Hi folks

I'm looking for a bit of advice.  I have an appointment with my vet this evening for one of my dogs as she has recently been showing signs of hypoglycemia.  It happens in the morning once she's been out in the garden around 7am, and then she comes in and refuses to touch her breakfast and starts to wobble mildly and shiver for around five mins.  As soon as I see it happening she's up with me and is having tiny bits of whatever yummy stuff i can find or honeyed/syrupy bread and she'll take tiny bits slowly, slowly and will be fine after about ten minutes from start to finish.  Its just very distressing for her, and me!

She's not exerting herself as she is carried upstairs (upside down house) as she has alway had bad, bad legs, she's extremely limited vision - glaucoma in one eye and the other one is simply there for show.  She's five years old and has never shown signs of this before, and neither have any of my others, so I've been lucky in a way as I've never come across it and it is a breed prone to this condition.  She has always been a relativeley healthy dog (apart from her bad eyes and legs, both of which she's had since I got her at 12wks old - she's the "perfect" example of what's wrong with closely mated dogs but that's a whole different thread).  She's not had a change to routine or diet but now that this has started, I have noticed that she probably has lost some weight.  She goes to bed at 10pm, having had a biscuit or small treat at around 8pm/9pm and gets up at 7.  I think I might start feeding her a small meal at 10pm before bed to see if this might help tide her through the night to make her mornings easier.

Hopefully the vet will be able to shed some light on this but I just wondered if anybody else has had experience with this and what they do/did to resolve it?  Could it stem from something else i.e. I think it's hypoglycemia from what I know of the condition, but could there be another root cause?  Is there anything that I should ask my vet to investigate?  I knew when I took her on as a pup that there would come a time when the vet bills would start rolling in but I thought we might have had another couple of years before she started to sink me into the red!

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

> As soon as I see it happening she's up with me and is having tiny bits of whatever yummy stuff i can find or honeyed/syrupy bread

Is it at all possible that she has learned where this leads :-)

> Is it at all possible that she has learned where this leads

You'll soon find out...my suggestion is to have an already prepared glucose solution and syringe a small amount into her mouth on onset. Far quicker in action ( glucose digestion starts in the mouth) and less to look orward to.

Does she have a ketone ( pear drops) smell from her breath? What other symptoms does she exibit to make you think that this is a Hypo?

I did think this at first as she's normally a cunning little madam, but it's definitely not a ploy on her part, and its been going on for about 3 weeks now 2 -3 times a week roughly and she does get very distressed and struggles with the tiny tasties i do give her.

I'm always quick to suspect a plot amongst my lot! :)

Does she have a ketone ( pear drops) smell from her breath? What other symptoms does she exibit to make you think that this is a Hypo?

Not that I've been able to smell, would it be really obvious or would I have to get right in there?  Her breath is quite bad at the best of times!

Normally she looses balance first of all and her back end sits down and her front legs are sort of splayed, holding her half way up.  She has stumbled a couple of times.  This is always followed by quite severe quivering.

I think your dog needs some blood tests to find the origin of this problem.
Full Glucose/insulin ratio and Urea and Electrolytes blood panel to eliminate Dabetes and Addison's.

Does your dog have access to xylitol-sweetened products by any chance? This can cause over production of insulin in some subjects giving the low blood sugar effect.
Dividing her meals into 3 or 4 smaller ones -well spaced throughout the day, may help.

I think so too. :(

She doesn't have access to anything containing xylitol, I had thought of that but neither of us are chewing gum people.

Lets see what the vet has to say.  Poor girl.

Fasted sample is being sent off to idexx today so should have results tomorrow afternoon, hopefully.

Possible neurological condition was thrown into the discussion by the vet as it's hard to tell with her as her eyes are so bad.

Thanks

Very best of luck Mini :-)

>She doesn't have access to anything containing xylitol, I had thought of that but neither of us are chewing gum >people.

Just a heads-up ;)  Xylitol can also be found in sugar-free mints and sweets :(   yet another ingredient that's chucked into stuff for the fun of it :(

Hope your little girl is OK

No mints or sweeteys in the house either - boring.  She's not really the type of dog that would eat that stuff either, she's very much a dog that likes dog food. Meat, meat, meat as far as she's concerend.

Should be able to phone for results later this afternoon.

Full blood panel showed nothing apart from some muscle damage with could be attributed to her inexplicable drop in weight or wear from her poor hind legs and slightly abnormal sodium/potassium ratios, but nothing that would cause concern in 2 different vets opinions.  We have to up her food in take and space it more throughout the day to see if this helps.  We were also advised to keep a food diary and note down any more turns that she does take.

I am pleased with the result, I just can't understand what this is.  Always knew she was a special case!!  Onwards and upwards!

Good news Mini, it's lovely to 'rule-out' certain worries.