Canine Diabetes is a Drag

Why is it that my poor pug Winston has to be like me in so many ways?  He could never see well, his ankles give out on him at random times, he was overweight, he snores, and now… he has canine diabetes.  Granted, he’s worse off than I am in the eyesight and diabetes departments – at least I can see with glasses and don’t have to take insulin… he’s pretty much totally blind now with his detached retinas and I have to give him an insulin shot once a day.  Le sigh…

Since May, Winston hasn’t really been himself.  He started panting all the time.  Dr. Schuchman at Boulevard Pet Hospital first suggested that it was due to being overweight and the weather getting warmer.  So we started letting him sleep at the foot of our bed so he could be in the direct path of the circulating fan we keep on him.  It didn’t seem to get any better.  The vet suggested that we cut back on the food we were feeding him so he could lose some of his 27 lbs with an aim closer to 20.  This went on all summer, basically, until early August.  My brother Damian, who lives with us, was complaining about having to keep an eye on Winston while I went to Affiliate Summit East, so I made arrangements to have him boarded at the vet instead of hoping that Dominic and Damian would remember to feed him and give him his eye ointment he’d recently been prescribed for some irritation.

Diagnosis

Winston Borded at Boulevard Pet Hospital

I’m glad I did, because while I was gone and they could observe Winston’s daily mopey, panting behavior, they saw what I’d been trying to tell them for months – he just wasn’t himself, and it wasn’t just his eyesight or being overweight.  They did a glucose reading and found that his blood sugar was somewhere north of 430 – a dog should be in the 150 range, a bit higher than a human.  I got the call from my friend Lorenza, who is a receptionist at my vet office, letting me know and I was super bummed.  Beside the costs of having it treated, I’ve been concerned that he was getting to the point where we might have to have that awful “quality of life” discussion about my beloved Winston the Wonder Pug.  So this was quite a blow while I was off in New York trying to do business and enjoy myself.

Now What?

When I returned, they told me that they started feeding him a special prescription food (Science Diet w/d)  and giving him insulin injections and he was perking up, which was a relief that it was working to lower his blood sugar.  The food wasn’t cheap, especially considering I’m supposed to give him 2 cans per day, but if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.  I’ve been feeding it to him for about a month now and giving him the dosages of insulin that the vet has told me to (it was adjusted once after a half day of glucose monitoring they did) and he seemed to be perking up and we were getting our old Winston back.

The Drag Part

He’s rapidly lost weight, which the vet said was normal when a dog is first treated for canine diabetes.  He went from 27 lbs to 21 lbs in a month.  He has really poor bowel control; it seems this wet food goes right through him.  They said it was normal because any diet change will result in some weird poo at first and I’ve been feeding him dry food for nearly 4 years.  But it hasn’t let up, so they gave me the okay last week to try the prescription dry food instead to see if that makes any difference.  He seems to be weaker lately, but I think it’s because he’s lost too much weight.  Since he can’t really see, either, he tends to stay really close to me.  He spends most his days like this, sitting as close to my feet as possible, even though he’s got a soft bed a few feet away to lay on, he’d rather sit by me.

The Bright Side

I love my dog, despite the super annoyance of having to clean up squishy smelly poop in his dog bed at 7 am.  I’m glad that the tail-wagging Winston is slowly coming back.  While he can’t see more than shadows due to his detached retinas, it doesn’t seem to bug him much – he just bumps around like a pin-ball game a bit.  On Mother’s Day this year, my friend Jennie had given me a shout-out on Facebook for Mother’s Day and being a dog mom, to which I had told her thanks, but it’s nowhere near as hard as being a human mom.  Just last week, I was telling her about waking up at 7:00 am to make sure Winston goes outside to poop and doesn’t poop in his dog bed 3 feet from my head.  She pointed out that this behavior was totally a mom activity, so I should shut it 🙂

Ghostbuster & Stay-Puft Marshmallow (wo)Man

After a few vet appointments, the awesome folks at Boulevard Pet Hospital have helped me to start getting Winston’s canine diabetes under control.  I wish it were as easy for me to get mine under better control!  I have hopes that the dry glucose/low fat food will help with the poop-a-palooza we  have around here and that he’ll be back to his awesome Winston the Wonder Pug alter ego.  After all, I need my Winston Zeddemore to set off my Stay-Puft Marshmallow (wo)Man!