This is a rather long story and I will try to keep it direct and on topic.About a year ago, robin,our 9 yr old spay seemed to have less energy than she usually did,but at her age we dismissed it. She started visibly loseing wieght so we took her to our small animal vet,who we had for about 9 yrs. Sure enough, she was down about 5 lbs from her normal 54 /55.Her eyes were not as clear and bright as they had been either. He decided that she was in the early stages of diabetes,drew some blood and prescribed 5units of novalin twice a day.She kept looseing wieght,was lethargic and by dec was running into things and basically just stumbleing around. The vet said she was old and we could give her more insulin,now up to 10 units twice a day.She looked like hell,scragly,greasy looking fur and we really couldnt stand to see her this way.She wasnt eating much and we tried different diets from raw to home cooked with no positive results.A horse rideing friend of my wife was seeing all of this and suggested we take her to a friend of her husband who has a rather up scale practice in Traverse city. We knew going in that it was going to be pricy to get a second oppinion,but we could see the end comming and Robin deserved better than she was getting.He did a complete physical on her,blood work,urine ,which had never been even suggested, stool,x rays,and things we never heard of. Two hours later we were expecting the worse,and the news was that she was indeed advanced diabetic and totally blind due to cataracts.After another hour of consultation,we left with Robin and special food,urine,pills and blood testing gear along with several pages of instructions. Her glucose was at 900,keytones off the test scale but with a somewhat positive prognosis. Fast forward to may of 2014 and we had her glucose pretty stabil at 300,keytone under control and she had gained back 3 lbs.She was up to 17 units twice a day and a special,measured diet which was the hardest part because our other girl, camillia, same age and healthy as a mule,made it hard to segregate the feeding and to moniter the water intake. The two cats didnt help either because Robin was feeling good enough to try to steal their food at any opprotunity! Robin was haveing vet checks every two weeks with a full battery of tests getting her back on track.I will mention at this time the dr suggested a full dental check and x ray on both the girls.Now they had both had this done at our old vet every year and every time we were told "they are fine". We suspected this not to be true as cammilia had a couple broken teeth (she chases quads and sleds,biteing at the tires and skis) But never had any obvious problems chewing bones or whatever.Robin had one broken tooth right in the center at the bottom front that I called "her cigarette slot" We both felt terrible and betrayed by the former vet when we found out that between the two of them they had 19 cracked or rotted teeth.We were shown the 3-d xrays and had a rather lengthly conference about what we had to do (never saw any x-rays untill this time).Cammilia had 17 exractions and robin was well enough to have 5.The dental experience was positive for all involved!

I will be back with more in a while!

Oh my, you folks have been going through a lot, I'll be on line, off and on for a while. read your intro post as well, wasn't sure if you'd be back. You got me interested.

Renee

Time to work on chapter 2! As a side note the avitar pic was taken about two weeks ago,so se is comming along well!.

I june I decided (after a bunch of research) that Robin should have her sight restored.My wife and I discussed it and were in total agreement on the decision.We talked it over with her vet at her june check up (only monthly now) and he felt it was a doable thing.There are only two choices in Michigan for this surgery,Mich State Univ and Blue Pearl animal care. We had positive results with one of our mules at MSU when he sand coliced on a sat night two novembers ago.Our large animal vet didnt think he would survive the trip (about 150 miles) but made the arrangements and that night nancy and the nieghbor hauled him down there. He came out fine and I can say nothing but good things about those people! That being said,we both had reservations about robin's eyes being a "student /teacher" thing and opted for Blue Pearl.We had an inital consultation and the doctor did a battery of tests on Robin.He decided that she was a candidate for the surgery and it was set forjuly 25 . He is the only dr that does this surgery at BP and has done a couple thousand of them in the last 20 yrs with a 95% sucess rate.Once again,fate interviened and Robin developed Horners syndrome in her right eye lid.This is a drooping eye lid,nerve related thing that has nothing to do with any of her other problems but her third lid had raised to prtect the eye but did cause an indefinite postponement of the surgery.A couple weeks ago it seemed to be improveing ,so surgery was rescheduled for sept 4.

have to leave for a few!

