Taking Responsibility for Your Diabetic Dog
Today we talk about taking responsibility for your Diabetic Dog. That means that it’s up to us to keep our pup safe at all times. No more blaming anyone else, we need to step up to the plate and get in the game!
I can’t tell you how many times I have seen statements like these… “My dog was diagnosed 3 days ago; we are going back next week to learn how to do the injections… WHAT?!?! Or this… "My vet says that I shouldn’t test at home, there is no need”. Eeeeeek! If your vet makes either of those two statements or anything similar suggesting that there is no urgency in getting your insulin started or that you “don’t need to” test at home. Run, don’t walk to the nearest exit, I mean it… RUN! Let’s take a closer look at those two statements…
Let’s take the first one “Your dog has been diagnosed Diabetic and you are being told to wait several days before starting treatment”. My guess here is that your vet is going to start your pup on Vetsulin and he/she doesn’t have any and wants you to wait for them to order it and have it delivered. Ummmm, no! How about they start you on Novolin N and get this show on the road! Now that the diagnosis has been made, delaying treatment opens your pup up to a bunch of “nothing good” scenarios. Chances are that you noticed that your pup is drinking a lot and perhaps having accidents in the house, so in short, your pup is symptomatic and treatment shouldn’t wait. If you are seeing these signs that indicate that BG (Blood Glucose) is running high and the chance that ketones are present and building is a very real possibility. Why compound the current issue with another very serious issue when it is avoidable. Frankly, if your vet suggests that you wait a day or several before starting treatment that would say to me that perhaps they don’t know much about Canine Diabetes and going elsewhere might be worth considering. It’s like saying, “Oh, you have something in your eye? Come back next week and we will take another look at it.” Crazy…
The other statement about not worrying about home testing, that there’s no need… We all know how I feel about that one! There are a couple responses that come to mind.
1) If it was your dog, would you (the vet) test at home? If the answer is yes, of course, then why wouldn’t you test at home? Is the vet a superior being that feels that testing is over your head? Why wouldn’t you give your pup the best possible care that you can? That isn’t reserved for people with advanced degrees for goodness sake! If they answer that no, they wouldn’t test their pup at home I say again, run to the nearest exit!
2) I’d ask “so does this mean that you are taking 100% responsibility for my dog and his/her diabetes”? That if there is an issue at 3 am and my pup is trembling and wobbly; you will take my call to your cell phone? Or you will pay the ER bill? Likely, the answer to those two questions is “no”, and in fairness, they can’t be at your beck and call 24/7. That being said, they can absolutely encourage you to take the best possible care of your newly diagnosed “sugar baby” and in my view, that includes testing glucose at home. Treating a dog blindly when there is an easy process to make informed decisions about their day to day care is unnecessary in my view.
This is why I say, “Get in the game”! I know first-hand how completely overwhelming this diagnosis is at the beginning, so to potentially compound it is just unnecessary. You are responsible for your pup, it is your job to advocate for them, be their human voice, and fight these battles for them. Is it hard in the beginning? You betcha, but that just makes the victories, no matter how small, that much sweeter!
I know that you’re thinking that you’ve already spent a ton at the vet to get this diagnosis and just one more thing will totally break the bank. I will say that for the cost of a box of strips (there are free pet meter deals all the time on the PetTest Meter) what you save in the long run will be HUGE because you learned how to test and head off most potential issues before they even have a chance to pop up. You won’t be sorry.
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Until next time…