Diabetic dog care & warning signs

Posted by Spoon Pop on March 13, 2019 |

Diabetic dog care & warning signs

My sweet little pug, Perogi: Queen of Pugs, has developed Diabetes! She is 13 years old, so it's not un-common in pugs.

Her backstory: We received Perogi into our lives 10 years ago when she was 3. She was over 30 pounds! Seriously, she looked like potato with toothpicks in it. Her previous family did not take her for walks & left puppy chow out for her to eat all day long. A pug. With food. Waiting. All. Day. Long.

It didn't take her long to lose the weight & get down to a svelte 19-21 lbs where she's been ever since. She eats, poops, sleeps like a freaking clockwork machine. Untill about a month ago when she started drinking gallons of water & peeing buckets in the house continuously. Really weird! And really sticky.... Then he refused to eat! Now that's unheard of. Pugs are notoriously starving at all times. We sometimes wonder what she'd do if we dropped a whole chicken on the floor.

She went to her vet for some bloodwork and... diabetes AND pancreatitis- probably from the diabetes. Poor little thing! She started insulin injections right away & went on a bland diet of rice & skinless chicken. Blech- she refused it. A girls gotta have some pizzaz in her diet! So I reasearched what a diabetic doggy with pancreatitis should eat. She had been on prescription C/D food for crystals in her urine (another fun pug trait) and prepared foods are notoriously high in fat, which causes pancreatitis.

There is so much information on homemade dog foods now, it's hard to distill.

Here's what she's eating, 1/2 cup twice a day:

DIABETIC DOG DIET

She loves it! I know there are some weird things in there.

Eggshell? It's important for dogs on raw diets to get calcium, but not too much. It's easy to prepare.

EGGSHELLS FOR DOGS

  • using only fresh eggs from the Farmer's Market or a friend with chicken
  • rinse the shells and set them out to dry
  • Bake them on a sheet at 300degrees for 5-7 min and let them cool
  • Grind them to a fine powder in a coffee grinder
  • sprinkle 1/2 tsp per 1 lb of food

Pancreas Pill????

Ok, I'm going overboard here, but this little gal has been at my side for 10 years- Pugs can live to be 17+ so I'm going for it!

There are theories that dogs metabolize what they need from their food according to what's ailing them. Bad liver? Eat liver. Bad pancreas, eat pancreas! These guys have rave reviews from their customers, so why not?

2 weeks until she gets her sugars checked agin- fingers crossed!