this area when it came to pills but, surprisingly, none at all when it came to injections.  Tony hated pills of any kind, and I was hard pressed to find new ways to get them into him.  His nose always told him when a pill was hiding in a bit of food, and the only solution was to put them in more and more exciting (i.e., normally forbidden) kinds of food.  This went on for a while until I discussed it with his vet, who told me that he was not getting any time-delayed pills and so I could crush them and add them to his nightly tablespoon of nonfat plain yogurt.  This worked great!

My brother Eric, who gave Tony to me, told me that I should have been sticking my fingers in Tony's mouth on a daily basis from the day he came to live with me in order to get him used to me doing that.  Unfortunately, he told me this three years too late.  By that time Tony had gotten pretty protective of his mouth, and even though his teeth were small, I was not eager enough to start putting my fingers in there.  Eric's a behavioral psychologist, and he has been known to get animals to do some pretty weird stuff on command, so I'm sure he's right about the mouth thing, and I KNOW that putting the pills in the mouth is the very best way to do it, but I started too late and was too chicken for that method.  My advice:  it's the same as Eric's.  When you get a new puppy, check its mouth out as often as possible.  It will probably pay off down the line.

The one quibble I have with WebMD's advice on injections is that two different vets told me NOT to use alcohol on Tony's skin before giving him his twice-daily insulin shots.  I really don't remember the reason they gave for this, but I do know that there was never a problem with his injection sites, no infections or even irritations.  So, as always, go by what your vet says (and if you don't like what the vet says, get a second opinion-- you'd do that for your own health, wouldn't you?).

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Diabetic Dogs in a Winter Wonderland

English: Two Siberian Huskies (Max & Moritz)
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I hope your holidays are going well so far.  I just received an email from WebMd's Healthy Dogs newsletter and was appalled to find that the article links don't seem to be working.  Since others may be having the same problem (and since the search program on WebMd seems to have trouble finding pet articles, too), I thought it would be worth posting how to get to them.

The first article is on frostbite in dogs, and I found this a real eye-opener, as I never thought about it before.  I mean, the dogs I've spent the most time with throughout my life have all been breeds (Pomeranians, Great Pyrenees, Siberian huskies, etc) that originated in cold climates, and you just don't imagine them having too many problems in the winter.  In fact, I've always had more of a problem getting the dogs to come back indoors in the winter.  It turns out that cold weather is especially hazardous for diabetic dogs, because "Prolonged cold exposure burns up stored energy and results in a low blood sugar."  Their instructions on emergency care for dogs suffering from hypothermia include giving honey or sugar water as part of the treatment.  Good to know!

The article on winter safety in general is also a good read, if only to refresh your memory, but it brings up a few things, for example, the hazards of doggie sweaters (!), that may not have occurred to you.

Finally, one of the things I found on my own turned out to be another good source:  the vet blogs at WebMd-- I didn't know they had these, but I should have guessed that they would.  There's a post from a vet in New York about winter paw care, and much more.

That's all for now.  Best wishes for a happy -- and healthy-- new year!
 

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Another Reason to Include "Diabetes" on your Dog's Tag

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 17: (L-R) Spock and Captain Kirk, Mastiffs,  (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The ASPCA just sent me another message that relates to my last post.  According to them, dogs are being stolen at an outrageous rate:  "The American Kennel Club, which has been tracking pet thefts since 2007, reported a 32% increase in dog thefts last year."  Their article, "Dognapping On the Rise—Protect Your Pet," gives some commonsense advice about how to prevent this, mainly having to do with not leaving your dog unattended in public places.  The list ends with an admonition to get your dog microchipped.  However, it occurs to me that thieves are not likely to want a dog that has diabetes, considering that, as far as they know, it could experience a crisis at any moment, possibly while they are trying to sell it.  In fact, since the theft itself could be traumatic for the dog, a blood sugar crash is almost likely to happen.

So, here's another reason to put the word "Diabetes" on the front of the tag (the thieves have no reason to look at the back, do they?).  Let them know that your friend has special needs.  I'm not saying that they'll bring it back, unfortunately, but the next person to encounter it might.

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• Rescue dog that searched for Sarah Townsend has been nominated for American Kennel Club award (nj.com)
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What if your diabetic dog is lost?

