Dog with diabetes

kazl_2

Just found out my dog has diabetes which means special food and daily insulin injections. So far this week we've paid out £160 on vets bills and food! If you see my signature we really cant afford this but the only other option is having her put to sleep which I dont want to do.
I've worked out the cost is going to be £5 per day for food and medicine. Presumably I have to get the insulin and syringes from the vets but is there anywhere I can get Hills Prescription food cheaper?

bulchy

Hi, sorry I have no experience in diabetes in dogs, but just been thinking, could you get a prescription of the insulin from your vet and maybe get the insulin cheaper fron vets.uk or somewhere cheaper online? This would surely be a big help, I'm not sure on the Hills food, maybe this is cheaper from somewhere like Vets.uk too. Hope you can get something sorted, fortunately our pets are all insured, but if they werent, just like you say, having them put to sleep isnt an option I would have to find the money somewhere, as they are family members and I couldnt imagine being without them.
Good luck.
Sue xx

foreign_correspondent

my old dog was diabetic, we were never advised to put her on a special diet.
I believe the vets sometimes get some sort of sweeteners from food manafacturers, but this is just something I have heard, so I cannot confirm it...might be worth checking out though...just a thought.
Best wishes though, dogs are generally quite happy having the injections, but it my take you some time to get the dosages right. We eventually found our dog was much better on 2 small injections a day than just one bigger dose.

Alibi_2

Are you feeding tinned hills or dry kibble?

I had a diabetic dog and I also used to be a Vet Nurse, speak to your vet or nurses at the practice and ask about alternative diets. I used to feed Chappie Dry or Chappie tins or a mix of both and it worked out well. My vet nursing is a bit rusty but I think it needs to be a high fibre and low protien food, but please don't take my word on that! check with a vet or nurse.

It can be quite hard to stabilise diabetes in the early days, you may have to go back for blood tests or urine tests - if this is the case ask if the nurses can do these instead of a vet as it usually works out cheaper - any good vet nurse can take blood and check the glucose level or package it up for a fructosamine test if its not done in house.

I'd be wary of buying insulin over the net as it has to chilled and if not stored correctly is usless, but this doesn't stop you from getting a prescription from your current vets and phoning other local vets to see if they can supply it cheaper (and vets cannot charge you for a written prescription!) Same for syringes.

Are you injecting the dog yourself?

Also a final tip - don't keep the bottle of insulin in the fridge door - the constant opening and shutting of the door does something to it which reduces its effectiveness (can't remember what but I remember the drug rep telling us not to do it!)

On th downside my dog lived for 4.5yrs with diabetes, which is quite a long time!

Good luck and hope your doggy is doing ok.

thyme18

Sorry to hear about your dog.

Our cat was diagnosed with diabetes and we injected him twice a day we found that it was cheaper to buy the needles from local chemist rather than from the vets (think the boxes contained aprox 100 needles.) If you take the needle you have been given by the vets to the chemist they will be able to see what size you need.

creamcheese

Do you know any people with diabetes who use syringes? (Not many people do these days, I know) My Dad's dog some years back had diabetes and he used my mum's used needles. I know it sounds very dodgy, but the vet at the time had no problem with it.

Nomad25

Try on-line: vet uk or bestpet pharmacy[or similar] for needles and prescription diet food, much cheaper than vet, but recommend you buy insulin from your vet because if it's put in mail/courier system it's not kept at right temperature and may not do the job.

kazl_2

Thanks for all the replies. Lots of good tips - its really appreciated.

I have ordered the food (Hills tinned and dried) from Vetuk together with the syringes. It should all arrive tomorrow hopefully. It cost £58 compared to over £90 from vets.
We are coping ok with the injections and feeding apart from a bit of a panic today because she wouldnt eat her breakfast so we weren't sure what to do about her insulin injection. A quick phone call to the vets sorted that one out.
She's got to have a blood glucose test tomorrow so we'll be able to see if we need to change the insulin dose or food.