Buzz's Diabetic Signs & Symptoms

As we are approaching the 1 year mark of Buzz's diabetes diagnosis (which really isn't until December, but we noticed changes in his behavior as far back as October), I thought I'd write a post about the diabetic signs and symptoms we saw in Buzz.

My husband and I are not the type of people to let health problems just go away naturally. We like medicine. Lots of medicine. The problem with Buzz when he first got sick, was that he had already been sick.

Let's back up. We adopted Buzz in March of 2010. We got him for free 2 months before our wedding (as a wedding gift, the rescue group said - but really, no one wanted a 4-5 year old mixed breed dog). Buzz had been with this group in Indiana for roughly 2 years and before that - he had been a stray in Ohio.

Everything started off well - except for the small fight here and there between the newly adopted siblings - and then came June. Buzz began vomiting blood and we rushed him to the vet. He spent a few days there, received some IV fluids, meds, etc, and eventually recovered and came home. The vet tested for everything under the sun (including diabetes!!) and everything came back negative. Maybe a virus, they said.

After that trip, Buzz seemingly made a 100% recovery and things went back to normal; however, a few months later, Buzz started vomiting again - so this time, we called the vet, they prescribed us some anti-nausea meds, and he recovered at home. We started giving him an antacid twice a day and that seemed to control things pretty well.

At this time, Bella was on a special diet since she is prone to developing bladder stones, and this food is meant to make her drink more water so she pees more, to flush her bladder more often. She doesn't always eat her entire meal, so Buzz would sometimes help her finish (which he was more than happy to do!). When we noticed Buzz was peeing a lot, we figured it was because he was eating Bella's food. This started in October.

Right before Buzz's diagnosis (on left) - he was smaller than Bella!

In November, we noticed Buzz had been losing weight and sleeping constantly. My hubby and I had to travel for a conference and my in-laws came to dog-sit the pups while we were gone. They mentioned how often Buzz was peeing and how he seemed so much smaller than the last time they had seen him and way more subdued. Giant red flags, right? Wrong. We just assumed whatever happened back in June was starting to rear its ugly head again. No way were we going to spend another $500 on some fluids (while we love modern medicine, we are grad students, not cardio surgeons).

Then came the morning of December 6, 2010. I was at work, but my hubby had been home when Buzz started vomiting blood everywhere. The bed, the couch, the back patio, the carpet.. you name it, there had been bloody vomit on it. I rushed home to bring Buzz to the vet, where they diagnosed him with diabetes (he had lost 7 pounds - going from 24 to 17 lbs!!). They weren't sure if he would make it, and referred me to an internal specialist. After many sleepless nights, lots of tears, and lots of hard work, Buzz came home and he did make it.

Almost a year later, he is well controlled on his insulin and is a healthy, happy dog. If I hadn't been paying attention, Buzz may not have made it. But he did. And I couldn't imagine my life without him in it.

Who couldn't love this adorableness?