Aspen the Yorkie

Diabetes is not a medical condition that only affects humans, even dogs, cats and other animals can develop the disease. Just like a person, an animal that has this high blood sugar disease needs to receive the proper treatment for it so the illness can be effectively managed. Unfortunately, the type of insulin (hormone that is vital for metabolizing glucose) medication that people are provided does not always successfully treat animals. That said, various types of veterinary insulins, known as PZI insulin, have been created, which have proven to be effective for animals, particularly felines.

Protamine Zinc Insulin (PZI) helps regulate the natural release of insulin in a cat’s body. It is very similar to the medication that humans use, but PZI insulin tends to either be a combination of pork/beef insulin or a beef-derived insulin and is closer in molecular structure to a cat’s or dog’s own insulin.

This medication is not available at regular human pharmacies, but can be found at a compounding pharmacy. It comes in different dosages and the lower the dosage the less of the hormone ingredient is in the medicine. The type of PZI insulin that should be obtained depends on what type of formula the cat responds to best. Regular veterinarian monitoring and testing will help make this determination.

As a Yorkie, I can tell you having Pancreatitis is not fun…it hurts…and it’s kept me from wanting to blog for a long time, but I’m feeling great now, back to pestering my owner regularly, and now she appreciates it because it means I’m feeling good>:-)<

I am hoping that I went through might help other Yorkie friends out there.

Over the years, I’ve been getting (sorry, this is yucky) diarrhea a lot easier than I used to depending upon what I eat.  So my owner has been doing all kinds of things to take things out of my diet, and carefully add new things, very gradually, that’s what you have to do when you’re changing foods with a Yorkie.

One day a month or so ago, I got really bad, and we went to the Vet.  We’ve done that before, but this time, the did a blood test for Pancreatitis, and I came up as having it.  There are really no medications for this, but they did treat it in almost the same way as they did a year ago in January, 2009, and then we just had to watch and see.

Here’s some things my owner did wrong (I forgive her) and what the doctor had us do:

• My owner gave me Chicken Livers the night before, you would think that wouldn’t bother me, but it’s very rich and high in cholesterol.  When I was younger, I could handle more foods than I can now.
• The next day I had VERY yellow diarrhea, and was throwing up, also yellow, and walked around with my back kind of hunched and head down because it hurt inside. So we made an appointment with the Veterinarian.  So important if you think something serious is wrong.
• The vet gave me subcutaneous (I think that’s the word) fluids, they put a lot of water just under my skin with a needle to help with dehydration since….
• I wasn’t allowed to drink or eat anything for 24 hours!!!  But it wasn’t that bad, I wasn’t feeling well at all so not very hungry, and if I did eat was in pain.
• I was given 1/4 of a 10mg Pepcid A/C tablet on an empty stomach in the afternoon a 1/2-1 hours before when I would have had my dinner, then every 24 hours for a week before my evening meal. The veterinarian had us add another week on because I still wasn’t quite right after a week. After finding that to be a battle (I hate taking pills), and after I had started eating again, my owner added it to just a tiny bit of chicken breast so I wouldn’t notice it, then gave me the rest of my meal later.
• I had to eat several small meals a day of white rice (or I like Gerber’s baby flaked rice…just about a tablespoon mixed in with the cut up chicken with a little water added) and chicken breast, morning, mid morning, noon, mid afternoon, and dinner time, about 2 tablespoons of food each time until I got better.

I finally did get better, then there was the quest to find the right food for me, that’s another story that we’ll share with you in our next post.

It’s good to feel good again!

Once again last week I had trouble with my tummy. My owners had to decide whether or not to take me to the local animal hospital to take care of me. Since I’ve had this problem before, they knew what to do, so this time they decided that it would be best to just save the money and try the things they learned, and it worked!

But if I had not improved, they would have taken me to a place like the American Animal Care Center. When we saw this center, and all that it offered, we felt like it was a perfect thing to share with you here, so that you could visit yourself. It looks like a great place with lots of help for all kinds of animals, not just dogs like me.

The links in this post happen to be for an American Animal Care Center located out in Fremont, California, but even if you’re all the way across the United States like we are, you may want to visit the site, and tell your friends out that way about it.

One of the things that we thought was nice was that you can read the American Animal Care Center profile, but then go and visit the links across the top, we liked the one that said “pet portal”. From that one you are able to register so that you can keep track of all of your pet’s information right online, any time of the day or night. There was another link to articles, too, that are helpful for all of us no matter where we live.

So make sure your owners take good care of you, make sure they know when you aren’t feeling well so they can take you to a animal care center if you need it.

I haven’t talked about any dog ailments in a while, so thought we’d take a look at what some people call “bloat” or your veterinarian might call it “Gastric Torsion”. It is a scary condition if it isn’t treated early, as it can be life-threatening.

What happens is that the stomach in the dogs digestive system turns in a way that makes it hard for food to to move on through, so it becomes full of food, bloated because of the food decay, and ultimately, unfortunately, can lead to death (what an important but depressing post to have to write).

This is a condition that bigger dogs are inclined to get, if you are one of the following, you may want to get your owner, well, your owner is probably reading this to you, anyway, you may want to get your owners to learn more about this so you can prevent it:

1. Big sized Poodle
2. Labrador Retriever
3. Saint Bernard
4. Gordon Setter
5. Great Dane
6. Doberman Pinscher
7. English Sheepdog
8. Irish Setter

I think you get the idea, it’s large dogs with large chest cavaties that are more inclined to suffer from this condition.

What are some of the symptoms?

1. Drooling more than usual
2. Signs of pain in the abdomen
3. Trying to vomit, but not producing anything or producing foamy mucous material
4. Not wanting to play like usual, lying around curled up instead.
5. Later when the stomach becomes more bloated, more discomfort and more danger
6. Hard abdomen to the touch where it is usually soft to the touch

Dogs vomit for many reasons, yorkies can spit up foamy yellow “stuff” which isn’t uncommon, especially in the morning before eating because their stomachs are empty, and bigger dogs who play outside and aren’t watched are good at finding things to eat that make them sick, but if you suspect something more, it is ALWAYS best to have your pet checked by your veterinarian.  It may not be as serious as you think, but if it is, at least you will have support and guidance from your Vet.

Treatment:  Very basically, releasing the dangerous pressure and surgery are usually the treatment for this.  Do a search on this condition, you can use the search feature on this site, to find more information about this condition on the web.

Prevention:  Sometimes you can prevent this by not feeding one large meal a day, but feeding a few smaller meals…when you eat your three meals, give your dog a 3rd of what he/she should eat in a day, too.

When you change to a new food, it is ALWAYS a good idea to do it gradually for many reasons, mixing new food with old and gradually changing over.  Are you buying a dog?  See if any of it’s “ancestors” have had the condition.

Take good care of your pets, as animals who are taken care of by you, we depend on you for that.