Monty : Diabetes
December 1, 2006 : Over the previous few
weeks we have noticed Monty was drinking a lot of water. Yvonne seemed to
think he was sleeping more than normal. During the last few days of
November we noticed Monty looked sick - his eyes were bloodshot, the skin around
them was pinkish, he had crust forming around his eyes and more importantly, he
seemed to be losing a lot of weight. We decided to
take him in. Monty weighed in at 16lbs. He is normally 20lbs.
A big difference in a dog that size. The vet suspected diabetes due to the excessive water
drinking and took a blood sample to check. He also gave us some
antibiotics to take care of Monty's other symptoms - that being that he was
basically sick.
December 2, 2006 : The vet called to confirm
Monty had diabetes. They needed a urine sample and asked us to bring one
in Monday morning.
December 4, 2006 : Urine sample taken (while
Monty glared at me) and the vet tells us Monty has Stage II diabetes.
Because of the excess ketones in his urine Monty needed to be hospitalized ASAP.
Ketoacidosis is a serious condition.
It's a by product of the body eating it's fat to sustain itself since the lack
of insulin prevents it from getting it's nutrition from food. Monty needed
to be admitted to the hospital while this was leveled out and to start him on
insulin. Monty came home Dec 7th. We were told to give him one shot
a day of three units of insulin. We hated it more than Monty did but he
was a trooper. He seemed to understand he needed his shots to make him
feel better. At this time no major change is needed to his diet.
December 15, 2006 : Monty returned for a
scheduled day long glucose curve. The vet upped his shots to twice a day
of three units.
December 17, 2006 : While saying good night
to Monty I noticed the skin of his chest area was blood red. A paniced
call to the Vet Emergency line confirmed this can happen after a glucose curve,
and is similar to bruising. We should only be concerned if it was causing
discomfort or he had difficulty drinking.
December 24, 2006 : Yesterday we came home
from an outing to find little clumps of Monty hair around the house. Today
Yvonne noticed more clearly that Monty is losing his hair. We took a clean
comb and stoked his hair a couple of times and there was a significant amount of
hair on the comb. Our
brief
research on the web indicates this can be a side effect of diabetes and once
he levels out he should stop, but it can also indicate other diseases such as
Cushing's. Monty has another glucose curve test on Wednesday so we will
discuss this with the vet then.
December 28, 2006 : Spoke with the vet today.
He says what we suspected - the hair loss and the bruising on his chest/throat
area suggest Cushing's. And that means more tests. Put simply,
Cushing's is caused by tumors in either the pituitary or adrenal glands.
Adrenal gland tumors can be removed, but in 85% of the cases it's in the
pituitary, in which it can be treated with drugs, but not cured. However,
the hair loss can also just be a side effect of the diabetes. Even more
confusing, Cushing's can lead to diabetes, and many of the symptoms are similar
to diabetes.
Meanwhile, the vet has asked us to up his insulin
dosage to 4 units twice a day, and maybe 5 units if we feel he needs it after a
few days, and call him back next Tuesday to see how he's doing. Monty does
great with his shots. Sometimes he's not really wanting it, but mostly he
accepts it and occasionally even comes to us when it's time. Plus, Monty
gained .4 lbs in weight!
January 5, 2007 : We upped Monty's insulin
injections to five units. We can't test for ketones until he's fully
leveled out and we're basing this on water consumption. We're told a dog
typically drinks 1 oz per pound in weight, so he should be drinking between
16-20oz of water a day. On his first day at 5 units he drank a little over
20oz. We'll monitor this for a few days and if he's still drinking a
little too much well give him another unit per shot.
January 14, 2007 : When giving Monty his
morning shot I noticed a hard lump under his skin between his shoulder blades.
It's fairly large and it's hard to believe we hadn't noticed it before as this
is where he gets his shot.
January 16, 2007 : If it's not one thing it's
another. It snowed last night which means the bunnies decided to move in
under the deck. Monty sensed this as soon as he was out the door and when
he asks to be let in he was a muddy mess. I gave him a bath and while
tearing through the house afterwards he ripped away part of his thumb nail.
His paw was all bloody. Back to the vet for another $100 bill. Asked
about the lumps. We were told to watch to make sure they don't get much
bigger, and that the antibiotics he'll be taking for the paw might even get rid
of them. If it still seems to be a problem when we take him in for the
Cushings test they'll take a closer look. His weight is up to 17.6!
We also upped his insulin to six units. His water consumption has been
borderline so this might be his final level.
