Treating Low Blood Sugar in Dogs & Puppies

Video Transcript

" Hi my name is Sarah and my name is Haley and we are two of the technicians here at Extra Care Animal Hospital and on behalf of Expert Village.com, we are going to speak with you today a little bit about the care of your dog. Right now something I am going to talk about is hypoglycemia and basically what it comes down to is dog’s blood sugar. Hypoglycemia is a very serious illness that your dog can get. The most popular breeds that are at risk are Chihuahuas, Yorkies and a lot of the toy smaller breed dogs especially when they are under the 2 pound limit or toy dogs. Hypoglycemia is just like in humans, is their blood sugar. Their blood sugar drops it can actually become fatal. Right here in my hand I have a supplement that we actually give to dogs when they are puppies to keep their blood sugar up. The appetite always helps. You want to kind of put the supplement on their food. It helps to prevent the hypoglycemia attack and you want to make sure that they are not showing warning signs of hypoglycemia. A lot of the warning signs when they are very little are being very lethargic, very tired, not playful and not active. They are not acting like a normal puppy like a young dog should. You want to make sure that their gums are nice and pink and nice and fresh. You don’t want to lift up your dogs lips and see they have white gums. If they have white gums that means they may be at risk for hypoglycemia. Unfortunately, hypoglycemia is something that can last through their entire lifetime. You want to make sure that you always have a supplement on hand that is full of sugar made especially for dogs and it is pretty much like a candy bar for them. Most dogs like it; otherwise it is actually pretty easy to put in your dogs mouth if they don’t. It is a slurpier sticky like substance that you can actually place on their tongue. You want to have it on hand, make sure they are not showing signs and you want to make sure their appetite is good. If they are eating fine, you may not need the supplement. If they are always having difficulty with their appetite, you want to make sure you have the supplement at home. Hypoglycemia unfortunately can be fatal so that is why we want to make sure your little puppy or your smaller breed dog is not showing signs of hypoglycemia and if they are, try to give them the supplement and call the animal hospital and let them know they are acting lethargic, their gums are pale, that they are not playful and that they are not active. Otherwise, if you take care of it and make sure they are eating and their appetite is good, risk of hypoglycemia will be slim to none. That is pretty much it for the hypoglycemia. If you are interested in getting more information about our animal hospital, you can visit our website at www.extracareaminalhospital.net. "