Space Canine Patrol Agents (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here's an issue I've hardly touched on, and I have to thank the ASPCA for making me think about it.  On the Fourth of July, I received an email from them with the headline "What to do if your pet is lost."  I remembered when that actually happened to me, with the added complication that my dog was on insulin. 

Tony liked to go off on his own, so we were always careful about closing doors and making sure he hadn't been digging under the backyard fence, but sometimes he just managed to slip out (little dogs can get through very small spaces).  When he was first diagnosed with diabetes and put on insulin, I worried about this, so I ordered him a new I.D. tag.  The front had his name, but underneath that it said "I have diabetes."  My name and phone were on the back.  I should point out that one of my worries with him getting loose was that the people who found him might want to keep him, since people went crazy over him every time I took him anywhere, so I had already had him microchipped.

Well, one night his new tag was tested.  It was about 10PM in early September, and my brother in law Steve wasn't paying attention when he went out to get something from his car.  Tony was off to the races.  We all went out and searched the neighborhood, without any luck.

You can imagine how happy we were when, right after we got back to the house, the phone rang (with good news).  It was a man who lived on the other side of the subdivision (I wish I could remember his name), and he had Tony.  Steve (who felt very guilty) volunteered to go get him.  It turned out that for some reason only a dog would understand, Tony had gone to the back door of that house and started barking.  The man opened the door to see what was going on, and Tony ran in, just as if he owned the place.  The man told Steve that he called as soon as he saw the tag that said Tony had diabetes.  So, not only did we get Tony back, but we didn't have to spend the whole night worrying, which had happened in the past.  And that was a real possibility, according to Steve, who said that when he got there, the children of the house were playing with Tony -- and they were not happy that he had to leave.  I can see someone waiting to call until morning, considering it was late.

My advice:  get the microchip, but be sure to put the diabetes on the dog's tag.  It's a little bit of insurance that might make a difference. 

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• If IRON MAN Had Diabetes... (diabetesdaily.com)
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• My Diabetic Strategy (ourpoetrycorner.wordpress.com)
• Tips to keep dogs calm during fireworks (wcpo.com)
• Keeping your pet safe over the Fourth of July holiday (fox6now.com)
• Nearly 25-Percent Of Texas Dogs Are Obese (dfw.cbslocal.com)
• Family Working To Obtain Service Dog For Diabetic 2-Year-Old (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)

Does everyone have a dog nowadays?

Image by State Library of New South Wales collection via Flickr

As I've mentioned before, I teach English composition, and a couple of days ago I showed this blog to my students as an example of a topic-driven blog (they have an extra-credit opportunity to create one and keep it going during the summer term).  I was kind of surprised when I got questions about dogs and diabetes (specifically, blood sugar monitoring) rather than the questions about blogging that I was expecting.  Before I took a few minutes to deal with the off-topic questions, I asked for a show of hands from the dog owners in the class.  About two-thirds raised their hands.  That's a lot of dogs.  
As I was driving home after class, I wondered how many of those dogs have health insurance.  I'll have to ask.
 

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Hidden problems under those thick, fluffy coats

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I saw something that brought home a problem that is the major risk factor for diabetes (in dogs and humans), which is excess weight.  My brother-in-law, Steve, took the younger of his two dogs to the groomer, and he discovered why a Great Pyrenees's coat requires either constant attention from the owner or regular visits to the groomer (no more than 3 months apart). 

My sister and her husband have been having a hard time lately moneywise (who hasn't, right?), and they had to put off taking the dogs to the groomer.  Gus, the older dog (he's three-quarters Great Pyrenees and one-quarter Komondor -- his coat doesn't cord, but he has some cool waves) went last month, and there were no problems.  Doc's coat looked pretty good, at least as good as the dog in the picture above; after all, they do brush him and so on, but what none of us could see was that his undercoat had become a giant mat.  The groomer called my sister to tell her that they were going to have to shave Doc.

So, last night, Steve went to pick Doc up, and he said later that he was afraid to bring him home, since he expected his wife to go into hysterics when she saw her "new" dog.  In fact, I was the first to see him when he came into the house, and I didn't know anything about the matting.  "Who is that?" I asked.  Steve kind of winced.  "It's Doc."  I couldn't believe it.  Doc weighs about 130 pounds, and he looked like he was half the size he had been that morning.  However, without all that fluffy white fur, his body was suddenly easy to see, and it was obvious that he is overweight.  You could see that his silhouette was too round, just like those diagrams all the vets have in their waiting rooms that tell you what a dog at the right weight looks like. 