January 23, 2007 : Six is a magic number.
Upping Monty's insulin to six units seems to have leveled him off. He
races on his walks now, he doesn't need to go out in the middle of the
night, his water drinking is normal, his hair seems to be returning to it's
normal texture (it no longer feels so synthetic). His lumps seem to be
going away as well. We'll be taking him in for his Cushing's testing soon,
but with his hair improving it was probably the diabetes that was causing it,
rather than the Cushing's.
February 11, 2007 : Monty's 8th birthday. Upped the dosage to 7
units the other day as he seemed to be drinking a lot of water again. He
also now knows when it's time for his shots and waits for it, sometimes almost
asking for it. Although he may just
be waiting on the liver treat he gets afterwards. His hair is growing back
nicely and his weight seems to be back to normal.
March 1, 2007 : Monty got his first haircut
since we discovered his diabetes. We held off a little bit longer than
usual due to the hair loss. Well, his hair has grown back just
wonderfully. You wouldn't even know he was losing it just a few weeks ago.
It's also completely lost it's artificial, dry feel and is now soft and pet-able
like always. He is also quite clearly back at his old weight.
March 11, 2007 : Not a good weekend for
Monty. On Friday night I tried to shuffle him off to bed and noticed he
seemed to be having a particularly difficult time climbing up the stairs.
Saturday (10th) we noticed he was having some trouble with his rear right leg or
paw. Sometimes he's walking fine, but other times, particularly after he's
been laying down, he is clearly having difficulty. It's been about three
months since his last blood glucose curve so it's probably time for another one.
So we'll take him in to see the vet this week and get that done, get his leg
checked (this might simply be a symptom of diabetes), and have a large skin tag
he has on his tail removed (the groomer nicked it and it's been bleeding a
little, bothering him, and we've always hated it anyway).
March 16, 2007 : Took Monty to the vet today.
He weighed in at 18.4lbs - which is where we consider his normal weight to be.
Got some eye drops for his eyes (they were 'gunky' and bloodshot for the past
week). His tail will have to be worked on at a different time.
Nothing's wrong with his leg. And his blood glucose curve was exactly
where it's supposed to be -- so he's doing great there. Asked if we should
still bother with the Cushing's testing and the doc feels that we should still
go ahead with that, but, it doesn't seem to be crucial at this point.
November 07, 2007 : Just under a year in and Monty is
doing GREAT! His dosage hasn't changed since February and he is still his
normal 18lbs. Despite his vet's warnings that Cushing's was on the horizon
Monty has yet to show any signs (similar to diabetes - excessive water drinking,
heavy eating while losing weight). He seems 'over' his blindness.
One eye is much more white than the other so we suspect he's only partially
blind in one eye (probably can see shadows and shapes) while the other eye is
probably just poor vision. We believe his stumbling around in the early
days were more him getting used to the new vision but now that he's adjusted you
wouldn't even know there was a problem -- apart from the occasional stumble or
getting surprised by something appearing where he didn't expect it. We've
even started chasing him around the house and throwing toys for him to fetch
again, tho we are careful to throw them in a straight line or an open area where he
won't collide with anything. Sometimes he won't be able to find the toy,
but otherwise he's very happy.
March 02, 2007 : Monty's started to
bury bones. He's never done it before but lately bones go outside and
never come back inside. He has this huge rawhide bone he got for
Christmas. He took it outside we didn't see it for a long time. When
heavy rains were expected I went looking for it. It's not like there's a
lot of places to hide it out there but I couldn't find it anywhere. Just
the other day I took another look and there it was, partially sticking out of
the dirt near the corner of the house!
Monty turned 9
last month and he's doing great! He's happy and playful and sulks when he
wants to play and no one will give him time. He clearly misses his walks
this winter. People around here don't shovel very much and we've had a
heavy snowfall this winter and it's hard for him to walk in all that.
Plus, when the snow melts and freezes it's hard for him to walk in all the icy
footsteps. Plus it's been too damn cold! When he has gotten walks
his partial blindness is clearly evident. He literally has snow blindness.
He can't navigate in all the whiteness. He would often walk straight into
a snow bank and look up at me with a snow covered snout.
We are debating
if we should take him in for Cushing's testing again. We want to make sure
we catch it in time, but on the other hand he doesn't seem to have any symptoms
yet. He started drinking a lot of water when it started to get cold but a
quick survey showed everyone's dogs started drinking a lot when the temperature
changed.
