Question:
Is there anything I can do to slow down, stop diabetes in my dog? He is
going blind. Is there anything that can reverse this process or at least
slow it down?
Answer:
Unfortunately diabetes in the dog is usually permanent and almost always
insulin dependent. But with proper regulation, dioabetes is not a death
sentence and your pet can have the same pre-illness quality of life.
As far as cataracts, they are very common in the diabetic dog and in fact most
dogs will get them within 1 year and progress on to blindness. How fast this
occurs is directly related to glucose control. An unregulated dog can qucikly
get cataracts and progess to blindness in just weeks to days. Once cataracts
form, there is no reversing them, you can try to slow their progression with
good glucose control but they will eventually progress. If your pet is
healthy, he may be a candidate for cataract surgery which could restore his
sight if there are no other complications. If You are considering cataract
surgery you need to have your pet seen by a vet opthalmologist ASAP---in the
diabetic dog, the cataracts can progress to the point where they are no longer
a candidate for surgery d/t uvietis.
Here is a great web page for vet eye problems (has a message board which is
answered frequently by the vet):
http://www.interlog.com/%7Eeyevet/infocentre.html
Also here are some links for more info on canine diabetes:
Queenie's page (http://www.mnsi.net/%7Equeenie/)
Canine Diabetes Mellitus Home Page (http://www.original1.com/diabetes/)
Feline Diabetes (great info on dogs
too!)(http://www.pricemd.com/felinediabetes/)
There are also 2 pet diabetes e-mail lists you can join:
Pet-Diabetes: To subscribe, send to pet-diabetes-subscr...@makelist.com or
email the list owner at pet-diabe...@makelist.com
Muffin List: There is a link at the Feline diabetes site for info on how to
subscribe
Brenda and Cody (diabetic Lhasa Apso for 1 year)
