Sunday, November 10, 2013

Living with a diabetic dog: Meet KC the cairn terrier

Pet Diabetes Awareness Month is in November, and all this month we are taking a closer look at diabetes in dogs and cats, how to prevent, how to diagnose it and how to live with it.

One of the best ways is to talk to people with diabetic pets to get a sense of their life and their dog's life.

So here is Christy Kobielsky and her dog KC.


1) What kind of pet do you have? Cairn Terrier

2) Name, age, sex... KC she is 11 yrs old

3) How old were they when they got diabetes? KC was diagnosed at 10 yrs old (6-30-12)

4) How early were they diagnosed? She had not had it for very long before we found out 1 week maybe.

5) Are they insulin dependent? Yes all dogs are type 1 and have to have insulin.



6) What do you feed your pet? She has been on W/D since the day she was diagnosed. She does very well on it.

7) Walk me through a typical day with your pet. I test KC around 6:15 a.m. and she eats at 6:30 a.m. I give her the insulin injection injection about 10 min later depending on her Blood Glucose reading. If it is lower than 100 I will wait about 30 minutes to let the food get ahead of the insulin, if it higher than 200 I will give the shot right away and not wait at all. She is on a strict schedule of 12 hours apart for her meals. We go through the same routine at 6:15 test then dinner at 6:30.

8) Are there any special things you've bought your pet (besides insulin) to help them live with diabetes? I give KC 1 tsp of Coconut oil with her AM feeding, I had to buy a special dish in the beginning to slow up her eating because when they are not regulated they have a ravenous appetite. I had to buy a meter to test her with.

 9) Do you have anything in particular you have to be mindful of? Yes there is a lot of things, everything KC eats can affect her BG numbers, exercise can lower or raise BG's. Most go lower. KC is one that goes higher. KC went through a stage where she wouldn't eat so I had to find toppers to entice her but wouldn't mess with her BG's very much. Medications have effects on BG as well. Pretty much everything that goes in KC's mouth can effect her.

10) Anything else you'd like to add? While Canine Diabetes can be overwhelming in the beginning it is a very manageable disease as long as you follow a strict schedule of 12 hr feeding. Home blood testing is our best weapon against diabetes and it isn't as hard as you think.

I started my own Canine Diabetes group with another women who has been around K9 diabetes for many years.  And you can add your website or FB account if you have one. My site is on Facebook called: Canine Diabetes Support and Information. I have put together an extensive file system with links to help people with understanding Canine Diabetes and everything that goes along with this roller coaster disease.

We'll be talking to more people about their pet's diabetes, so please stay tuned. 

If you are interested in sharing your pet's diabetes story, please email me at czizo@cfl.rr.com. I am especially interested in talking to anyone who has a beagle with diabetes.

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