About Aurora

O.K.  Here's the latest at myhandsful. Are you ready for it? Alright...Our dog has diabetes. Yup. Our lovable, beautiful Siberian Husky, Aurora, was diagnosed this past weekend.

I know, you're saying, "What are the odds? How can this be?" and believe me, we were saying it too! So here is how it happened. About a year ago, she was looking a little chunky. We had her shaved down for the summer and even then her weight was a little up. So we reduced her diet and tried to cut back on treats. This went on for about eight months or so with no significant change. She still looked the same to me. Then all of a sudden she became a very thirsty animal. She was drinking her bowl dry every day and sometimes twice. We got her a big tub and she enjoyed having an almost unlimited supply to drink every day. Then I noticed she was dropping weight. Within 2 months she lost almost 20 lbs. It felt like she was wasting away. Of course with the history we have I was thinking, "Hmm, losing weight rapidly and extreme thirst, what could this be telling us?" Then she did the unbelievable. She had an accident in the house. This has never happened ever since she was a baby! Finally we took her in to be checked and sure enough her blood sugar was over 600. Just like another girl we know of, eh? We were completely flabergasted to have it confirmed. Then we agonized over what we were going to do about it.

We went online to find out if she could use our insulin that we use for Dylan and Kaycee, but, no, it doesn't work out well for canines. The syringes, though we are able to use for her (Whew!). We also looked at what would be recommended for her to eat and figured anything we had at home would be better for her than the rice, cornmeal etc. that is in commercial food even diabetic dog food. So we went down to the pharmacy and got her some humulin N and started her on 2 shots per day and a reduced carbohydrate diet. (It's kind of like making baby food, only I don't have to grind it.) She is happy because it actually is more volume than she was getting, but as of yet her insatiable hunger from the high BG hasn't calmed down entirely. Still, she is looking more and more like her normal self and she is a docile sweetheart about the shots and we get to see her "smile " a little these days.

So, you know those lisence plate frames that talk about the kids ratio, boys to girls?  We have the most current one for our household. If you count the 3 pets, we have eight in all, so the score?

Diabetics: 5        Non- Diabetics: 3

Welcome 2011!