[MR] OT anyone with a diabetic dog? i need info

[Sharon Henderson]

Gentle cousins,

Cautionary warnings are always a good thing, and vets are the first people I
recommend calling when there's a pet problem.  But I'd like to just say that
for the twelve years I have known Logan he has been the definition of a
responsible pet owner--and I saw nothing in his post that suggests he will
be self-treating his dog.  It sounded like an intel-gathering post to me.

I have had two cats in my time who were insulin-dependent diabetic; one
developed the condition when he was about six and was on insulin--the exact
SAME insulin my very human husband takes for his diabetes--until he (the
cat) died of something unrelated at the great old age of twenty.  That's
Methuselah-like in cat years, and he owed the lessening of his diabetic
myopathies and the lengthening of his life to his insulin shots.

Yes, messing with meds that have not been properly prescribed is ALWAYS a
bad thing--but may I respectfully warn about the worries attendant
upon making assumptions?  If my vet prescribes the same insulin given to
humans (though cats get much smaller doses) for cats and dogs, I daresay
Logan's vet may do much the same thing if it turns out that Lou is indeed
Type 1 diabetic.  Or he/she may not.  My take on it was that with his
experience as a diabetic himself, His Highness was seeing symptoms in his
pet that suggested the same thing--and was asking for more info based on
other folks' observations and experience.

As always, my opinion and my read of the situation... I just hope Lou turns
out to be all right and that some course of treatment can be found to make
her life easier.  It's amazing how far diabetic treatment for people and
animals has come.  I would have been very sorry to miss those fourteen years
with my own cat, a remarkable beastie if there ever was one, but for the
intervention of insulin.  The vet will know exactly what dose and what sort
should be given, if it turns out to be needed.  But if Lou is losing weight,
the layman's informed guess of this gentle right here is that she's probably
not Type 2...

in service and hope,
Meli