Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

[Leslie]

I'm new to this and am very concerned my dog will not recover from her weakness. Hannah is a 11 year old lab who about two weeks ago started to have hind end weakness. I took her to vet and was diagnosed with GOLPP, although no laryngeal symptoms. About a week into pain meds and meds for arthritis I noticed she was drinking a lot so I checked her blood sugar and it was 500. Took her to vet next day and they kept her over nite. I just picked her up two days ago, am giving her 12 units two times a day, and checking her sugars often. She is eating better, still drinking but my concern is she is still getting weaker. She seems to feel good, waging her tail all the time. Her sugars are still high but are coming down. This am before insulin she was 275 which is the lowest she has been. Anyone else experience the weekness?

[CraigM]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Welcome to the forum. Can you tell us a bit more about Hannah: weight, type of insulin, food being fed, feeding equal amounts twice a day with the insulin, any between meal snacks, meter being used if home testing blood glucose, medications that she is using, anything else?

I understand some pups do experience weakness with high blood glucose. Others will probably talk about this.

Although the 275 is much better than 500s, be sure you realize that a single test doesn't tell a whole lot. Her glucose could easily have a 100+ range, so tests at different times should be done. After a pup has been on a dose for about 5-7 days we recommend a full day "curve" be done. A curve is a series of blood tests every 2 hours, starting just prior to the morning injection / breakfast.

Talking about breakfast, mine is on the table! I'm sure others will write soon with their thoughts.

Craig

[momofdecker]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

I'm new to this and am very concerned my dog will not recover from her weakness. Hannah is a 11 year old lab who about two weeks ago started to have hind end weakness. I took her to vet and was diagnosed with GOLPP, although no laryngeal symptoms. About a week into pain meds and meds for arthritis I noticed she was drinking a lot so I checked her blood sugar and it was 500. Took her to vet next day and they kept her over nite. I just picked her up two days ago, am giving her 12 units two times a day, and checking her sugars often. She is eating better, still drinking but my concern is she is still getting weaker. She seems to feel good, waging her tail all the time. Her sugars are still high but are coming down. This am before insulin she was 275 which is the lowest she has been. Anyone else experience the weekness?

Welcome to you and Hannah. There have been several dogs on this board that have presented with rear leg weakness. Many have been labs/lab mixes. I believe all have overcome the weakness once their blood glucose (bg) levels were brought down. Some of those parents are still active on this board and I'm sure they'll be along to share their share their stories soon.

I will apologize ahead of time but I have several questions I'd like to ask.

What is Hanna's weight? Does she have any other medical conditions?

Did Hannah have any other blood work run when her diabetes was diagnosed? Complete blood panel? Chem panel? Urinalysis?

How did your vet come to the GOLPP diagnosis? Can you tell us what pain meds she is on for the arthritis? Forgot to mention that there are a couple of yahoo groups out there that focus on LP. There have been hind end weakness discussions going on recently.

What type of insulin is she being given? If it's Novolin N, Wal-Mart sells their Relion brand Novolin for around 25.00 per vial. Typically much less expensive than the average pharmacy.

It sounds like you are home blood testing. What type of meter do you use?

Did your vet mention checking for ketones at all? There are urine strips that can be purchased at most local pharmacies. You can test her urine. I believe a dog can be at risk for developing ketones when their bg runs 300 and higher. Anything more than a trace (shown on strips) is an emergency situation.

Lots of other great into on this site. Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have.

Holli

[k9diabetes]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

I was not familiar with GOLPP so looked it up...

http://cvm.msu.edu/hospital/clinical...ing-with-golpp

It is associated with a polyneuropathy that often includes progressive hind leg weakness.

This is often where we see severe hind limb weakness in diabetic dogs - the high blood sugar layers over another pre-existing neuropathy, making the overall weakness much worse.

Better blood sugar will generally relieve whatever part of the weakness is diabetes induced. That part of the neuropathy tends to fade gradually over a month or so.

Until then, it will be hard to know how much is the high blood sugar and how much is the GOLPP.

Natalie

[Eddie]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Hello and welcome

Our dog Eddie (lab cross) had bad rear end neuropathy shortly after he was first diagnosed. It too got worse initially, despite insulin, then very gradually over weeks if not months it got better and went away completely.

He became so weak he could not stand or walk without our help and the vet was convinced that he had terminal tumours as he did not think it could all be attributable to diabetes. Fortunately I had by then come across this group who gave us the hope to persevere with insulin and hope he would be ok. As I type he is out playing ball with my husband with no sign of any weakness at all - so it really can go away.

The improvement was very slight at first - so that our vet thought we were deluding ourselves - but it was real, just very slow! We had started on quite a conservative dose of insulin so that may have contributed to it being slow to improve. It looks like it is very early days for you so I'd say hang on in there and keep at it!

Having said that, he did not have the complication of GOLPP and I know nothing about that.

One extra thing to consider is that B12 Methyl (not ordinary B12) may help with neuropathy. I gave Eddie lots just in case it might help though of course I don't know if it actually did. It is readily available on the internet and is inexpensive.

I hope you find lots of useful info on this website. It was essential to our dog's recovery and we remain extremely grateful to everyone on here for helping us!

