Defeating diabetes in a dog is much like coping with it for a human, maintaining a diet that healthily balances glucose and insulin.
When a human or canine is unable to regulate its blood sugar levels, it has diabetes. This illness is quite difficult to live with. When untreated in canines, it can trigger liver, kidney, or heart disease, as well as induce blindness or a coma. Its symptoms include weight loss despite an increase in thirst and appetite, more frequent urinations, and lethargy.
In the case of humans with diabetes, a specific diet needs to be followed, and blood sugar levels need to be monitored. In dogs, insulin therapy, including its natural alternatives, is a more common approach. However, the best approach is preventive maintenance, which can be done through a proper diet.
Canines digest food differently from humans. This means what they take in is broken down differently, and is the main reason why their diet is high in protein and low in carbohydrates, which is the reverse of the human diet. Carbohydrates are very high in sugar, and canines should not have excess sugar in their systems as this can aid their acquiring diabetes.
Many commercial dog foods contain grains, carbohydrates, and sugar. By popular opinion, this is not the right type of diet for dogs with diabetes. “Dogs facing diabetes can benefit from a change in diet, instead of just relying on insulin therapy. Dogs who have not yet acquired diabetes, though, can help prevent the illness by starting out with a proper or healthy diet.” says Maggie Rhines, author of Going Rawr! Dog Lovers Compendium.
A canine diet that can either help or prevent diabetes should consist of protein, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, which are harder to break down the regular carbohydrates and therefore do not deliver as much glucose. A veterinarian can help determine what the best type of diet is for a diabetic dog. They may prescribe specific dog food, or they may recommend home feedings. What is most important is that dogs still get the correct amounts of nutrition, while balancing its intake of sugar. Veterinarians can calculate this.
The dogs most susceptible to diabetes are beagles, dachshunds, poodles, and mini-schnauzers. Like humans, there are two types of canine diabetes. Both types can benefit from, as well as be prevented by a proper diet.
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Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
