Hi everyone!  I am a new member and found this forum whilst trying to find out all the information I could about diabetes in dogs and resultant cataracts.

I have two Jack Russells - 9 year old brothers who look quite unrelated as one (Cornelius - or Corny for short) has smooth hair and the other (Barnaby) has a very wayward rough coat.  We have had quite a relatively uneventful 9 years with only the usual annual booster visit to the vets.  However this all changed in July when we brought forward the annual visit because Barnaby had started having "accidents" and was also drinking a lot.

We were devastated to learn that his urine glucose was through the roof and that it was almost certain that he had developed diabetes.  After some more tests the vet started him on once daily insulin which was gradually increased and the levels were showing some sort of improvement (but still not regulated entirely) when the time came in early September for us to go on a special two-week holiday to Denmark which had been arranged months before (it is our Ruby Anniversary year).  We had thought of cancelling the trip but, after having a long chat with the kennels that we had regularly used over the years, were reassured that insulin injections could be handled quite easily as they had several diabetic dogs who were regular visitors. 

So, after much soul searching we decided to go ahead with the holiday, giving the kennels exhaustive written instructions about the insulin regime, emergency phone numbers of the vets and family, tins of Hills w/d (plus individual bags of chopped chicken to be mixed in as Barnaby wouldn't eat it without!), insulin, syringes, ketodiastix, etc. etc.  We also asked them to contact the vet should they be at all worried about him.  At least he had his brother for company....

We were shocked to get a text from our daughter on the Wednesday evening of our second week to say that the kennels had spoken to the vets and asked if she could collect Barnaby and take him there as apparently he hadn't eaten for three or four days (despite being cajoled with all sorts of food) and had been sick.  The girl at the kennels had not wanted to give him the insulin because of this and was obviously worried.

We spoke later to the vet and were reassured that he was OK but needed to go on a drip while they tried to get him more stable.  He was going onto a twice a day insulin regime.

Naturally we were horrified but we were due to be home on Saturday anyway so kept in close contact with the surgery who gave us encouraging reports.  Picking him up on the Sunday we were shocked to see his appearance - he looked frail, had lost his handsome whiskers, lost more weight and generally appeared very sad.  Some TLC and lots of cuddles over the next few days improved him somewhat but we started to notice that he was bumping into things sometimes and looked a little disorientated at times.  This became more noticeable and I made an appointment at the vets who confirmed that he now had cataracts in both eyes.

Up until this point we had been diligently doing urine tests several times a day with the ketodiastix but now he wanted Barnaby to come in for a blood curve - testing his blood every few hours over a day - as he told us that this would be more reliable than the urine tests.  I didn't want to put him through any more stress so he suggested that we try to do the blood tests at home, using a glucometer.

Today was the day and thank goodness it's over!  We had to prick his ear every two hours and test the blood in the meter.  This sounds relatively simple (and amazingly he didn't seem to feel any discomfort) but it was a bit haphazard and sometimes we had to have several goes to get enough blood.  At other times it was like a blood bath!  Warming his ear with a heated flannel seemed to help however.

His blood sugar is still well up (at one time exceeding the 33.3 m/mol limit on the meter) but had a low point of 9.7 m/mol six hours after the morning injection.  He is on 6 iu twice a day but I am hoping that the vet will put the dose up when I speak to him tomorrow.  We keep a daily diary of his water consumption (quite difficult when you have two dogs!) and a daily Excel spreadsheet of his treatment, food, water consumption, urine glucose and excercise.

Up until today he seemed to cope with his usual round of the local park but now he is starting to get more disorientated and we may have to put him on his lead from now on.

I hadn't meant to write quite so much and my apologies if I have overdone my first post but I feel so guilty about going on holiday now as perhaps he might not have developed the cataracts if he had been in his stressfree home instead of the kennels - good though we believe they are.  I had thought of trying to get someone to dog and house-sit but the thought of finding someone at relatively short notice who could also manage the injections made us revert to the "easier" option of the kennels.  I wonder, has anyone had good experiences of dog sitters?  References are obviously very important but it must still feel a bit dodgy, leaving someone you don't know very well in charge of your beloved pets.

The other thing I would like to get your opinions on are treatments for the cataracts.  I have checked past messages and have read everything that has already been written but I notice that one person was trying out the "Bright Eyes" drops which appeared to be helping.  This was back in April and I wondered how the treatment had gone and if anyone else had given them a go?  We have no pet insurance but would try to scrape the money together for an operation if we felt it would be OK for Barnaby - it's such a difficult decision to make, isn't it?  We don't want to make his life any worse than it is and I know that a lot of people believe that dogs get used to such visual impairment.  This all seems to have happened so suddenly though and I can't help thinking that he must be feeling pretty devastated at losing so much of his sight so quickly.

