Newly diagnosed

[dogloverpa]

Hi, I have an 11 year old chocolate lab that was just diagnosed with diabetes. She was at the vet, had a Lyme vaccine and the next day she started drinking excessively. She had been starting to have trouble climbing stairs but days after the excessive drinking started she was was hardly moving. We took her back to the vet, she had urine and blood tests and she has diabetes. We are having to help her get up and wrapping a towel around her stomach to help her walk. She is 85 lbs and not had any loss of appetite. She is getting 10 units of insulin twice a day (rely-on from Walmart), she has had 4 insulin shots and she hasn't shown any sign of improvement. This is a dog that acted like a 1 year old and now she doesn't even lift her head when she sees us. This is heart wrenching. How long does it normally take before she will be feeling better? Is it normal that she has so much weakness and can't get up? We ordered a blood glucose monitoring kit that should be in today and she goes back to the vet tomorrow. This seems to have come on so quickly and we don't know what to expect and are trying to stay positive but it's so difficult watching her suffer.

Thank you!

[CraigM]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear your pup is struggling.

I would have thought you would have seen a little improvement by the second day of injections, but we have a saying that every dog / situation is different. 10 units might be a lite dosage for a 85 pound dog and the vet will likely increase the dosage. This is something that takes time and patients, you really can't rush it. Insulin increases will likely come weekly or so, and really can't be rushed.

Has she been spayed?

Craig

[farrwf]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Hello and welcome to the best place on the planet for doggy diabetes information, advice and fellowship.

At first glance, it appears likely your pooch may have diabetic neuropathy. Seems we see many Labs displaying this ailment when they're first diagnosed with diabetes.

If it is neuropathy, as you get the diabetes regulated and the high blood / glucose numbers come back down, it's very likely it will go away.

[Eddie]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Hello and welcome

Our dog, who is a Lab cross, had diabetic neuropathy which does sound rather similar to what your dog is experiencing. Your dog is different to ours in that the leg weakness seems to have come on very quickly whereas with our dog it set in slowly, after he was first diagnosed.

Assuming your vet doesn't think it is anything else, then, if it is neuropathy, as Bill says, it will probably gradually go away as she is regulated.

With our dog it was a slow process (sorry, not what you want to hear), but it was so much worth the wait!

It took maybe two weeks from him starting to show weakness, for us to notice signs that he was improving. He was sleeping more or less all day and only getting up (with our help) to eat and toilet.

The vet thought that is problems were due to a tumour on his spine (after scans/x-rays) and told us he'd be dead by Christmas in 2012. Instead he slowly got better and got back to being able to run around happily and even to stand up against the gate on his hind legs. we were pretty pleased that we listened to people on this forum instead of taking too much notice of the vet's dire prognosis. He's still with us now, slowing down a bit, but most definitely still alive!

So - keep going with the insulin, which will probably need to be increased. Get the vet to check there isn't anything else going on (such as imaginary tumours!!) and most of all give her time to get better. Our dog wasn't in distress at all I don't think - he was just really tired and it seemed as if his back legs and his tail had all gone numb. He slept and slept and lost a lot of weight - looked terrible, but we hung on and it all came good in the end.

But the spaying point is also a good one to think. It seems that unspayed females are much harder to regulate as fluctuating hormone levels alter their insulin requirements.

Hope she feels better soon
Antonia

[Gomeysmom]

