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.    

Related articles

• Medtronic hasn't made true artificial pancreas yet. The next 4 steps for this type 1 diabetes treatment (medcitynews.com)
• The Eyes are a Window to the...Pancreas? (ivanhoe.com)
• 4 Companies Completely Changing the Way We Treat Diabetes (dailyfinance.com)
• Medical advances made for diabetics (consumersresearch.org)
• Insulin "capsules" may ultimately replace daily injections for diabetics (gizmag.com)
• JDRF: Patient Needs Must Drive T1 Diabetes Innovation (diabetesmine.com)
• Wearing your pancreas on the outside. (northernmum.com)
• Dog Blood Glucose (dog-health-guide.org)
• D.A.D Diabetic Alert Dad (charliesfight2013.wordpress.com)
• New look identifies crucial clumping of diabetes-causing proteins (eurekalert.org)

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.

Related articles

• 'High-glycemic' foods tied to diabetes risk (healthnexercise.com)
• ''High-Glycemic'' Foods Tied to Diabetes Risk (nlm.nih.gov)
• 4 Diabetes Management Tips for Adults (epicahealth.com)
• Sugar Seen as Driver in Rise of Diabetes, Study Suggests (bloomberg.com)
• Wheat: savings up, sugar levels down (thehindu.com)

Welcome, folks!

If you're here, you probably have a diabetic dog, or you know somebody who has one. I hope that we can help each other deal with the many problems that arise in a situation like this. This is my story:

My friend Tony was born on 11/7/96 and enjoyed fairly good health (he did have an ongoing weight problem and low thyroid) until January of 2006, although I didn't recognize that anything had changed for a couple of months after that. It started with a few small things. He wanted to go outside in the middle of the night a couple of times a week, which was unusual for him, but not unusual enough that I worried about it. Over the next few weeks, the nighttime visits to the backyard became the norm, and I was going to work on 4 or 5 hours sleep. Sleep deprivation is my only explanation for why this went on so long.

In early March, my brother came down from Minnesota for a visit, and one evening we were about to have dinner when Tony came up to me, made sure I was paying attention, and urinated on the carpet. I couldn't write this off to excitement, either, because he has always been the most thoroughly housebroken dog I've ever encountered. If a nine-year-old dog hasn't had an accident in the house since he was a puppy, you know something is wrong when he does.

For the next couple of days I watched him constantly, and now I saw what I had missed. He was drinking a lot more water in the evening, starting about an hour after he ate and continuing even when we went to bed. I suddenly realized that I had been filling the little water bowl in the bedroom almost every day (the big water bowl in the kitchen was also used by 2 very large dogs in addition to Tony, and I couldn't tell that anything had changed there). Well, I had a pretty good idea what this meant. My parents and two of my siblings are diabetic, so I called the vet and made an appointment. I was not surprised when she confirmed my layman's diagnosis, but I was shocked to discover that Tony had lost nearly a third of his body weight -- and I hadn't noticed!

Tony started out on 4 units of Vetsulin once a day; now, three years later, he gets two shots a day, 3 units each. His diabetes has generally been under good control, but he's also been having some of the health problems that often occur in diabetics. I'll talk about that next time.