Does anyone know how to lower a dogs blood glucose at home without insulin?
All vets in the area are closed until monday. My older dog became very lethargic tonight and has been drinking/urinating excessively. After she vomited a few times tonight, I decided to take her blood glucose and found it is alarmingly high. Is there anything I can do to help her before Monday? I’ve read mixed reports on using cinnamon to bring it down… any experience with this? Thanks everyone
Very often, dry grain based foods are to blame for diabetes in dogs and cats.
If her blood sugar is very high, she still needs to see a vet now. She also needs a completely different diet because what she is eating now is NOT working.
Carbohydrates work just like sugar to a dog or cats system. Just like in humans, there’s only so many times you can spike your blood sugar with too much sugar before eventually the system that regulates blood sugar in your body just breaks. Obviously, that’s oversimplifying, but, that’s the basics of what happens. Now that it has happened, there will always be a need to monitor and manage her blood sugar.
What you want is a canned dog food only, NOT dry. It would be best for it to be grain free, though even good canned foods usually have some potato. BUT, the first ingredients should ALL be meat.
Merricks makes some good canned foods, so does Blue Buffalo. They are both available at stores like Petsmart and Petco.
Once you change her food, it will change how much insulin she needs! It is very important to keep testing and working with your vet to modify her dose. Otherwise, you risk her going hypoglycemic which is also very dangerous!
No treats at all for her either, most of those have tons of sugar and carbs in them.
But, I would call the vets, many of them have a 24 hour answering service that will call them for an emergency and high Blood Glucose is an emergency.
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