a diabetic setback...

Buzz is in the animal hospital. Or the doggie prison if you'd ask him. Pancreatitis: the return of the vomiting. Sometimes I feel like my life would make a great movie.

In his mind, he's done his time. 36 long, hard hours. I will (hopefully) get to pick him up tonight, but that could change if he starts throwing up again. I visited him last night and the poor guy couldn't stop throwing up long enough to cuddle with me. But the only thing that seemed to be on his mind was the door and getting through it to go home. It broke my heart to leave him there.

Please don't leave me.

Before the pancreatitis set in, Buzz had his first hypoglycemic event at home. He started shaking and acting really strange and he even threw up, so I checked his sugar. 30! As in, T-H-I-R-T-Y (the normal low is about 80). He (of course) had no interest in eating, but I was SO FREAKING LUCKY that we had karo syrup. I dipped my finger in it and spread it over his gums (as I had read to do in other blogs and websites). Buzz was not happy about that, he really hated the taste - but I can't blame him. Everything returned to normal within an hour.

Then it happened again in the middle of the night. The vomiting, shaking, and totally weird behavior had me absolutely freaked out. I got him to the emergency vet, which is also the same place as our diabetic/internal specialist vet, and he's been there since.

I think the pancreatitis caused the hypoglycemia - everything just got so messed up. Having an autoimmune dog sucks.


Does anyone else have any experience with pancreatitis and diabetes?

Our favorite little diabetic...

...is sick once again. Will he ever get healthy?

Hopefully, we caught it early enough and he won't require any hospitalization. He's going back on antibiotics and we are going to keep a very close eye on him these next few days. The antibiotics should clear anything/everything up before we get started on that slope that always seems to progress to a vet visit. :\


But I do have some good news... drum roll please... Buzz's diabetes is back on track! I did a glucose curve this weekend and his numbers were excellent. So, yay for that! We gotta celebrate our victories when we can, right?

Buzz is tired of being sick.

Buzz was back at the emergency vet last Saturday (Feb 11). He ended up staying the night there because he couldn't stop vomiting.

We found out that he had low albumin via a blood chem panel. Albumin is a protein that keeps blood in the vessels, so when it's low, there can be swelling. His face was swollen and he was a bright shade of red, so that seemed to fit the symptoms pretty well. They started him on cerenia and metronidazole (as always) and gave fluids through IV (though he wasn't too dehydrated thank goodness, as that seems to be the trigger for really going downhill). He improved on Sunday, but was still swollen and red. On Sunday night's blood test, his albumin was higher, but still too low. We took him home because there wasn't much else that could be done.

On Monday morning, I woke up to Buzz being incredibly red and swollen - so back to our normal vet he went. He stayed there all day (no fluids), and they rechecked his albumin Monday evening - which was higher than Sunday night, but still lower than normal. His swelling had gone down, but the redness was still very much there.

With all of this (plus his vet visit a mere 2 weeks ago), he was diagnosed with PLE - protein-losing enteropathy. PLE occurs when the dog loses albumin, probably via Buzz's intestines, which leads us to the 2nd diagnosis:

Buzz was unofficially diagnosed with IBD - irritable bowel disease. I say unofficial, because to officially diagnose IBD, an endoscopy is done with a biopsy taken from the intestines to confirm. We opted against this for several reasons. First, Buzz is a diabetic and anesthesia is definitely going to mess with his system (plus, right now, he's an unregulated diabetic, the worst kind). Second, he was recovering. A biopsy is usually going to show abnormal pathology when the bowel is inflammed, and it's likely that at that point in time, the inflammation was decreasing. Third, the only course of treatment is steroids - which Buzz cannot have - and a switch to hypoallergenic food, which we have made. Steroids can be used on Buzz in only extreme circumstances, like if his life is in danger, as they make diabetes worse.

So now Buzz is on a new food (Hills Prescription z/d) and he's recovering. He's off antibiotics and the cerenia, but is still getting sucralfate for a few more days (to coat and protect his stomach).

We're back on the path to getting his diabetes regulated (again!) and he seems happier and happier every day.