Anybody here have experience with a diabetic dog?

[farce©]

Tito was diagnosed about a month ago, after he started peeing in our house. He had lost about 1/4 of his body weight (28# down to 20#).

So now he gets two shots of insulin daily immediately after his meals. He is on prescription food. The dry food costs $60 for a 8.5# bag and the canned stuff is $6 a can.

Any way, after 3+ weeks on this his demeanor is back to normal (not pitiful and lethargic all day) but he still pees in the house at night. I am told when his glucose gets regulated that behavior should stop. Does anybody here have any experience with this? Everyone I know IRL who has had a diabetic pet is cats and they use a litter box.

I do know the life expectancy of a dog is about two years after diagnosis because it is just so hard to regulate their blood sugar. Tito will be 8 in October but I can’t have him peeing in my house every night. Something has to change.

 

[lawtig02]

Tito was diagnosed about a month ago, after he started peeing in our house. He had lost about 1/4 of his body weight (28# down to 20#).

So now he gets two shots of insulin daily immediately after his meals. He is on prescription food. The dry food costs $60 for a 8.5# bag and the canned stuff is $6 a can.

Any way, after 3+ weeks on this his demeanor is back to normal (not pitiful and lethargic all day) but he still pees in the house at night. I am told when his glucose gets regulated that behavior should stop. Does anybody here have any experience with this? Everyone I know IRL who has had a diabetic pet is cats and they use a litter box.

I do know the life expectancy of a dog is about two years after diagnosis because it is just so hard to regulate their blood sugar. Tito will be 8 in October but I can’t have him peeing in my house every night. Something has to change.

I'm your boo. Feel free to DM me, but just to summarize --

1. This is manageable. I think the 2-year thing is because most dogs get this when they're already old. Young dogs can absolutely be managed. Ours was also 8 when he became diabetic (as a result of a splenetic tumor), and he's pretty much normal now, other than the management.
2. It's not easy to manage. There are various forms of insulin, but you're looking at a shot per day at the best.
3. It's expensive.
4. It makes travel/boarding/etc. MUCH more difficult.

I think you're in Charlotte, IIRC, and I have a great vet recommendation for you, but just know people make a range of decisions in this situation and none of them are objectively right or wrong.

 

[Delta74]

Tito was diagnosed about a month ago, after he started peeing in our house. He had lost about 1/4 of his body weight (28# down to 20#).

So now he gets two shots of insulin daily immediately after his meals. He is on prescription food. The dry food costs $60 for a 8.5# bag and the canned stuff is $6 a can.

Any way, after 3+ weeks on this his demeanor is back to normal (not pitiful and lethargic all day) but he still pees in the house at night. I am told when his glucose gets regulated that behavior should stop. Does anybody here have any experience with this? Everyone I know IRL who has had a diabetic pet is cats and they use a litter box.

I do know the life expectancy of a dog is about two years after diagnosis because it is just so hard to regulate their blood sugar. Tito will be 8 in October but I can’t have him peeing in my house every night. Something has to change.

I didn’t have a dog w diabetes (to my knowledge) but I had one w cancer. Vet gave her 6 months to live. We researched and decided to make her food. She lived 2 more years (a good 2 years). We believe that if we’d had her on whole/unprocessed food she may have never got cancer. Anyway, all that to say that is another thing you might consider. The Vets are well meaning w the “better” food recommendations but we have no doubt now that getting dogs off of processed food as much as possible is the path to their best health just as it is w humans.

 

[ZenMode]

I have two dogs. They're brothers. Nicest dogs you'll ever meet and as sharp as marble. They're almost 9 and still pee in the house if we don't watch them closely.

When they were puppies, we kept them in one kennel. When they got bigger, we tried to split them into two kennels at night, but they would bark and cry until we put them in the same kennel, so we got them something larger.

They've never peed in it at night.

Something smaller for your dog to sleep in at night might help. If it's too big, he'll pee in it.




Dogs typically avoid urinating in their crates because they have a natural instinct to keep their living spaces clean. They instinctively understand that a crate is their den, and dogs generally don't like to soil where they sleep. However, this instinct can be overridden if the crate is too large, if the dog is not properly house-trained, or if the dog is experiencing medical issues.

 

[Calheel]

One of my two dogs is diabetic (the other has bad allergies). I put down pee pads in the house at night at his favorite pet spots and I try to walk him before bed. But still, he doesn’t always pee in the right spots.

4ml of vetsulin morning and evening, which lasts about 7 weeks at about $70 (it was cheaper when Costco sold it).

He’s had the diagnosis for about three years and is fine. The bigger issue was when he got into the outside trash last year and got necrotizing pancreatitis- and seven days in the dog ICU. He and his brother are on the same Hill Science prescription ID low fat diet. About $120 for the biggest bag.