June 24, 2008 : Monty seems to be losing his
vision in his other eye. He still negotiates the house as normal, but he
will walk into unexpected things. For example, if I'm sitting at my desk
and he comes in to sit at my feet he will walk straight into my leg. There
was one time recently where I had the distinct feeling he had gotten lost and he
didn't quite know where he was. I believe this was in the backyard and he
was looking for the stairs to the deck. His right eye is starting to
appear cloudy. But other than this, he's doing great.
November 16, 2008 : This past week marks Monty's second year
with diabetes. His right eye is nearly just as cloudy as his left, but
this doesn't seem to bother him. The only times he seems impaired is when
he can't find a dropped treat or a tossed toy even though they're right next to
him, and if he's looking at us and we move from where we were standing and he
doesn't hear us (he stares at the now vacant spot). We took
him in
recently for a blood curve since it'd been about a year since his last one.
The vet (a new one since his old one left the practice) remarked that it was one
of the best curves he's seen and shows he's at exactly the right dosage.
It should be noted that Monty wouldn't eat that morning and for his blood curve
to be spot on without food shows how well he is doing. The only real
problem is that he seems to be fed up with the shots. He still comes to me
when it's time but now he rolls onto his back when I try to grab a roll of
flesh. Eventually we get it done and he still gets a chunk of liver after
each 'poke.' One odd thing - we had him at a kennel for a few days and
when he came out he had brown staining of his 'beard'. This hasn't
happened in many years. There's even a patch on his right front leg where
he licks that's turned brown.
March 10, 2009 : Monty turned TEN back around Valentine's day
and he's doing great. We had a really cold winter and a ton of snow so
Monty didn't get walked at all, really, for several weeks. I took him out
once and I could tell his paws were hurting him so I carried him home.
I've mentioned before that he has trouble with the snow. There are no
shadows so everything looks like a white wall to him. For him to
find the stairs to the deck we have to keep a path shoveled for him. He
won't play in the snow either. He would only go on the area we cleared for
him to relieve himself on. He also started losing his way back to the
house. Once I heard his 'help' bark and looked outside. He was
standing on top of the boys sandbox. He apparently thought it was the
stairs and didn't know what to do when the deck disappeared. Poor guy.
We also have to put the light on for him now when he goes out at night so he can
find his way back.
Inside the house he's great. He had a few weeks where he was afraid of the
last step. I'm assuming that when he walks down the steps he can see the
step below him. But when he gets to the bottom step he just sees a void.
Sometimes he'll pace back and forth before making a huge leap to reach the floor
six inches beneath him. Sometimes he'll go back up to the top of the
stairs and trot back down to try again (like a running start). Other times
he'll just give up and lay down on
a step. Usually he'll just bark for
help.
August 2, 2009 : Not a lot has changed with Monty.
He's still doing remarkably well in every aspect. He still
occasionally can't find the bottom of the stairs, but no longer worries, and
if he's excited he might forget where he is and run into the side of the
couch. Early in the summer he seemed to get lost in the backyard when
we put him out at night to do his business so we started putting the outdoor
light on for him, but just recently we realized he can still see fine in the
dark (or is otherwise relying on his knowledge to get him back to the door).
He will occasionally stand next to the door to be let in rather
than in front of it. The heat of summer is, of course, bothering him
again so walking him is an annoyance as he frequently plops down in a shady
area. He has been starting to show his love for the boys, tho.
When he's stressed he will often go into Adam's room and climb onto his bed
- which causes Adam to wake up and start yelling "Monty! Get off my
bed!!!" And if one of the boys can't sleep and winds up in our bed
Monty immediately curls up alongside of them.
May 1, 2010 : Today is Monty's eleventh anniversary with
us! The only major development is that his Vetsulin has been
discontinued. He is now on human insulin. We weren't sure how
this would work but he's doing fine on it. And, actually, it's a huge
money saver because the doses are smaller. A bottle lasts us over thee
months now. His hair, especially on his back, seems to have thinned
out a little, but this is the only change we've noticed. As time goes
on he gets a little worse with his vision. He's gotten lost on the
deck when trying to find the stairs occasionally, and if there's a night
light on on a wall he might think it's a doorway and try to walk through it
only to be confused when he bumps into the wall. And I'm afraid to say
we've all but given up walking him daily. We'd like to but his
constant laying down in shady grassy areas have worn us thin. He still
gets walks occasionally, but usually only around the block and, if it's a
sunny, cool day I'll take him on one of his old, longer routes. He
does get to walk Owen to school nearly every day so he does get to go out
and run across the field. Adam has finally started to become attached
to Monty. One day he was sitting on the floor and Monty came over and
lay down next to him. I told Adam where to pet him and he giggled when
Monty rolled onto his back for belly rubs. Then I
showed Adam that if
he blows gently on Monty's face he will give kisses. Adam loved this
and now gives Monty lots of attention. From getting him cookies,
getting him toys to play with, and trying to get kisses from him. Owen
loves Monty too, but isn't as willing to get a cheek licking.
