Diabetic dog, any idea of the cost?

Tribulation

Hi all

My poor 13 yr old Golden Retriever has been diagnosed with diabetes and we're off to the vets today to learn how to do the injections etc.

The insurance covers him for 12 months or £4000.

After that time/amount, I will manage to find the money needed, I just wondered if anyone had any idea of the costs I can expect, or whether there's online vet chemists that are cheaper than the local vets etc?

Many thanks

pbfhpunk

I had a diabetic cat and it wasn't expensive at all. I know there's the size difference but a vial of insulin lasted for so long because the dose was so low, needles I began using one time only but was told that you could use them for a couple of days at least before the tips blunted. but they were like £5 for a bundle of them.

janeys

Hi our dog was diagnosed diabetic in april last year. We get all his supplies off the internet. We use www.medicanimal.com and have used www.hyperdrug.com and www.vetuk.co.uk . Some people dont agree with getting insulin off the web as it has to be refrigerated and handled carefully, we have had no problems with the above suppliers and the insulin has been fine.

Our dog (a cairn terrier) is on 9.5 insulin in the morning and 9.5 at night we buy insulin at £16.88 for a small bottle that lasts about 4 weeks. His ketodiastix are £9.59 for 50, you might use 1 a day, to begin with, to check your pets urine for sugar. We get syringes at £8.05 for 30 and we use 2 a day, not sure if you can use them more than once. You will need to get a prescription from your vet for insulin and there may be a charge for this. It pays to shop around for supplies and dont buy everything in the one place unless it works out cheaper. Take post and packing into consideration when calculating costs. If you have any questions I would be more than happy to help, I am not a professional, just a diabetic dog owner who has ordered lots of times on the net. Good luck and keep us informed of how you get on. janeys

Tribulation

Many many thanks.

Have just got back from the vets, had a practice go at the injection while there using some sort of harmless saline solution. Not as hard as I thought it would be.

I'm now armed with syringes, insulin, a sharps box, DVD, surgical spirit etc.

janeys

You will be amazed at how your dog adjusts to their injections. Ours will now sit in front of his bowl waiting to be jagged before he eats. The hardest thing we found was not being able to give dog biscuits or dog treats as rewards, due to the strict dietary requirements. We found that dry chappie mix is an ideal substitute, we allow for some out of his weighed food and we can use these when we want to tell him he's a good boy.

Another tip that we found invaluable was measuring his water intake, put 1000ml in the bowl every morning and measure how much your dog drinks. If they drink a lot it is a good indicator that their sugars are high. Also buy a sqeezy tube of honey or 2, they have no sell by date and are excellent if your dog has a hypo, I carry one and so does my husband. If you get glucose syrup from the vet they charge £7 a tube. I also had an old shoulder bag that I use for his walks, I put his honey, toys, poo bags, dry chappie and vets number in it incase we need anything. its easier for me to remember his bag than lots of individual items.

Once again good luck and any questions just ask. janeys

tummy_tank

Good luck, from an experienced diabetic dog owner (mine was a cairn terrier). You will get used to it, I tested urine every day but he was poor controlled and an 8kg dog ended up on 20iu x2 daily so my costs were high. It probably didn't help me being a nurse and i was extremely vigilant with his glucose control.
I would advise to use the needle no more than twice, they do blunt quickly and it's kinder to the dog not to over use.
I would also advise having 2 people who can do the injections and knows the routine as it can be more restricting especially if it's twice a day injections having to be at home at a certain time ( i was a shift worker so that was a problem to start with). My mum learned the ropes for when we went on holiday and stepped in where necessary.
Your dog will need blood tests every so often to ensure his control is good and you need to be careful if he is ill for any reason.

tummy_tank

Forgot to say you shouldn't use the insulin after 30 days once opened. And it really does have to stay in the fridge.

best wishes

janeys

Hi tummy_tank, Thanks for posting, I thought our dog was high on 9.5 twice a day. The vet told us it cant go over 11 twice a day and we have been panicking as he kept creeping up from 2.5 to 3 to 3.5 etc. Our dog is a 'cranky diabetic' and still has not stabilised. Although we seem to be able to 'manage' him on his current dose his water intake goes from 400 to 1000 a day as he seems to peak and trough. His blood tests bear this out and the vet said not to come back for tests as he seems to be the exception to the rule. They said they did not want to waste our money and the dog seems fine. They always ask after him when we take his syringes back and we know that we can go back at any time if we need to.

Tribulation

Many thanks.

Our dog also has pancreatites (spelling?) and has been on a very strict diet for the last 7 odd years, so is used to not being able to have treats.

We saw the head vet, elderly man with many years of experience. He said that he advises differently to someone with an elderly dog than he would to someone whose dogs still got a good many years ahead of him. He spent a good hour explaining everything to us.

Due to his age and other health problems, the vet wants us simply to inject a small dose of insulin twice a day, 15 mins after he has his food for the next 10 days (14 on the syringe scale). Then the vets are having him in for a day, keeping him to his same routine, and doing blood tests every couple of hours to monitor what his levels are and to increase his dose to what's required.

He gave us some emergency glucose sachets (pet insurance is paying) and said that it doesn't go off so ignore the use by dates if we reach them (he stressed that Insulin does go off, and that we must go straight home and put it in the fridge)

We've only given him 3 injections and tonight, after his food, he went and sat next to the fridge waiting for his third one

foreign_correspondent

My old dog became diabetic in her last year - but she was full of beans till the end. She did have a few near msses though, keeling over till the insulin was balanced - we drizzled honey onto her mouth to bring her round, then got her to the vets!

She also got very used to the injections and used to come and wait for them!

Good luck with it.

tummy_tank

janeys wrote: »

Hi tummy_tank, Thanks for posting, I thought our dog was high on 9.5 twice a day. The vet told us it cant go over 11 twice a day and we have been panicking as he kept creeping up from 2.5 to 3 to 3.5 etc. Our dog is a 'cranky diabetic' and still has not stabilised. Although we seem to be able to 'manage' him on his current dose his water intake goes from 400 to 1000 a day as he seems to peak and trough. His blood tests bear this out and the vet said not to come back for tests as he seems to be the exception to the rule. They said they did not want to waste our money and the dog seems fine. They always ask after him when we take his syringes back and we know that we can go back at any time if we need to.

As a qualified and experienced nurse i increased the insulin myself (not advised to anyone else to do this though) as his sugars were always at 2%. i wouldn't htink that there was a limit like humans every person is an individual. I didn't restrict water at all, i do agree after a while blood tests are a waste of money and my dog hated the vets. My dog was 12 when diagnosed and lived for a further 2 years, he had already survived a bowel tumour (non malignant but he was in intensive care at the vet school and pancreatitis) so we were grateful for a further 2 years. Good luck to you all