A short note about PETA

I don't know what your feelings on PETA may be, but I have long been appalled by their policies on animals that are brought to them.  If you don't know about this, you should read some of the material on them before you make up your mind.  There is an item today in the AOL News concerning PETA's recent statements about the tragic death of a Sea World trainer, and this has brought the issue back into the news (you may also want to check out the PETAkillsanimals.com website).  As one of my firm beliefs is that too many people are having their diabetic dogs put down because they either don't understand that they can live good lives after the diagnosis or because they just don't want to be bothered, I am especially disturbed by the unnecessary euthanasia of thousands of healthy dogs for which PETA is responsible.  With all the money gullible animal lovers give them each year, surely they could do more to get them adopted.  It would be a better use of the money than running the walk-in freezer where they keep the dead animals until they have a big enough batch for cremation.

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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