November
13, 2010 : Monty is starting his downhill course, we're sad to say.
He's starting to lose his sense of location in the house on occasion.
Occasionally he'll stand facing the wall next to the fireplace, apparently
thinking he's at the back door, wanting to go outside. But these two
locations a half the house away from each other. Other times he'll
wander back and forth several times and it's clear he's not sure exactly
where he is. Most of the time he's fine, tho.
Back in July we had a scare when he fell down the steps. I was in my
office when I heard someone trip on he stairs. I ran to see who it was
and Monty was standing on the bottom step, one paw raised, as if he was
about to step down. "Step down" I commanded, which I use on curbs on
our walks, but he just stood frozen absolutely still. I picked him up
and set him down and still he remained completely frozen, paw still raised,
trembling slightly. I ran him upstairs and set him on our bed and
curled up next to him and eventually he relaxed and calmed down.
In August we noticed he wasn't walking quite right. He seemed to have
lost strength in one of his rear legs. He would stand there and seemed
wobbly. Or he'd walk and it looked like his leg was asleep. We
weren't sure if it was arthritis, or a muscle weakness, or what. His
tail was down all the time. Normally it curls up over his back.
We took him to the vet who could see his leg was bothering him, but after a
thorough examination, could not see anything obviously wrong. We
approved a blood test and while nothing came up that would affect his leg,
it did reveal a high enzyme count in his liver. This does not
necessarily mean there is a problem, but we need to bring him back in
February for another blood test. Meanwhile we are keeping an eye out
for the various signs of liver problems.
His weight has dropped back down to around 14lbs, but this doesn't seem to
be a concern as he's holding steady and not excessively drinking, or any of
the other signs when the diabetes first appeared. He hair has
dramatically thinned on his torso.
And, for the last couple of weeks, Monty has been extremely clingy to me.
Typically, when I go to sleep in the morning, he will stay with me for about
half an hour before heading off downstairs. Lately he's been staying
in bed with me the entire day - even after sleeping all night. And if
he's not in the bed, I'll find him on laying next to the bed, either on his
pillow or on the floor, or, occasionally, on the mat in the bathroom.
April 1, 2011 : Monty has turned twelve! However, he
had a fairly traumatic month last month. We've been concerned for his
eating for the last couple of months. He didn't seem to be eating as
much - barely finishing his food and sometimes only eating a few bites.
We took him in for his six month liver test and expressed our concerns to
his vet. We decided to get his teeth cleaned (they really needed it!)
and the vet suggested perhaps some of his teeth were bothering him. We
suspected the same. So Monty went under for his cleaning and wound up
having three teeth pulled. We also had them remove a quite large skin
tag from his shoulder that was always getting nicked when he'd get his hair
cut (then he'd spend the next week licking it and it'd never heal). He
spent the next 24hrs practially asleep. But we're happy to say he's
back to gobbling down his food, and he even feels a tiny bit heavier.
We've noticed in the past that he walked with a slightly hunched back and
that, too, seems to have gone away.
Adam continues his love affair with Monty. He'll frequently pet him
and coo "Who's the good doggie?" He's taken to giving Monty "Adam's
Home Treats" when he comes hom from school so now Monty rushes to greet him
when he comes home. When we picked up Monty from the vet Adam was very
concerned. He didn't like seeing the shaved areas from where Monty had
the IV and where they removed the skin tag. He asked if his hair and
his teeth (!) would grow back.
He still gets lost in the house occasionally. More than ever, in fact.
He'll frequently mistake a low patch of sunlight on the wall for the door,
or be unable to successfully navigate to the top of the stairs and wind up
walking halfway down the hall before realizing his mistake. It's hard
to say his vision is getting worse since he has cataracts. Perhaps
it's just old age that he's losing his sense of location. One area of
the house he rarely goes to is where the boys' rooms are. We were all
in Adam's room recently and Monty wandered over to find us. When it
was time to leave he had a hard time finding his way back down the hall, and
nearly fell down the stairs when he finally did.
