Panting after insulin.

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi and thanks for your question. The symptoms that you have described have me concerned. A well regulated diabetic dog should not have any odd symptoms after an insulin injection.

When you are changing the insulin amounts, are you doing this with the help of a veterinarian? Sometimes when a dog is having high glucose levels at certain times of the day despite being on high levels of insulin it can mean that something called the Somogyi effect. Continuing to increase the insulin levels could actually be more harmful. Dogs with Somogyi do have dangerously low insulin levels at some point in the day and then high levels at other points. In either case there could be significant panting.

It's also possible that Scruff needs a different brand of insulin. I have had some dogs that respond well to one type and some to another. It's probably a good idea to speak to your vet about trying a different type of insulin.

There are other possibilities such as an expired bottle of insulin or one that has been spoiled by being left out of the fridge for several days. I've seen other cases where people are not giving the right amount. For example, the dose may be 4 IU and the clients were actually giving 0.4 IU because the syringe was difficult to read.

Sometimes if a dog is not responding to insulin properly it can be because there is something else going on with the body as well. In older dogs, Cushing's disease is a common cause for this. But this would be unlikely in a 6 year old dog. (Not impossible though.) A problem such as a pancreatic cancer could do this also but again this is uncommon, especially in a relatively young dog.

Diabetes cases can be extremely difficult and unfortunately can be very expensive. I have had some cases like this where I have had to hospitalize the patient for a few days and monitor the glucose every hour in order to find out what is happening.

I wish I had an easy answer for you but this really sounds like a complicated case. I hope things look up soon!

Dr. Marie.


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