Robin and I had to take our nightly 11:30 pm walk.

On aug 21 she had her pre opp testing done. Since it was 4 pm and past the fed-x pick up time,we ran the packet to the terminal on our way home. All the pre opp blood and urine work has to be done by a testing lab ,in this case in wisconsin.On sa night (aug 23) I noticed blood in her urine,so back we went for an emergincy check on monday! It was visually clear and the centrfuge only found trace ammounts of blood but we got a pennicylin prescription anyway!Her tests came back on monday afternoon and everything was within acceptible limits except her glucosomine ,which was a bit over.Her blood glucose was right at 290,with 250 being target and 300 overlimit. Urine keytone was zero!!!! All her other organ functions were "normal" so it was X minus 8 days and counting. We did increase her novalin (insulin) to 18 units x2/day and byaug 27 she was exhibiting WAY more energy than she has in 2 years! It seems our "old" robin is back. Her blood glucose is down to 230 and she is a handful again.Even though she cant see ,she runs and bounces outside,chase ing the black cat ,probably by sound, when ever she can get close enough.Since the glucosomine is an average of the previous 10 days or so of the blood sugar (glucose) measurement,I am pretty sure I know what happened.I cannot resist the singing and head tossing at dinnertime and had been giveing her one or two small bites for the last couple weeks since she was feeling so good and up to her old behavior.My wife caught me "cheating" as it was,and gave me hell,so I quit,and I am pretty sure that is what caused the spike.Her eye lid is improved and the two vets are going to have a phone conversation on tuesday morning to make the decision to either go for it or wait.

So here we are,X minus 6 days to her wakeing up and seeing again!It is going to be interesting to see what happens when or if she can see again,given that her other sences have taken over so much of her navigation and life.Back in june she stalked and killed two skunks that were under the porch next door.It took her 3 weeks of laying perfectly still for hours,every night,back in a corner,waiting for them to come out, They did and at 3 am she brought one to the door,two days later the other one was delivered with only a slight smell on her head!.She has not layed behind the porch since.A pretty good testimant to the preditory instinct of the siberian!Before she went blind ,her and camillia had killed 3 coons that we watched.Camillia would run them around the tree and as they went up it robin would move in,grab them by the tail and slam them down.5 seconds later it was over as she grabbed them by the neck and gave them the "death toss".She has caught chickens on the fly when they escaped the pen,only several feet from my wife!Hopefully we will see this again.

If anyone here has had any experience with cataract surgery and diabetes with thier huskey, please tell your story here. I will update as things progress.

john

"caught another one dad",dont tell mom I brought it in!




No pic,was trying to upload one.

John,

I looked up a few threads on here and so far I have read two that were juvenile cataracts, one being in Michigan, but neither posted the outcome. I'm hoping a few more here will see your post and help you out. You certainly have my ear and empathy. I was still looking for diabetic huskies here, then my 14 year old Siamese cat had to scream her head off, that makes Miya whine and I didn't want husband to wake since he gets up at 6 for work. hahahaha. Seniors you love them but they are as much work as when they were young. So I've been dealing with a senior cat and a husky puppy, fun I know, thank goodness Miya will be 2 in November. So I can relate a little. There is a sticky on how to post pics if you need extra help, I had a hard time posting up at first. Robin is a beautiful girl and apparently a good huntress! ha please keep posting and reading, there's a ton of info, sometimes you have to do some digging though. and Welcome to the forum, I'm sure you can help some of our newer husky owners, since you have a lot of experience.

Renee

After I choose a pic and it comes up I click host it.That box leaves an d a new one that tells me to "upload" when I do that, i loose it all.

Have to figure out the time thing too,its1:57am here,now

You have to copy the url of your pic before you hit upload, you also have to resize it to 640 website, when you click host it select the second url, left click highlight all of it then right click choose copy then upload then right click on your page paste...



I am not good at explaining, eeeekkkksssss, I preview my post to make sure I have the right pic.

