Dog Diabetes and Pork Allergies
If your dog is an Australian terrier, dachshund, schnauzer, poodle or Samoyed, it is at an increased risk for developing diabetes. Your veterinarian can diagnose the condition and help design a treatment program based on your dog's diet, age and other health considerations, including pork allergies.
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Diabetes
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Most dogs with diabetes have Type I diabetes, which occurs when a dog's pancreas does not produce enough insulin. Without insulin, a dog's blood sugar levels rise, causing health problems including increased thirst, weight loss, listlessness, and vomiting. A dog with diabetes is at a greater risk for developing urinary tract infection, cataracts and chronic skin conditions. Dogs that are obese, female and older than six years of age are more likely to contract diabetes.
Allergies
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Like humans, dogs can react badly to allergens in the environment, warns the ASPCA. Although harmless to most dogs, an allergen can cause an allergic reaction to a dog that it is sensitive to it. A dog can develop allergies at any point in life. If a dog is allergic to pork and ingests pork product, it can experience symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting. It could also have itching of the skin and difficulty breathing.
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Diabetes Treatment
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According to "The Complete Healthy Dog Handbook", you can help control your dog's diabetes by feeding it a high fiber diet without many simple carbohydrates in it. Insulin injections help to control a dog's blood sugar levels. You can monitor your dog's blood sugar with test strips that detect glucose levels in urine. Other medications that can help treat dog diabetes include acarbose, which slows the breakdown of carbohydrates into sugars in your dog's digestive tract and vanadium and picolinate, which help insulin to work more effectively.
Insulin
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Most dogs with diabetes receive shots of insulin once or twice a day, just before being fed. Different varieties of insulin are created from different sources. They can be beef, pork, or human-based, states Washington State University. If your dog has an allergy to pork products, then it should not be given a porcine-derived variety of insulin like Vetsulin. This can cause an allergic reaction. Your veterinarian can help you determine which form of insulin will work best for your dog.
Considerations
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Diabetes in dogs rarely reverses itself, so you will need to treat your dog for the rest of its life. Your dog will need to visit the veterinarian every few months because its insulin requirements can change over time. Your veterinarian will let you know if the dosage should be adjusted. Other health problems can interfere with a dog's ability to regulate insulin, so call your veterinarian if your dog becomes ill.
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References
- Photo Credit poodle image by veseliysyslik from Fotolia.com
