Lola's Diabetes Diet
 

I've recently become mommy to a 6 month old Yorkie who we've named Lola, shes a lovely little girl with suspected diabetes, does anyone have any home recipes for her dietary needs as I basically give her chicken and rice at the moment and once a day I give her warmed up canned food (which she seems to enjoy most). Also if you can give me advice on how much food I should give her at any one sitting as I don't want to underfeed or over feed her. We also have a Border Collie who eats everything including fruit and dairy and wondered if it would be ok to give Lola some fruit and dairy. Thankyou

I don't have any experience with this, but a consult with a vet nutritionist would help. I home cook for my little girl, and I supplement it with BalanceIt.com. I wish you the best of love and health with your little ones. Welcome to YorkieTalk.

http://www.petdiets.com

Welcome to Yorkie Talk and congratulations on the new addition to your life, Lola. I agree with Lisa's advice to consult the link she posted.

My brother's family dog was recently diagnosed with diabetes and is eating a prescription dog food that they buy at the vet's office. She also has daily insulin shots.

Welcome to Yorkie Talk.

I am sorry your Lola is facing this health challenge. What do you mean "suspected" diabetes? Has she had blood work to confirm? Diabetes is not very common in Yorkies, and especially not in very young dogs. Please get a definitive diagnosis first. There is no such thing as borderline or pre-diabetes in dogs.... either she has diabetes, or she does not. Make sure it is diabetes and not a liver issue that is affecting her glucose levels. If she truly has diabetes, she needs strict management of insulin under vet's guidance to regulate her blood sugar, for life.

Diet is secondary, and with vet & nutritionist supervision, you would choose a higher protein low carb diet (think like Atkin's diet but for dogs). Because she is so young and has other nutritional needs you need the professionals to advise you on diet.

My Meika was diagnosed with diabetes in January at age 5, and her glucose was around 550. We immediately started insulin shots twice a day, and glucose testing every week to 10 days to check progress in determining the right dose.

Diabetes can be controlled and must be treated or can result in cataracts and blindness.

Good luck, and please update whenever you can. I'm keeping Lola in my thoughts and prayers.

Took Lola to the vets yesterday, they said from what I described it could be diabetes,they've kept her to do bloods. We've only ever owned two dogs and Lola is our 3rd, she's a kind of rescue dog, we had our cat at the vets and a young couple came in saying they wanted her put down as she kept being sick. The vet said no they don't put healthy dogs down, but they were insisting she be put down, so I just told them we would take her and the couple just gave her to us. She is occasionally sick but mostly it's when she eats something she shouldn't . She's had two episodes where she went completely off her back legs and was a bit disorientated and confused she was also shaking, I gave her about a quarter of a teaspoon of honey and within a few minutes she was back to her bouncy self. My hubby thinks it's because she got over excited as sometimes she is quite exciteable. So while she's been with the vet I've been reading about diets and trying to find out what's best for her.

Are you looking to do a home cooked diet? If so, you can request a consult at petdiets for $250 which will include a home made recipe for this medical problem and also commercial food recommendations. There is a process, you can read about it on the site. You could also go to BalanceIt and request a customization for this problem, but they too will need your vet input.

Please be careful with making diets found on the internet. They are usually not balanced and are not made by veterinary nutritionists. There are also commercial dog foods made for diabetes that your vet can recommend.

The symptoms you describe sound more like hypoglycemia than diabetes to me, if she had problems and then got better when given honey. The blood test will quickly tell her glucose levels and if she is diabetic. The vet may also look at the possibility of a liver disorder.

Whatever it is, you can't treat it without getting a diagnosis, so good that she is getting checked out by the vet. Keep us posted.