It is a pain finding boarders. Most won’t do the insulin shots.

The best advice for the peeing is the long walks before bed. That seems to help the most.

 

[farce©]

Thanks for all the advice. There is some optimism in all these comments.

Tito has never been crated. When he was a puppy at night and when we weren’t home, he was confined to a mudroom with a baby gate in the doorway. When he was about 2 we started leaving him out when we were gone but confined him at night. When we moved to Charlotte he was 4 and we started letting him sleep with us which is where we are now. I suspect trying crate him at this point would be unpleasant for all concerned.

We tried to pad train him when he was a puppy (never get a puppy in the winter in Cleveland…very hard to housebreak when the snow is deeper than the size of the dog, and you can’t really snatch him up barefoot in your shorts and run him down the back outside stairs when those stairs are icy and it’s well below freezing. Taking the time to get on your boots and coat is kind of pointless when a puppy is sniffing around for a place to pee.). Anyway he. just thought the pads were a toy and ripped them to shreds….he never connected those dots. But he’s older now and less prone to being a little asshole, so I might try the pads again.

We have taken him to daycare once or twice a week since he was little, mostly to have a place to board him when we traveled where he could play all day with dogs and people he knew. But they have already told me he can’t board there if he requires injections. He’s on Novolin N, 4 units twice a day. He started on two units a day and after two weeks went in for his glucose curve. His numbers were high so they increased his dosage and that’s where we are now.

Do any of you with diabetic dogs ever tried to test their glucose at home? I can’t imagine trying to get a blood sample is an easy task. I do take him out for a walk before bed every night.

 

[Calheel]

Thanks for all the advice. There is some optimism in all these comments.

Tito has never been crated. When he was a puppy at night and when we weren’t home, he was confined to a mudroom with a baby gate in the doorway. When he was about 2 we started leaving him out when we were gone but confined him at night. When we moved to Charlotte he was 4 and we started letting him sleep with us which is where we are now. I suspect trying crate him at this point would be unpleasant for all concerned.

We tried to pad train him when he was a puppy (never get a puppy in the winter in Cleveland…very hard to housebreak when the snow is deeper than the size of the dog, and you can’t really snatch him up barefoot in your shorts and run him down the back outside stairs when those stairs are icy and it’s well below freezing. Taking the time to get on your boots and coat is kind of pointless when a puppy is sniffing around for a place to pee.). Anyway he. just thought the pads were a toy and ripped them to shreds….he never connected those dots. But he’s older now and less prone to being a little asshole, so I might try the pads again.

We have taken him to daycare once or twice a week since he was little, mostly to have a place to board him when we traveled where he could play all day with dogs and people he knew. But they have already told me he can’t board there if he requires injections. He’s on Novolin N, 4 units twice a day. He started on two units a day and after two weeks went in for his glucose curve. His numbers were high so they increased his dosage and that’s where we are now.

Do any of you with diabetic dogs ever tried to test their glucose at home? I can’t imagine trying to get a blood sample is an easy task. I do take him out for a walk before bed every night.

I had my dog on the Freestyle Libre after his pancreatitis. It was actually kind of fun with the real time updates -- less fun when I got the alerts in the middle of the night and freaked out for no reason.

I never did the home glucose curve or the in-office curve, but his glucose numbers have been good when we go the vet and I just accept that there will be a fairly large variance during the day (the patterns were pretty clear with freestyle libre). I think that once you get the insulin stabilized, it goes back to being pretty standard routine for you unless you see dramatic changes in water drinking or peeing.

 

[aGDevil2k]

One of my two dogs is diabetic (the other has bad allergies). I put down pee pads in the house at night at his favorite pet spots and I try to walk him before bed. But still, he doesn’t always pee in the right spots.

4ml of vetsulin morning and evening, which lasts about 7 weeks at about $70 (it was cheaper when Costco sold it).

He’s had the diagnosis for about three years and is fine. The bigger issue was when he got into the outside trash last year and got necrotizing pancreatitis- and seven days in the dog ICU. He and his brother are on the same Hill Science prescription ID low fat diet. About $120 for the biggest bag.

It is a pain finding boarders. Most won’t do the insulin shots.

The best advice for the peeing is the long walks before bed. That seems to help the most.

That's not bad

My dog has dilated cardiomyopathy...

Meds are $150 every 60 days. For life.
And a yearly heart ultrasound


When we had a dog with cancer (lymphoma) we ended up putting his bed in the bathroom and he started going to pee in the shower.... It was an option to help us sleep and him not feel so bad and not ruin the house. It was a horrible 2 months but I know it was worse on him. Was a great boy too