Diabetes in a dog ?

[Brianshounds]

i have a walker male that is 2 and was just diagnosed with Diabetes. i have read all the literature about it and cant find anything about there hunting health? Will this dog be able to hunt still? the vets tell me that he can still live a resonable life with insulin shots twice a day but i hunt my dogs very hard and dont want to hunt him if it will just make the condition worse. I was also curious if the condition was genetic... i have his mother and a sister to him and was interested in knowing if it would show up in them or if the blood line itsself should be scraped becaure of the problem... and no i wasnt thinking of breeding the dog with diabetes but his mother and sister are very good dogs and i would like to breed his mother again. any info would help thanks

[briarpatch]

Brian, I am nowhere near to being a vet and to my knowledge have never seen a dog with diabetes. I have had close relatives and friends who were/are diabetic. I would suspect and again without any expert knowledge assume that the reaction in a dog is somewhat similiar to that of humans. There seem to be different "degrees" of diabetes and, of course, it advances in different stages.

But, back to the basics. I assume that your dog has type 1, as compared to a human, which begins at an early age and may be much more difficult to control. I would think that the fact your vet is recommending 2 insulins per day is indicative of this type. It is very important to keep glucose (blood sugar) at a fairly constant level within the guidelines. Diet, exercise and medicine are about the only factors that we can control.

To the bottom line. It seems to me that it would likely be very difficult to know, on a big game hound who might not be reachable for several hours, if he was having trouble. You might very well find him in a diabetic coma or dead.

Hopefully there are others on here who can enlighten you more than I.

Good luck.

briarpatch

[Brianshounds]

Thanks for the info. briarpatch i have done a lot of research on this subject and i do have to say that there is more reading material out there on diabetic dogs then what any man should try to read. i have gave it a lot of thought and i think as long as his health is in good quality i will try to hunt him a little. i dont think any hunting dog should be left on a chain and not hunted. the vets seem to think that he will be ok as long as i dont over hunt him. maby one run a week. besides if he dies hunting at least he died doing what he loved to do.

[pegleg]

I don't think it would be a bad idea to hunt him if you make sure to follow your vets guide lines. maybe find a coon hunter willing to take on the added responsibility probably not many out there so just try not to turn out on the little marathon bears. I'd have to guess it is genetic in some way. almost all of those type of illnesses are. I can't say his sister has it but would guess the mother may carry some trait for it. thats my guess if the sister doesn't ever develop it then she at the most probably only inherited part of it. "not a vet either" dogs are also more different then people then we realize sometimes. good luck