Hi to all,
I just stumbled on this forum after hours of searching up on dogs diagnosed with Diabetes. Quite frankly it's a lot to take in as I'm sure many of you know.
I have a 5 1/2 year-old Miniature Pinscher, Princess, who was just diagnosed with Diabetes yesterday late afternoon. We had noticed she had been drinking a lot more water then usual and getting up at unusual times at night to let us know she wanted more water or to go pee. I hate to say that one of our faults as her owners was that she was never properly potty trained, that and we don't have a fenced backyard, so she always usually pees in the house when she isn't on a walk, but we noticed her peeing a lot more then usual. In addition she also appeared to have been losing weight. Ever since she has been spayed as a puppy she had been overweight, around 21 or so pounds, she was weighed in yesterday at around 18 since her last visit about a month ago. She is also one of three dogs in the house that are usually taken on a 20 or more minute walk twice or three times the day.
We went to the vet yesterday to see if maybe she had a UTI or something, and although it came back negative, the vet did notify us that her glucose was unusually high which was positive for Diabetes. Her health is my number one priority of course, but I do have some other concerns.
We started her in training classes around mid-December where she has gotten more treats then she ever really did in life. Before going to the vet yesterday I relayed this to the trainer and she said among the possibility of Diabetes or Cushing's, one contributing factor she thought could have sparked the sudden thirst and peeing was because of all the treats she had recently been getting.
The doctor told me to take today to figure out things and what I wanted to do. Of course if insulin (as the doctor prescribed) and a prescriptive diet is what I have to absolutely do then I will certainly do so. But before getting her on insulin which will make her dependent on it, I want to know if perhaps, if time permitting, I should change her diet to prescriptive and pay more attention to managing her weight. Most of her life she has been on just regular dog food and we never really paid attention to the carbs or fiber, as we were feeding three dogs. That and perhaps stop giving her so much treats that she has been getting recently in the last month or so and see if there is some sort of improvement.
Ultimately before committing to insulin I would like to see if there is anything we can do on our part (i.e. managing strict diet, no more treats, more exercise) and check back in perhaps a couple weeks or a month and see if this perhaps makes a difference.
I came here because I've read how experienced most of you are and would love and appreciate all your advice. I just posed my thoughts to the vet and the assistant said she should get back to me later on tonight.
I would love to hear from any of you really as I'm new to all this and just want to know everything before essentially making her dependent on insulin the rest of her life.
I'm sorry for the long message but I'm sure you all can understand my concern.
Thanks again,
Natalie
I just stumbled on this forum after hours of searching up on dogs diagnosed with Diabetes. Quite frankly it's a lot to take in as I'm sure many of you know.
I have a 5 1/2 year-old Miniature Pinscher, Princess, who was just diagnosed with Diabetes yesterday late afternoon. We had noticed she had been drinking a lot more water then usual and getting up at unusual times at night to let us know she wanted more water or to go pee. I hate to say that one of our faults as her owners was that she was never properly potty trained, that and we don't have a fenced backyard, so she always usually pees in the house when she isn't on a walk, but we noticed her peeing a lot more then usual. In addition she also appeared to have been losing weight. Ever since she has been spayed as a puppy she had been overweight, around 21 or so pounds, she was weighed in yesterday at around 18 since her last visit about a month ago. She is also one of three dogs in the house that are usually taken on a 20 or more minute walk twice or three times the day.
We went to the vet yesterday to see if maybe she had a UTI or something, and although it came back negative, the vet did notify us that her glucose was unusually high which was positive for Diabetes. Her health is my number one priority of course, but I do have some other concerns.
We started her in training classes around mid-December where she has gotten more treats then she ever really did in life. Before going to the vet yesterday I relayed this to the trainer and she said among the possibility of Diabetes or Cushing's, one contributing factor she thought could have sparked the sudden thirst and peeing was because of all the treats she had recently been getting.
The doctor told me to take today to figure out things and what I wanted to do. Of course if insulin (as the doctor prescribed) and a prescriptive diet is what I have to absolutely do then I will certainly do so. But before getting her on insulin which will make her dependent on it, I want to know if perhaps, if time permitting, I should change her diet to prescriptive and pay more attention to managing her weight. Most of her life she has been on just regular dog food and we never really paid attention to the carbs or fiber, as we were feeding three dogs. That and perhaps stop giving her so much treats that she has been getting recently in the last month or so and see if there is some sort of improvement.
Ultimately before committing to insulin I would like to see if there is anything we can do on our part (i.e. managing strict diet, no more treats, more exercise) and check back in perhaps a couple weeks or a month and see if this perhaps makes a difference.
I came here because I've read how experienced most of you are and would love and appreciate all your advice. I just posed my thoughts to the vet and the assistant said she should get back to me later on tonight.
I would love to hear from any of you really as I'm new to all this and just want to know everything before essentially making her dependent on insulin the rest of her life.
I'm sorry for the long message but I'm sure you all can understand my concern.
Thanks again,
Natalie
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