His hind legs are also still weak. He has no problem walking, but it
only takes a slight push to his backside to make them collapse under him.
May 21, 2011 : Poor Monty is slowing getting worse.
He is become more disorientated than ever before, frequently getting lost in
the living room, or walking into walls and furniture. Baths are
becoming an issue as well. He used to just stand there and maybe
wander around a little bit, now he franticly scambles to get out of the
bath, walking into the water pitcher we use. His back legs are now too
weak to support him fully so when we go to wash his front paw he'll fall
over. And after the bath he usually franticly runs around the house,
now he can't make it out of the bathroom, and when he does he runs straight
into a wall.
September 17, 2011 : We had a heck of a scare a couple of weeks ago - Monty
fell down the stairs. We're not sure how many (but Y thinks it was a lot). I
was asleep and awoke to a noise. When I ran downstairs Y was there with
Monty who was limping badly, he couldn't put any weight on his leg. We
called the vet. We had just come back from the vet because Monty needed his
shots and some blood taken. The vet had said he'd be sore where the blood
was taken and it was the same leg, they also said he might sleep a lot. We
all decided to see how he did after a couple of hours. It was clear nothing
was broken and he was fine when he handled his leg, it was just when he
tried to walk.
After I awoke I went to check on him and Y said he slept all day. When I
tried to get him up he couldn't even right himself. I had to help him to his
feet. I took him in to the vet and it was decided it was a pulled muscle or
possibly a sprain. He gave us some painkillers and medicene. Thankfully,
within a couple of days Monty was back to his normal self. He was a little
leary walking down steps but he had no problems trotting around the
backyard.
His stool sample from the vet visit revealed some parasites (damn rabbits)
and gave us some yellow medicene we needed to squirt into his mouth with a
large syringe. He LOVED that stuff. I'm not sure which he loved getting more
- his inch of Pupperoni after his morning shot of insulin, or the yellow
medicene!
Other than all that drama he's hanging in there. He gets lost in the room
sometimes, he sleeps a lot, and can't sense a rabbit three feet away from
him, but he's doing really good otherwise.
Adam is starting to worry, tho. He has frequently expressed sorrow that
Monty can't see and wishes we would or could get his eyes fixed. And he had
a bad dream recently where Monty wasn't living with us anymore. When asked
where he thought Monty was he said he didn't know, he just wasn't there.
October 20, 2011 : Monty spends a lot of time sleeping
lately. He'll sleep all night with Y, then when I go to bed about two hours
after she gets up he comes to join me and sleeps all day until I wake late
in the afternoon. While he would do this occasionally in the past, he's done
this almost consistantly for the last three weeks or so.
January 11, 2012 : Last month was Monty's 5th anniversary
of being diagnosed with diabetes, and he turns 13 in a month. We honestly
didn't expect him to still be with us this long and we cherish every day
with him. While still perky there have been noticable changes in his
behavior. He no longer sleeps with Y - he refuses to. She takes him to bed
but he refuses to settle and wanders the bed until she lets him down then he
wanders the room, bumping into things, until she opens the door. He goes
straight downstairs and curls up on the blanket in my office. That's where I
find him nearly every day when I come home from work. The nights I'm off he
will sleep with us, snuggled between our pillows. He never used to sleep
there either, he'd always sleep by our feet. We suspect he's losing his
hearing, at least partially, and in his left ear. He seems to become
disoriented easily. For example, he'll walk into my office and while he
should know he needs to turn left to find my desk, he almost always turns
right these days and walks into a wall. We think he hears noise reflecting
off the wall on his right, rather than the natural sound on his left, and
heads towards it. He's also no longer able to locate us when we call for
him. I'll call out for a cookie and repeatedly call for him, clapping my
hands, tapping the floor, etc and he'll frantically try to locate me, while
bouncing off the couch, the wall, etc. I have to catch him and give him the
cookie. Beyond that he's doing great!
Looking back, I can't believe I haven't mentioned it, but Monty has been
taking Denosyl for his liver for the past several months. We have yet to see
any liver related problems. We need to get him tested again to see how he's
doing on this.
We've had a very mild winter so he's been getting walkies, which he loves.
He spends the first half of the walk exploring, and the second half running
hell bent for home.
His favorite part of the day, tho, is clearly his morning 'Poke, Pets, and
Pupperoni' (insulin shot, cuddles, and an inch of pupperoni with a pill for
his liver crammed inside)