Re: Newly diagnosed

My dog is newly diagnosed (4/26) and my thought was cushings due to her lack of being able to stand. cushings test came back 100% negative but anaplasmosis Lyme was elevated. We started Doxy and she seemed less sore but not good enough. I then started to see her gait had changed on her front legs. I too thought diabetic neuropothy so we have been monitoring it. I started her on gabapentin as that seemed like one of the less invasive pain meds and we had 1 good day on that but not good enough. This week Friday-Sunday, I started a very small dose once per day of Rimadyl (less than the vet said would be low) and that was a huge difference. Gomey even wagged her tail. I opt to not be consistent with Rimadyl because the side effect. After 3 days on such a small dose I thought today I would try some childrens aspirin..NOPE! She got up like she was basically paralyzed when I returned home from work..So sore! I will give her Rimadyl tomorrow but I think I am going to switch to previcox or some other non-invasive pain med. I think pain is in her spine...eek! (another reason to have acupuncture!) (PS..all of the meds I have been switching around (Rimadyl and aspirin shouldn't be combined) I have been in close texting contact with the vet and all with her approval) Vet was glad to see that we had some improvement on Rimadyl but Gomey hopefully doesn't do too much when she feels so good. She actually "secretly" walked herself down the stairs (2) times on Rimadyl and (3) times up the stairs..She hadn't done that since before Easter! I can't seem to get her to listen to me that she needs to take it easy when she is feeling great! She is ready for a chipmunk!

[jesse girl]

Re: Newly diagnosed

interesting to see the symptoms directly after the vaccine

maybe a coincidence but it is a bit strange

it took my Jesse sometime for her to get normal as she was really sick

its hard to say why your dog is a bit sluggish without knowing what blood sugar is

it possible as craig mention the dose is to small and your pup still has higher sugar but eevn though the dose is small its possible sugar could be going lower

its perplexing low sugar and high sugar can give symptoms of lethargy

recommend home testing if you haven't started. the larger breeds seem to be easy to do

[dogloverpa]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Thanks for the info. Yes, she was sprayed when she was 1 years old. The vet raised her to 15 units twice a day, her level was 450 yesterday down from 625 when she was diagnosed. I guess I have to be patient and realize it's not abnormal for her to be getting worse before she gets better. She can't stand by herself at all now and seems disoriented when we help her to go out.

[Raysaint]

Re: Newly diagnosed

I know with myself, if my sugar is really high, it makes me feel weak and I can also feel spaced out, spaced to the point where I think my sugar is going hypoglycemic. So disorientation is possible with high sugar.

[dogloverpa]

Re: Newly diagnosed and has neuropathy

Does anyone have any experience with neuropathy? It's day 12 since we started Abby on insulin, she's on 22 units twice a day now. Her blood level is in the 300's now so we're getting there but she can't stand or walk. She is 85lbs so it's been difficult carrying her around and we haven't seen any improvement there, as a matter of fact she is worse. Her paws are turning in when trying to hold her to go to the bathroom. We're so afraid she is going to hurt herself. We've tried different slings and harnesses but it's difficult taking her out.

[Raysaint]

Re: Newly diagnosed

In my research thru medical libraries online, it's an area that hasn't had much study done on it. Diagnosing if it truly is neuropathy is difficult. It seems like it can happen simultaneously with diabetes, and it may take time for it to subside, as blood sugar becomes more regulated.
There's lots of sites with info, but find out where they get their information.

Here's one brief summary.

http://www.scoutshouse.com/wp-conten...ians-Brief.pdf

[Judi]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Let me try to find Eddie's page. For some reason a lot of labs have this issue.
They were really successful giving him a lot of B12. The methyl kind not the other


check this thread out: http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/show...ethylcobalamin

and here is Eddie's thread: http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/show...ighlight=Eddie

Judi

[Raysaint]

Re: Newly diagnosed

This link has some info on the specific B12 supplement.

http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Neuropathy

[dogloverpa]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Is there a pet vitamin methyl B12, or is everyone giving their pets the human ones? I read on one human brand that it shouldn't be given to pets so I'm leery about just picking a random one and I saw some had sweeteners.

[Judi]

Re: Newly diagnosed

I think Antonia said that they got a shot from their vet

[Raysaint]

Re: Newly diagnosed

Some supplements even contain Xylitol, so I'd be asking my vet for a recommendation. It has to be the right form (liquid maybe), and administered the right way.
Seems like a well known supplement for neuropathy so your vet shouldn't be against trying it.