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

[Liz Orwig]

It's a formula.  The caffeine and theobromine (drug in chocolate that 
makes it addictive for some), is what is deadly to dogs. The higher 
quality chocolate, higher concentrations of these two things, the more deadly.

I have to re-iterate points of an earlier post. Please please PLEASE 
do NOT diagnose your dog on your own.  The worst phrase I hear at 
work every night is "I was reading on the internet"..... The internet 
is a great tool. it is NOT, however, a substitute for proper medical 
care for your pet. Would you let yourself diagnose your 
daughter/son/spouse through the internet or through advice from 
friends with no medical knowledge? I would hope not.  Pets are not 
furry creatures or feathered creatures trying to be people. They have 
much more complicated systems and cannot tell us what hurts, how they 
feel or what happened.  Someone who has been trained in this field is 
your best bet and sometimes the difference between living and dying 
for that pet.Veterinarians go to school just as long and sometimes 
longer than an MD does to get their degree. They deserve and have 
EARNED your respect in their field.

Did you know:  10% of those people who don't make it into vet school 
become medical doctors.  So.... just because one works in human 
medicine, that does NOT give them license to practice veterinary 
medicine or assume they know what's wrong with their pet. (Another 
pet peeve..... )

true story... cardiologist comes in with a Great Dane puppy. Said 
puppy has tripple hook fishing lure stuck in it's tongue and 
cheek.  Disrespectful medical doctor brings his own tools, tells the 
vet how and what to use to knock his animal down, is condescending to 
all the staff and truly ugly to the vet.  It was all I could do to 
not punch this guy right in the face.  Same doctor was in not long 
ago with a different dog who'd been hit by a car. He insisted on 
speaking to the veterinarian on duty to give her the "history" of the 
accident.  The dog was crashing and she was a bit busy. I flat out 
told him that he'd have to wait.  Trauma isn't something you 
generally need a "history" for and he could sit his presumptive rear 
end in a chair and wait until we have his pet stabilized.  He wasn't 
happy. I didn't care. It's not my job to be nice to a@@hats who are 
repeat offenders. It is my job, however to make sure the pet is 
stable, the vet is able to work and do her job without being harassed 
and that is what I do. I do it well.  I later found out this jerk had 
been fired as a client from no less than 10 different veterinary 
practices for his behavior toward staff and doctors.

Bottom line: if it bothers you enough to call someone, seek advice on 
the internet, from a friend, et al... call your vet.  They have the 
tools to seek the answers you need and if they don't they can refer 
you to someone who does.

In Service

Erzebet Fauconneau
aka Liz Orwig  ER vet tech.
Barony of Blackstone Mountain, Aethelmearc

At 02:37 PM 2/11/2009, you wrote:
>On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 2:29 PM, Duchess Rachel 
><duchessrachel at sc.rr.com> wrote:
> > Like chocolate.  *sigh*  Poor critters who can't have a chocolate fix.
>
>Although I know I have seen dogs down entire boxes of chocolate, or
>devour pans of brownies, or entire birthday cakes, and get nothing
>terribly worse than a case of diarrhea.
>
>-Giovanna
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