Posts tagged "diabetes"

Bow Wow Boots; Camel vs. Croc

by Evan Jacobs (Subscribe to Evan Jacobs's posts): Feb 12th 2010 6:00PM Filed Under: Chew on This

Rounding up our favorite animal stories, photos, and videos on the Web each week!

Camel vs. Crocodile

The battle for ultimate domination of the animal kingdom has begun in Australia. Who will win? Crocodiles or feral camels? [via Timesonline.co.uk]
Do I Have To Wear Them?

The New York Times tests and rates boots for dogs to help you better humiliate them. [via New York Times]
We Wuv Our Cwitters

Who took a Reuter's poll determining pet owners prefer V-day with their pets? You did! [via New York Post]
Diabetes Defying Doggy

When an elderly man went into hypoglycemic shock, his dog saved his life. His cat watched, yawned, then fell asleep. [via People Pets]
Cheetah Prison Break

Three cheetahs briefly escaped their enclosures when they swam across the barrier moat. Strangely enough, they doggy-paddled. [via Chron.com]

Playing Baby Otters; Baby-Making Manatees

by Evan Jacobs (Subscribe to Evan Jacobs's posts): Nov 20th 2009 6:00PM Filed Under: Chew on This

Rounding up our favorite animal stories, photos, and videos on the Web each week!

Howling Improves Stefani

When Gwen Stefani's music comes on, many of us would prefer listening to a howling dog. Now we can have both! [via Urlesque]
Seal Mothers Photographer

Hey, honey. You look sad. Eat this penguin. No? How about this one? Okay, what about this one? What? Really? Who doesn't eat penguins? [via BuzzFeed]
Saucy Sea Cow

Recently on the brink of death, this brave manatee is now on the brink of gettin' it on. [via New York Magazine]
America Needs This

A British man is banned from keeping pets for ten years after he feeds his dog eleven stones. Or something like that. It's British. [via Mail Online]
Baby Otter!

A video of a baby otter playing with toys. Warning: Hazardous levels of cuteness. Equip protective gear. [via BuzzFeed]

Dogs4Diabetes Help Manage Human Blood Sugar Levels

by Kim Jack-Riley (Subscribe to Kim Jack-Riley's posts): Oct 26th 2009 5:00PM Filed Under: Dogs

Flickr/Mrs. Logic

When Seattle-area resident Kim Pouncy's dog, Mack, kept waking her up in the middle of the night, she thought the 3-year-old Labrador was having behavioral problems. But when the midnight nudges became simultaneous with Pouncy herself feeling dizzy and weak, she realized there was more to it. Mack was alerting her owner to a drop in blood sugar.

"I'm a Type II Diabetic," Pouncy told Paw Nation, "and I'm dependent on insulin. It's hard to say how long it took for me to catch on that Mack was alerting me. I didn't realize when she was doing it during the day, but when she did it at night three or four times, I finally got it because she would wake me out of a sound sleep."

Diabetes alert dogs are appearing more and more all over the country. Dogs4Diabetics, Inc. (D4D) began almost seven years ago, when its founder began researching the possibility of training dogs to detect type-1-diabetes-related hypoglycemia, and to physically alert diabetics to a hypoglycemic situation.

According to former D4D board member Martha Hoffman, the organization has seen great success in matching people with their talented and trained alert dogs. "The program is effective and genuine," Hoffman tells Paw Nation, "and all the dogs are tracked by their accuracy as measured by their partner's blood-sugar readings."

Hoffman confirmed that along with D4D's training to alert to lows, the dogs began independently alerting to lows before they happen. The dogs seem to recognize when blood sugar is starting to drop, way before a meter reading shows a low. This helps people avoid the low, and better prepare before onset.

While scientists have not yet defined all of the elements that compose the warning process, diabetics agree that alert dogs are in tune to the physical, emotional and physiological changes that occur during the complex prelude to diabetic symptoms.

DeeDee and Tino's Weight Loss Blog -- Doctor Shocker

by Laura Gilbert (Subscribe to Laura Gilbert's posts): Oct 13th 2009 1:00PM Filed Under: Cats, Pet Health, Animal Nutrition

DeeDee and Tino sleep off their workout Photo: Laura Gilbert

Wherein I try to get my pets to a healthy cat weight.

After finally accepting the fact that Tino and DeeDee must lose weight, I made an appointment with the obeasts' vet for advice on a game plan.

It had been a little over a year since the two had officially been weighed and I knew both had added on some chub. It wasn't until they got on the scale that it became obvious just how much had been added to their heft. DeeDee weighed in at over 19 pounds -- a pound or two up from last year. Tino, meanwhile, was over 18 pounds -- less than DeeDee, but considering he was 14 pounds just last year, that meant he'd put on about 30% of his body weight. Ruh-roh!

In medical terms: "That's insane," according to my vet.

Game Plan
I was asked, how much was I feeding them? Brace yourself. They split a can of wet food at night, and then have a "couple of scoops" of dry stuff throughout the day. My vet asked me how big a scoop was, then winced when I held up a one-cup measure. I was then informed that DeeDee and Tino should only be getting the canned food plus a 1/4 cup of dry food each. Oops!

I mentioned that Tino had been drinking more water than usual, so the vet tested his blood sugar, as weight gain and water drinking can be a sign of diabetes. Sure enough, his sugar was off the charts, meaning not only does Tino need to be on a diet, but he needs insulin injections and urine monitoring. Fun.

With this diagnosis, she recommended that the cats be switched to only wet food (a suggestion many of you made in the comments last week).

Health Stats
Diabetes is far from the only risk for fat cats. Veterinary researchers at Cornell University found that obese cats are also more likely to suffer from lameness due to arthritis or muscle injuries and non-allergic skin conditions. Read: Two things I'll have to be on the lookout for.

Even scarier? The report also found that fat cats are "twice as likely to die in middle age, which for cats is 6 to 12 years." Tino and DeeDee just turned 10, so they really have to pull it together! Diet starts today.

Week 2
DeeDee: 19.2 pounds
Tino: 18.4 pounds

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Madagascar Day Gecko
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Getty Images

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