My sister's reaction was totally unexpected.  She kept saying, "he's so cute!  Like a giant puppy!"  She went nuts over him, but she also noted his enlarged midsection, and pointed it out to her husband.  Now, for years he's had issues about feeding the dogs.  Gus is a fussy eater, and doesn't eat a lot at the best of times, so when Doc came along and REALLY liked to eat, Steve rewarded his appetite with more food than was good for him.  Doc's new look finally showed Steve what he had done, and I think he's learned his lesson.  He saw what I went through with Tony.  I am willing to bet that Doc is going to be getting less food and more exercise from now on. 

I hope to have a picture of Doc in his "puppy cut," but I'm not sure Steve will let us take one.  He hangs out with a bunch of Pyr owners at the dog park, and he's always been proud that Doc is such a big dog.  I think he'll be too embarrassed to take him until some of the fur grows back.

Here's a sad story that just popped up from my Zemanta feed (Doc never looked as big as the dog in the Vail News photo, in case you are wondering), plus some less tragic tales:

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Exercise and the diabetic dog

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

There's another useful article from PawNation that I want to bring to your attention, since it deals with an important issue for dogs with diabetes:  exercise.  "Combating Your Dog's Cold-Weather Boredom" is mainly concerned with cabin fever and its results, such as chewing (usually on forbidden items like shoes and papers) and accidents in the house, but most of the remedies author Gabrielle Linzer recommends involve exercise.  The connection between exercise and blood sugar appears to be hard to pin down in terms of the precise effects (see the article about sled dogs I noted yesterday), but there is no doubt that exercise can help with control. 

The first cabin-fever solution Linzer mentions is almost certainly NOT a good idea for dogs with diabetes, however.  Quoting a professional trainer, she "recommends stuffing your dog's meal in a Kong."  I can tell you from personal experience with Tony that any kind of alteration in food delivery methods can wreak havoc with a dog's treatment.  Although before he was diagnosed he was happy to eat almost anything, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, after he was on insulin he became pretty rigid in his preferences, and at least a couple of times a week he would either refuse to eat or would only eat part of his portion.  I wouldn't have tried the Kong trick anyway, since he never liked Kongs to begin with, but I would hesitate to suggest this to other people with diabetic dogs simply because of its potential for disrupting the dog's feeding routine.

Her other recommendations seem very useful, particularly for those who need to keep their dog's activity level constant throughout the year.  She has some good ideas about how to play indoors with your dog, and I like her suggestion to enroll your dog in a class.

As Pomeranians are bred for colder climates and our house has a large fenced yard, Tony spent more time out there in the winter than he did in the summer.  It was pretty funny to watch him break trail in snow that was up to his chin so that he could complete his self-imposed duty of checking the yard's perimeter.  In the heat of summer, he generally wanted to stay inside with the air conditioning, and he would run around the house a couple of times a day on his own in addition to the games I played with him to keep him in shape.  

Too bad this article was published on 2/24, when we're nearing the end of an especially intense winter season instead of at the end of fall.  Keep it in mind for next year.   

Learning from the dogs

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I was just doing my usual searches for news about canine diabetes, and I came across something I missed before.  It was discussed on the terrific dog-blog, Doggyblurb.blogspot.com last April, but it's still worth talking about, especially if, like me, you have loved ones who are diabetic (my mother and my sister).  According to Diabeteshealth.com, "Michael Davis, a professor at Oklahoma State University who has studied sled dogs for 10 years, says their incredible endurance may be the key to treating obesity in people who have either type 2 or pre-diabetes."  Now, I know I usually talk about dogs with diabetes, but this news item points up the intertwining nature of our relationships with our dogs.  It appears that what the sled dogs can teach us has to do with insulin sensitivity, which is key to both diabetes and burning fat:  these dogs have metabolisms that are simply amazing.  If Davis can figure out how this whole system works (it's a mystery so far), we may see something that really works and can help everyone, human or other, who has or is at risk for diabetes.  As long as we don't have to run an Iditarod . . . It's also worth noting that Davis was/is not generously funded, so if you've got the bucks to be providing research grants, you might do a lot worse than throwing one his way.

And here are a few articles that you may find interesting:

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