Did I Cause Diabetes in My Dog?
Today we talk about the question that we all asked ourselves when our pup was diagnosed, “Did I do this to my dog?” The short answer is no, you didn’t do anything to cause your pup to get diabetes. Well, unless you fed him/her a steady diet of McDonald’s burgers (not really).
Diabetes is an autoimmune disease which means that it is a condition arising from an abnormal immune response to a normal body part. In this case, that body part is the pancreas. There are some easily identifiable scenarios that can cause diabetes in our pups.
A severe bout of pancreatitis or chronic pancreatitis is one of the conditions that can cause diabetes in our dogs. This is why we must feed our pups a low fat food so we don’t cause a flare. In the post about What Do I Feed My Diabetic Dog, I spoke about Dry Matter Basis and gave some suggestions for some foods that might be appropriate. If you need to reassess your food, here are a couple of dry matter basis calculators that you should load on your phone or bookmark on your computer for easy reference.
https://www.pawdiet.com/articles/dry-matter-basis-calculator-for-pet-food/
For a dog that has had pancreatitis in the past, you will want your food’s fat content to be under 10% DMB (Dry Matter Basis). If your pup has never had pancreatitis, try to stick as close to a fat content of 12% DMB (Dry Matter Basis) as possible.
Another traceable cause of diabetes in our pups is prolonged steroid use. For many dogs that have been prescribed steroids frequently or perhaps steroids were being used to treat allergies for an extended period of time, whatever the reason, this is another cause of diabetes. In very rare cases, if the pup is weaned off of the steroids, there is a chance, a slim chance that the diabetes will reverse.
As I have shared in the past, I had two Westies that were brothers from the same litter. One became diabetic and the other did not. I have my personal theory as to why this happened. It is my belief that the diabetes was caused by a vaccination. Max (my diabetic) had a reaction to a vaccination when he was a pup, it was not a violent reaction, but it was a reaction none the less. Finn had no reaction to the same vaccination. I believe, and have no proof to back this up, that many cases of Canine Diabetes are caused by over vaccinating our pets. Being that neither of my boys ever had pancreatitis, were never on steroids, ate an organic diet, were not predisposed genetically to diabetes, but always received their vaccinations and boosters like clockwork, I don’t know what else to think.
Vaccinations are a volatile topic every time there is a post about them on our Facebook group ( CDSI). It’s a topic where people that have an opinion have a very strong opinion. I am one of those people, so I steer clear of those discussions. I will just say that if it were me, and it’s not, I would have a titer test done ALWAYS before even considering having another vaccine of any kind. Our dogs are immunocompromised and the vaccines are clearly marked that they are for healthy dogs only. This is a decision that is very personal and I will not be weighing in. At some point if I can reign in my strong opinions, I may attempt to write a post about vaccinations, but may not be successful enough to actually publish the post. LOL
So, to circle back, did you cause your pup’s diabetes? No, you did not. It was not caused by him/her being overweight or not exercising enough. If there was one clear cause that was known, then Canine Diabetes cases would be on the decline instead of on the rise. So, forgive yourself for thinking that you had something to do with it and move on to managing it the very best way that you can.
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Until next time…