Any imput would be very gratefully received - it's a great comfort to share these things...

Many thanks
Valerie

I can't offer any constructive help, Valgal but just wanted to welcome you to Champdogs, and reassure you - please don't feel guilty - this crisis could have occured even had you been at home.   Barney is very lucky, having you as owners and hopefully, you will be able to stabilise him soon.

Dogs do cope with cataracts - their world may shrink somewhat, but they learn how to manage, and having Corney as well, I'm sure he will.

{{{hugs}}} - sounds as if you need some :)

Margot

Hi ValGal
Don't feel guilty, I don't have any experience of diabetes, but plenty with cataracts. It's true that dogs adapt far better to a gradual sight loss, but your dog's disorientation may well also have as much to do with his condition as his loss of sight, once he is stabilised, you will probably find he improves. My breed is longlived and most of them develop old age cataracts, but I have owned others with hereditary cataract and they have all coped very well. We find it difficult to realise how much less than humans dogs rely on sight and how much more they depend on their ears & nose. I would never dream of putting them through an operation (That's just my personal opinion and with experience of my own breed.) Removing cataracts does not restore the sight to how it was and some dogs find it difficult to cope with the result of sight returning.
Concentrate on getting him stabilised nad then wait awhile to see how he copes with his reduced sight. I'm sure he'll be fine with such a caring owner!

Hi Anwen

Many thanks for your words of wisdom and comfort.  I am just having to write my reply all over again as I got side-tracked into looking at your wonderfully informative site on your breed - the Norwegian Buhund -and then found I had lost my message in the process!  Your dogs look great and I was particularly interested as, while we were in Denmark, there was a special "Day of the Dogs" in Copenhagen and it was wonderful to see all the breeds parading around, quite informally, in Tivoli.  I think there may well have been some of your breed there as they look quite familiar - although I wouldn't have known their name at the time.

Anyway, you obviously have had a lot of experience with cataract problems and I appreciate your advice.  I, too, wouldn't want to put Barnaby through an operation but wanted to consider all the options.  This is why I was interested in the idea of these Bright Eyes eye drops.  I will ask my vet to take a look at the site and if he were happy that they wouldn't do Barnaby any harm, I might give them a try.

Until then, we will just have to keep an eye on him - quite exhausting at the moment as I am watching him like a hawk - and I expect and hope that we will all get used to the situation in time.

I will keep the forum informed if I have any luck with the drops and I look forward to reading more of the interesting posts.

Cheers
Valerie

Hi Margot

Thanks so much for your kind words and welcome.  As I am sure you have guessed, I am sorely in need of them at the moment.  As it is, I am on tenterhooks all day as our house is not exactly "cataract friendly" - it was built on a hill and has steps everywhere.  However, looking at him now, lying next to his brother on the floor near my desk (looking just like two sausages in a frying pan!) he looks quite content.

Hopefully this week will bring some improvement in his stabilisation and he can start to get a better quality of life.

Thanks again
Valerie

Thanks for your kind words :o
I (jokingly!) call myself an "international" handler as I did (once) show a dog for someone in Denmark :D  Buhund breeders over there are very helpful, friendly & enthusiastic about the breed so you probably did see them in Copenhagen.
I don't have any experience with those drops & so would be very interested to know how you (or anyone else) gets on with them.
Anwen

Hi Valgal

I would check with your vet first before you use Bright Eyes as it may upset how the insulin works, I was told off by my vet for using toothpaste, as it could upset my dogs balance.  Our dog was diabetic for 3 years, she was nearly 14 when we lost her (about 4 weeks ago, similar experience to yourself.  We had left her in the kennels when we went on holiday, but when we had returned within an hour we knew she wasn't right, she was drinking gallons.  Anyway the vets checked her and did a test and they felt she had not had any insulin for at least 4 days, unfortunately it was too late for our girl) but I would say that it was only the last 6 months when her cataracts went really bad.  She too was on 2 insulin jabs of 8 units twice a day. She seemed to manage very well around the house, but really hated going for walks.  I would agree with all the other posts, get him balanced first, as this can take some time, and then access how you feel then.  You have to bear in mind that a diabetic dog costs an absolute fortune,( I have to sympathise, our dog was not insured too, but we were convinced after the first year, the premiums would have been too expensive anyway) and even if you did decide the operation would be more expensive because of the additional monitoring

Hi Cairo

That must have been devastating for you on your return from holiday and I can only imagine how you must have felt.  Did you find out from the kennels why they hadn't given the injections?  Barnaby was lucky, I suppose, in that the vets took over and got him back to eating again before more permanent damage was done - apart from the cataracts of course - but your post makes me realise how lucky we were. 

