Should I be concerned??
 

A few weeks ago, I took my 10 year old, Prince, into the vets to get blood work done as I feared he was diabetic. He appeared to be loosing weight.

His bloodwork came out fine...with the exception that his blood sugar was low, which was odd...so I took Prince back in and they did the finger poke blood sugar and it was normal....SO, the vet concluded that it was an error on the test from the blood sitting too long.


Yesterday, I took Prince in to get his teeth cleaned. On the way out, the vet said to watch him because his blood sugar was high. I cant remember which it was...but it was either 179 or 197. When I reminded him that Prince had just been tested for diabetes said that it could be high due to the stress of being in the vets office.


I was talking to a GF of mine this weekend and she said her yellow lab was healthy until she got into a car accident and her dog immediately had diabetes right after that:(



So...my question is...should I now be concerned that he has diabetes even though he didn't test for it a few weeks ago on his 20 panel blood test?? Should I take him back in for a glucose test in a few weeks??
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Was a urinalysis done? How did the vet know that his blood sugar was high if his blood test was done a week ago?:confused:

If I were you, I would follow up with periodic glucose tests. Yes, stress can increase the reading, which is why my Meika's vet ignored her test last July of 143 (during pre-op for dental); yet 7 months later her glucose shot up to 563, and they diagnosed diabetes, and put her on insulin. If they hadn't dismissed that reading, we could have found this out sooner. Now we are trying to get it under control, and it can take a long time. We've only gotten her down to the 360-400 range so far in 2 1/2 weeks of insulin.

It should be around 100 (a little lower or higher is norm). I agree to keep your eye on it, and also watch for other symptoms. One thing I learned about canine diabetes, is that it can come on quickly, as it did in Meika's case. Once it starts cataracts develop quickly and lead to blindness. Have your vet check his eyes for cloudiness on the lenses.

You might want to lean toward food that is higher in protein and low carb (grain free, potato free) with low glycemic carbs. One I am trying now that looks very promising is Dogswell Nutrisca, which uses chickpeas and pea fiber for low carb.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Mimimomo, that is a very good question and one I don't have an answer to... yet!!

I took the boys in yesterday to do their dentals. Ricky was supposed to have pre-op blood work done yesterday, but not Prince as he had his blood work done at a different vet clinic. The receptionist says she is fairly positive that there was no mix up in who got what but she has to check for sure with the Dr as he was the one who told me Prince's sugar was high and he was the one who administered everything. I can see how he could mix them up though....they were both in the same cage together and typically, a vet will recommend pre-op blood work be done on an older dog and leave it optional for a younger one...so since only one was having blood work done, he could have assumed it was the older dog that was getting it.

I am hoping that there was no mix up and that perhaps he just took a drop of blood and tested it with the glucose meter after surgery...maybe he decided to check it since he was an old dog and has had health problems in the past?!?

Prince did have a urinalysis when he went in to do blood work. It came back fine. He did not have an urinalysis yesterday though.

Thanks Mauigirl!! I am thinking I'll take him back to get more blood work in a few weeks to re-check his sugar. Even though he's not as thin as I thought he was, I still feel he is loosing weight and is eating, drinking and peeing a lot. Perhaps he's in the initial stages of diabetes. If so, I'd like to catch it right away.

You can't get an accurate reading unless it was a fasting blood glucose test. He should not have eaten anything for at least 12 hours before the test.

Blood sugar always goes up after eating. The only way to diagnose diabetes is to draw the blood on a fasting patient. If the blood glucose is still fairly high on a patient that has not eaten in several hours then it is probable that the patient may have diabetes but further testing may still be needed.

I would be really concerned about blood "sitting too long" in a veterinarian's office. If it is not being handled correctly then there is no way to get an accurate diagnosis. Depending on the test, the blood may need to be spun down as soon as it is drawn and blood tests for specific tests have to go in the right kind of vile with the correct preservatives. I would be questioning what is going on in your vet's lab.