Comments on: Is Your Pet Psychic?

By: mark

mark — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 02:47:34 +0000

Our dog contracted diabetes at about age 9, and we cared for him until his death at age 12. He did not die of diabetes-related problems. It was actually very easy to care for a diabetic dog since they take the same insulin humans can (usually cheap and easy to obtain at the human pharmacy) and they are typcially insensitive to injections due to their loose skin. Also, consider this: It is very easy to strictly control the food intake of a pet dog, and they naturally don’t need to eat as often as humans. Our dog was fed twice a day, and received his insulin injections while he was having his meal. As others have indicated, his behavior was enough (once we got into the routine) to let us know if there was any small problem or if a dose adjustment was in order, so we rarely had to do glucose montoring, actually.

Many people who love their pets would gladly, like us, help their pets out by managing their diabetes. (We also treated him for glaucoma and Cushing’s disease, sadly). And it certainly is not uncommon; our veterinarian and pharmacist considered it quite routine. We actually We miss you, Beethoven!

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 18:32:33 +0000

I have always had animals, cats and dogs. We’ve dealt with some health issues, but I always thought that if I had to deal with diabetes that it wouldn’t be possible. I had no idea you could check blood sugars – I thought it would just be hit and miss with injections. Very interesting!

By: Bruce Small

Bruce Small — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 03:19:09 +0000

My late mom’s dog, Billy, had diabetes for years, which meant that twice a day I went over and gave him an injection. The hardest part was making sure ancient Granny (my mom) didn’t slip him forbidden treats “just this once.”

He eventually died of lung cancer, poor old guy. Yeah, we’re soft on animals. Once they get in the door they are family for life.

By: Martha O'Connor

Martha O'Connor — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 03:18:57 +0000

http://www.dogs4diabetics.com For me, I find it very annoying when people tell me they know JUST how I feel (as a mom of a child with diabetes) because their freaking CAT has diabetes. KAY, I like cats, but my son is a human. And I'd kill their cat myself if it were needed for research for a cure. {{donning flamesuit}}

By: Martha O'Connor

Martha O'Connor — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 03:18:57 +0000

By: Martha O'Connor

Martha O'Connor — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 03:18:57 +0000

By: AmyT

AmyT — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:41:33 +0000

Hmm, interesting. This is a whole other take — the idea that animals can sense their owners’ troubles.

Thanks, you guys.

By: Kerri.

Kerri. — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 20:08:03 +0000

I’ve written about my cat, Abby, on my blog before. I swear that cat never misses a low bloodsugar reaction. She always meows at me until I stumble into the kitchen for juice. Can she sense my body starting to fail? Can she tense the sweat on my brow from the low? Do I smell different or taste different when I’m low? Whatever the case, my old cat Abby always saves me. I’ve had a few close calls but the reason I woke up those times was due to her insistant meowing.

I realize this sounds borderline ridiculous, but she really is in tune with my sugar level.

I’m consdering having her cloned.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:57:43 +0000

I heard that dogs don’t have pain receptors in their skin. That would make giving injections easy. (I don’t think the dog would hold still for a second injection if that weren’t the case.) I wonder if this is also true of cats? I have neither at this time, so I cannot experiment.

By: Kirk

Kirk — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:10:36 +0000

It is a proven fact that animals can sense lows and also other medical conditions. For example there has been study of animals ability to detect cancers.

My wife thinks she has a diabetic animal (me…)