We are having a huge job to stabilise him still and the vet is considering putting him on PZI rather than the Caninsulin.  It's a great strain isn't it - trying to keep the routine similar every day and avoiding stress.  We have seven grandchildren and a rather small house so it gets difficult to avoid the latter at times.

He is coping with the blindness quite well really and luckily still seems to enjoy his walk in the park - although we are careful to keep to the same trail every time, avoiding any obstacles or dangers.  I don't think I would be as brave as him - just venturing out like that.  Everyone says that dogs handle blindness so much better than humans because of their acute sense of smell and I know that we are in danger of transferring human emotions to animals but even so....

We will definitely check about the Bright Eyes with the vet, but in a way this seems low priority at the moment - just to get the glucose reined in at an even level is our objective at present.  I had no idea it would be as difficult - every time we think we're getting somewhere it's all-change and back to the drawing board again.

Please accept my sincere sympathy at the loss of your beloved pet.  We know we will have to face that day every time we get another dog but the pleasure they give us over the years means that we will always voluntarily put ourselves in that position - life wouldn't be the same without them somehow.

Hugs
Valerie

Hi Valerie

Thanks for your comments, its really nice to talk to someone else who has a diabetic dog.  The answer to your question was that the kennels said they did give the injections, and who could prove it!?  It wouldn't have surprised me if the insulin may have been left out the fridge or something like that.  I know I once forgot to put it in the fridge after collecting it from the vets and only realized 8 hours later when I came to give it to her.  It is so hard to keep them balanced especially when you have kids around, although our children were very good and never gave her any tit bits.

Its interesting to see what food your vet stabalized him on.  Ours was on Chappie.  When she was diagnozed as being diabetic, she was 13kilos.  It took 5 months to stabalize her, and during that period her weight went down to 9 kilos. She flucturated between 9 and 10 kilos for the next 3 years, but she only had to put the slightest amount of weight on and it unbalanced her again.  The last year she was very rarely in the vets, it was the vets refusing to give me insulin, until she had a blood check, which was always ok. I just want to give you hope that eventually once he his stable he can live quite along time.  I look at it now with our cavalier we had an extra 3 years with her, and at nearly 14 she was a good age.  I read on a website in America, some dog was diabetic for 7 years, so stick with it, my vets knew me by my christian name because it was my second home in the beginning, but I sure it will be worth it in the end

Cairo

Hi Cairo

Sorry it has taken a while to reply.  It's so difficult when you leave your pet in the charge of someone else isn't it?  You just have to trust that they will be given the correct treatment but can never prove it if you think that mistakes have been made.  We were so worried about going away but Barnaby and his brother had been going to the same kennels for years and the woman who runs it seemed perfectly happy with giving the injections and keeping an eye on things - she has several other diabetic "guests" so we were as content as we could ever be that she knew what she was doing and Barnaby was in safe hands.

I think, on reflection, that she had done her best but perhaps could have alerted the vet sooner when he just stopped eating.  It went on for four days I believe - much too long for a little dog who was not yet properly stablised.  I've no doubt that you felt as guilty as we did but you can only do your best especially when you have the rest of your family to consider as well.  At least, that's what I keep telling myself.  A lot of owners would balk at looking after a diabetic dog - you gave your girl three bonus years of life and that's something you can feel justifiably proud of.

Barnaby was put on Hills W/D at first but because he has lost so much weight I asked the vet if he could eat something a little more meaty.  He is now on I/D which Hills have agreed is OK for him - he certainly enjoys it and we don't have to add bits of chicken to tempt him!

He has had a good few days this week - urine tests down to 0 more times than not and he is hardly drinking any water thank goodness.  This Sunday we are doing a 2 hourly blood glucose curve - I hate doing it to him but he doesn't seem to mind.  He is on 7 iu twice a day now and I think this seems to be the right dose - for now anyway.

Thanks for your encouragement - I too have read of dogs in America living a long time with diabetes so I am hopeful that he will keep his brother company for a long while yet.  He certainly seems to be enjoying life despite his disability and is coping well with his lack of sight.

We have been invited to join my sister-in-law for a trip of a lifetime to Australia in eighteen months' time and I'm already worrying about who we can get to look after the boys.  I think I will post a query about it on this site and hope that someone can give me some advice about it.  I want to get someone to live in and look after them but unfortunately don't know anyone suitable I can ask.  Having to give injections will make it more difficult but I have quite a while to find the right person.

Do you have another dog?

Cheers
Valerie