Apparently you're a night owl too!!

Miya has such a big head in this pic

Renee

Oh Gods John, you sound like you've had a real challenge with this girl! But we know that if we can, we do anything for our furred friends.

I found your write up on diabetes in dogs interesting since until a couple of months ago I didn't realize that they could contract it - stupid, I guess, they are mammals and prone to many of the same diseases we are, but it had just never crossed my mind ...

Since I'm younger than you are, (( isn't everyone?? )) but only by about 3 years, I'm interested in how the cataract surgery works for her. I've been *very* near sighted since I was 5 or so (at least that was when it was first tested) it was a real pleasure when the VA decided I qualified for cataract surgery - first one eye a year and a half ago and then the other one about 8 months ago (not dumb, if they messed up one eye, I wanted one that I had some sight out of!) Knowing what the improvement did for me (I now have 20/15 in both eyes! WOW!!!!) I can't imagine what she will think when she can really see again! Best of luck with that, it should be impressive!

I owe you an apology for getting back to you so late. Since I know so little about canine diabetes (nothing!) I didn't feel competent to reply - but since we're of an age, I guess it's only appropriate to at least say "Hi!" from the desert of the Texas Big Bend country! (okay, so that should really have been "Howdy, sir!!")

You must be a writer, since you write concise informative books that make for good educational reading ... 'course in the country you're from, you do have to have something to do when you're frozen in!

Curiousity has to prompt the question ... did you do any time in RVN?? (( old soldiers never die, they just smell that way! ))

Type 1 diabetes is when there is not enough insulin present to break down the sugar present in the blood. The pancreas produces insulin and there are many reasons why it gets out of sync with the bodys needs. Any warm blooded animal can be diabetic,its not a contageous desease , and some people may be genetically predisposed to become diabetic. It is generally thought though that lifestyle and eating habits are a main cause. Mild diabetes in animals and humans can continue for years and never be diagnosed. It is thought that in a dog, diet is a big factor in its development. It is a fact that dogs that are fed "people food" have shorter lives and are prone to desease like diabetes,kidney desease, heart desease, and cancer. The high level of processing that goes into pet and human food now days doesnt help either.There are many things our dogs are eating nowdays that,in fact, thier bodies were never intended to eat. Number one is corn.I would not feed any dog or cat any food that has any corn of any kind in it as the top 4 ingredients. The other is animal byproducts. This is the part(s) of animals that is left over or produced during the butchering process and can be rotted or even cadaverparts,hide,hair,hoves,you get the idea. They take these parts and boil/cook them into a stew,grind them up,and use them as listed "protien" in pet food.NO MEAT BYPRODUCTS in any of my pets foods. If it is not food grade,that is , fit for human consumption,they should not have it. Now you say" but you just said no people food". Not the same.Our food is over processed,over cooked,over spiced and flavor enhanced and includes much more preservative and non meat items that even WE should eat. Dogs are carnivors (meat eaters),and that means raw,unprocessed MEAT.Over time they have evolved into omnivors,capable of digesting non meat foods. Another side note here .My wifes cousin has raised huskys for almost 50 years. He started when he came back from 'nam as a helo pilot/crewchief with siberian show type dogs but became bored (rather quickly) and started raceing. He soon found out that siberians were sprint dogs and not what he wanted.He progressed into frieght dogs,for long,unplesant races. I dont know how many dogs he has had,he probably doesnt either,but his dogs eat about 70% raw and 30% kibble.When they are raceing it is 100% raw. The 30% kibble is toprovide vitamins,minerals, and control diareha.Bottom line is that his dogs live an average of 15 yrs and pull right up to the end,I have ridden with him useing a 16 yr old lead dog.His dogs and dogs of this type are NOT good pets though.I only mention it to relate some of my personal experiences with diet.

My dogs ,even though I knew better, ate table scraps,people treats and only grazed on kibble,and the kibble was never well chosen either.Robin is (IMO) a prime example of how this will work out.She didnt really ask to be fed that way,I made the choice and I feel that it is mostly responsible for where she is today.Camillia (our other girl) is hog healthy and been fed the same way,but she is an austrailan shepard,a breed which seems to be much more tolerant of diet and liveing conditions than our prima dona siberians!

