Help with pseudo pregnancy

[Megalamaniac]

I have a rescue Springer Spaniel bitch, believed to be approx 6 years old, she was diagnosed as a diabetic while in local authority kennels, she then came to me for fostering before she could be found a new home. She has been with me for 8 days.
Her bg levels have been sky high, way over 29 on many occasions, she's been in for 3 x 24 hour curves with the hope we could get her insulin dose reduced, she was on 17 iu's twice daily before she came to me which my vet thought incredibly high!
Anyway to cut a long story short, after some very erratic humping behaviour my vet decided he would go straight in and operate as we realised that she hadn't been spayed and that her progesterone levels were playing havoc with her levels. She had a very thickened uterus, polycystic ovaries and signs of endometritis. She is now producing a lot of milk, going through the usual nesting stuff and collecting anything she can to 'mother'. I've removed everything to stop this behaviour as she was becoming very stressed and couldn't settle which wasn't helping her at all. My vet wants to prescribe Galastop, a lactate inhibitor, to dry her milk up and get rid of the symptoms of her thinking she's pregnant, now I've used this drug in the past and I don't like it but he says we've no choice as she could end up having continuous pseudo pregancy symptoms for life if we don't do anything about it. My question is has anyone had any experience in using this drug on a bitch with diabetes and is it safe to use it? Sorry for the long post but this little girl is so screwed up at the moment that I don't want her going through anything that is likely to make things worse for her.
She's currently on 12 iu's twice daily, her last bg reading which was taken yesterday has dropped to 10.9 but after the night she had last night I wouldn't be at all surprised to think it hasn't shot up again due to the stress she's going through and her current hormonal situation! We just can't seem to get her levels to stay down at the moment, I know it's early days re insulin treatment wise and we have no idea how long she has had the condition as she was a stray.
Many thanks
Sandy

[k9diabetes]

Hi Sandy,

Poor girl... I'm afraid I'm not even slightly familiar with this drug. When I look it up, it doesn't give many contraindications...

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/CEVA_Animal_Health_Ltd/Galastop/-36174.html

A lot of what I read suggested that this would pass over time as the hormones dwindle.

Will she be spayed?

Obviously this is way outside my experience, but I was thinking that spaying her would resolve this as it would remove a lot of the source of the hormone issues. Dogs can have estrus-related diabetes that resolves when they are spayed. Which could be the case with her. That she does not have permanent diabetes but only due to the strong hormone issues.

As far as I could tell from a brief amount of research, spay, Galastop, or ride it out are the only choices.

Insulin being a basic substance needed by the body won't interact with the drug but there could be a very drastically reduced need for insulin if the hormones are brought under better control and if spayed.

She might still have diabetes but it will be controllable after spaying. She might not have diabetes at all after.

Natalie

[Megalamaniac]

Hi Natalie

Thanks for your reply :) My vet did spay her as we realised we needed to do this ASAP due to the fact the increased progesterone being produced was raising her blood glucose levels even higher than they should be. The only trouble was the timing was all wrong and unbeknown to us we didn't realise she was about to start producing bucket loads of milk!

One of the main problems when taking in a stray bitch is knowing if they have been spayed or not. The only way to find out if she was spayed was to just open her up, this is when he found out she hadn't been so he did it there and then.

I think we will just have to play the waiting game and hope the Galastop will sort it out and that her hormone levels will subside enough for us to be able to get her bg level under control, so first dose is with her evening meal tonight. Previous experience with this drug has left me feeling I wish she didn't have to have it but I feel we've got no choice really and I just hope it doesn't upset her too much as she's been through so much over the last couple of weeks and despite all this she is such a happy little girl!

I'm reassured by knowing that the insulin won't interact with the drug and she will be in again for another bg test on Monday as long as I'm happy with how she is until then and if all goes well hopefully a reduction in the amount of insulin she needs will be on the cards.

Many thanks once again
Sandy

[Soaphie & Sydney's Mom]

Wow - what an experience you are having. Please keep us posted as to what happens and how this all progresses.

Good luck to you!

Tami & Soaphie