Antonia

[k9diabetes]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Hi Leslie. I am bringing your existing thread. This where you will see replies to you question and can respond.

[Leslie]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Thanks everyone for your comments. I'm just getting use to this site so excuse me for a double post. Hannah is 11 year old lab, weighs about 90 pounds. She has lost some weight since her symptoms started. About two weeks ago she started with her noticeable hind end weakness. She got stuck coming up from the basement. Although she was slow to get up stairs prior to that, she really started declining from that point forward. I told her to get and was told she had GOLPP, no testing just basted on exam and hind end showed muscle wasting and weakness. GOLPP is a gradual weakness that also affects the larynx first and progressing to hind end weakness. This is a long slow process. So I came home and started searching Internet and it just didn't seem like it was GOLPP. My husband is diabetic so we have a meter and I decided to check Hannah, BS was 500. I called vet, took her in next day and they kept her overnite, started her on 12 units of insulin. They also ran blood panals and urinalysis. There was sugar in urine and one of her liver enzymes was elevated. Other than that everything else was normal.She came home two nights ago. I'm checking her blood sugar before her food and insulin. It is still high but is getting lower. Her weakness is not getting better. I spoke to vet today and she said to increase to 14 units NPH 2 times per day. I'm a nurse and am not bothered by shots and testing but am discouraged and worried about the progressive weakness. She is very happy, wags tail, eating good, no accidents in the house, but has to be helped to get around.

[Leslie]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Thank you!

[Eddie]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

I do sympathise. It is horrible to see them struggling.

But I really would encourage you to stick with it.
Eddie got very weak - so we were carrying him if it was more than a few steps (and he is quite an armful though not quite as big as your Hannah). His whole back end seemed to have gone numb including his tail. He looked as if he was on the way out and we were seriously doubting whether it was right to keep him going in that state.
The vet was convinced there was something else going on and insisted he had a scan, just as we thought we had detected tiny improvements. They scanned him and three vets looked at the scan and they agreed that he has tumours which they said would kill him within 3 weeks. That was on 27 November last year.
We ignored that and carried on with the insulin, based upon the advice I found on here. I am so glad we did! By the beginning of January he was steady on his feet again, and he has gone back to normal and stayed fine.

I know it might be something different with your dog but I would suggest that you give her a lot of time to see if she can come right and be prepared for it to take awhile, just in case it is all linked to the diabetes.

I don't think vets often see this neuropathy and ours certainly did not recognise it. There seems to be a distinct tendency for it to show in labs or lab crosses for some reason.

Antonia

[GillH]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Hi Leslie, just to say that my Westie also has hind leg weakness which when she was first diagnosed was very pronounced, to the point she was falling over quite often, not helped with going blind at the same time. It was very distressing to see. This was just about one month ago, she has greatly improved now she is having her insulin which has gradually gone up to 6units twice daily.

She does still show some signs of weakness and stumbles every now and then but nothing like a month ago. I can tell we have a long way to go before she is back to 'normal' but having read so many posts of encouragement on here it's helped me not to give up hope and to persevere. I hope the same will be for you, stick with it, keep reading as much as you can on these boards and good luck! Gill

[Leslie]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Update on Hannah. Her BS was 167 tonite. She is still weak, but sure is happy. I keep pushing her to get up and even if she can take a few steps on her own I think is good. I know it is a slow process...

[momofdecker]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Cheering you and Hannah on. Keep the positive news coming.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Yay! Way to go Hannah!

Natalie

[Monsters Momma]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Hi Leslie and Welcome...belated! I'm so glad you found us! There is so much knowledge here, it's made me feel like I know what I'm doing!

Fortunately, Vinny has not had a lot of weakness, although there are times that he seems a little off with his balance. Hopefully, Hannah will get better as her BG comes down.

Did you mention what meter you said you were using? I know Craig has had a discount code in the past for the AlphaTrak2, which makes it much more affordable! I don't know how people do this without testing their pups! I ran out of supplies for a week and kept imagining things with Vinny!

Good luck to you and Hannah!
Mel

[Blackjack'smom]

Re: Newly diagnosed diabetes and hind end weakness

Hello...and a belated welcome to you and Hannah!! I haven't been on much lately, but when I saw your concern with hind leg weakness and all, I felt that I had to comment. Yep, I think that there may be something to the significance of seeing so many of the dogs with this neuropathy seem to be labs or lab mixes! Blackjack(half lab and golden retriever) has been a diagnosed diabetic for nearly one and a half years now and right after his diagnosis we went through an awful spell of hind leg weakness and all. We did have to help him into an upright position and support him with any steps that were taken. It went on for a few weeks then we started noticing the tiniest signs of improvement until eventually he was back to normal. There were several occasions that we would have been tempted to give up if it had not been for this forum and reading about the possibility of diabetic neuropathy and hope for recovery. I have to admit that the vet we were seeing at the time was pretty much no help with our concerns. Didn't really give us any answers and now that I think back, I don't even think he did a physical exam on his back end. There IS hope....that is what I really want to stress here. This forum is so helpful! I am ever so grateful for all the support and information that I have gotten here. Don't give up and I do hope that you are starting to see some improvement....Donna