Sorry to rant,sometimes I just get started and dont know when to stop!

john

Just made the hotel reservations,X - 4 days now!

I suppose it goes without saying, *I want pictures!* of her as soon as she realizes she can see again ... I know it's going to be a couple of days at least where they have eye pads, probably, to let the incision heal but when they come off it should be interesting and hopefully fun!
Keep us (well, *me*) informed, I'm curious as to how it works with her.

From what I understand there are no pads,they sew the eyelid partially shut to limit light with disolveing stiches.There will be pictures of everything,but try as I may,I cant get anything to post here.

I presume that you've looked at this. (( on my computer 'this' is a link, but not particularly obvious ))
Step 6 is the one that had me going for a while.  You'll also have gotten an email from the hosting company, but I don't remember anything that I had to do to use it.

Yeah,6 and 7 I dont get.I dont understand the copy & paste thing.

John,

I'm excited about the surgery as well.

Ok with step 6 and 7.......Like I said before I am not good at giving directions.....do you have a lap top or do you have an older pc with mouse?

I have a Mac desktop,mouse,running leopard

A quick Google here since I don't know anything about a Mac. Try these steps though ... copied from MacWorld and modified for our use ...

Select what you want to cut (( this is step 6, select the middle link ))
Command X

Click where you want to paste (( this would be step 7, the insertion point in your message ))
Command V

The command key is the one with the Apple symbol. (( bet you didn't know that, eh?? ))

Let me know if that works, please.

I get the 3 choices,but nothing happens when I highlite the middle one and give it commandX

at that point, nothing should appear to happen;  

at this point there should be a step 6.5. The box to upload pictures remains open until you click back to your original message.

go back to the message your entering and click Command V which should paste the link into your message.

OK here goes with the pic! I took this a couple hours ago.It shows the cataracts and the effects of Horners syndrome. Thanks to aljones!!! I can post the pics of our adventure!

Man, I don't think I've ever seen cataracts that were that opaque! It should be a real trip for the both of you when she can see again!
Either I don't know what I'm looking for or I misunderstand what I'm reading about Horners ... of course, I can't tell whether her right eye has rolled up a bit (which could be Horners) or if that's something else entirely (referring to the white at the bottom of her eye).

The outer eye lid is drooped slightly, so the inner lid (the red part) comes up to protect the eye.The way I understand it its a result of damage to a nerve that runs down the side of the head very close to the skin. the damage is usually caused by an impact,which in Robin's case makes perfect sense because she is constantly running into things with the side of her head. There is no "cure or repair" but in most cases it fixes itself.

We have a mare that was kicked on the side of her head,not bad enough to cause any noticable damage,but she developed the same "droop" as Robin. It took almost 2 yrs for it to go away,we were constantly putting anibiotics on the lid and had to keep a fly mask with a patch over the eye on her,in the summer to keep flys and bugs out,and in winter to keep the lid from freezeing because it teared constantly. It was only uncovered for a couple monthes in the spring and fall. It didnt affect her ability to interact or be ridden.I have seen a few one-eyed horses that do fine. She is ok now with only a tiny bit of droop to the lid.

Obviously Robin's will not need a patch sinsce she lives inside and usually only goes out with one of us.We will need to watch it for inflamation or swelling but thats easy.It aparently doesnt bother her at all because there is no tearing and she doesnt paw at it.

Yay for the pic, I'm glad you two figured it out, I was lost at mac, lol.

John, I really appreciate you posting this info, as our pups age many of us will eventually have to go through difficult times, thank you for sharing, and please continue. Btw I can't wait to see Robin with her new eyes! She's such a beautiful husky.

I had a consultation with our vet and the surgeon and everything is a go for thurs morning.Its road trip tomorrow! She did get a Mcdonalds bag out of my truck and tore it all apart to get the 1/2 container of fries that was in it! Hope that doesnt mess up the glucose.