# Need a dog walker!



## WynterCote (Feb 15, 2010)

My 10-month old pup has just developed juvenille diabetes. I.m still trying to get her sugar levels under control which is scary and stressful. But a secondary problem is that she drinks and urinates more frequently now so that she often goes in her crate during the day. She's crated 6.5 hours for 2-5 days of the week. Also, my sister drives 40 minutes once a week to take her out, but I can't ask her to do more than that. I really need someone to come let her out on the other days, but I don't know who to ask and I can't afford the commercial dog walkers in the area at $18.00 a day. We live in a new area and don't know our neighbors that well yet. How would you go about finding a trustable dog walker at an affordable price?


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

can your vet recommend someone?? Are there any older kids in the neighborhood?? I would talk to a neighbor you know, ask them if they can recommend someone in the neighborhood..

Poor girl( hope you can get things under control, she is to young to be sick(


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## liv (Sep 1, 2010)

Diane had the same ideas that I did...it's hard when you don't know people well yet. 

I was just thinking of you guys yesterday - hope things are going at least a bit better than they were right after she got diagnosed.


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

My mom has a gsd and when my mom had surgery she couldn't walk very far. She called the local shelter and asked if one of their volunteers could come and walk Greta and two of them took turns coming over nearly every day. See if there's a rescue or shelter or even therapet organization near you that might have a volunteer willing to help out


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## Melgrj7 (Jul 5, 2009)

Could you set up a room she can safely be in and train her to go in, basically, a big litter box? Not ideal, but would be better if you can't find someone who can take her out.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Do you live in a neighborhood with a lot of houses? Could you print something up and put it in their mailboxes? That's how we do things in my neighborhood.


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## WynterCote (Feb 15, 2010)

We had two days in a row that she didn't pee in the crate! According to my charts.. a negative urine sugar test in the morning correlates with her thirst being normal. (We have these little sticks to hold under her stream when she pees, she doesn't mind at all.) So maybe this won't be a problem as long as I can consistently give her full dose of insulin each meal.

Thanks for the little box suggestion. She's getting to the point where I can probably trust her in a doggie-safe room during the day. But I wouldn't be able to put down any papers or litter because she'd shred it or eat it. My boyfriend suggested letting her pee in the bathtub (I know that sounds gross). It would be easy to train, but I'm just not sure that's the best solution yet.

Overall, she's doing better but not perfect. We've had to up the insulin dose because she's still testing high for blood sugar even 8 hours after a meal. She's really thin under her fluffy coat. Weights about 56 lbs. She's always hungry during the day, but we can only feed her twice a day. She gets 4 cups of her food a day, which is above what would be normally fed to a dog her size. She's just not absorbing enough of it. We wanted to try RAW since it could be easier to digest, but the vet was not on board, unfortunately. Not sure what to do next.


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## liv (Sep 1, 2010)

Glad to hear things are heading in the right direction!! I'm sure that it will be an ongoing process, but it sounds like things are getting a bit better. If you want to try a box of some sort, I have seen one made for an older dog who couldn't "hold it" during they day anymore. It was probably a 4' x 4' plywood box, about 6" high, with a lip around it (it looked alot like a whelping box, actually), and they filled it with wood shavings, and made a big pen in their basement with some sort of dogproof floor. Shya would probably make a bit of a mess with the shavings, but if it was somewhere that was easily cleaned up and she didn't actually eat it, that might not be a huge problem.


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## waller540 (Jul 5, 2011)

Have you tried dog walker/sitter sites like Dog Walkers City (Dog Walkers City | US Dog Walkers & Dog Sitters Directory) or Dogwalker.com? They're both pretty good.


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## stealthq (May 1, 2011)

A lot of the things to do to manage diabetes are the same among humans, cats and dogs (presumably other animals as well). Unfortunately, vets haven't caught up to human-level treatment yet and in my experience, usually aren't open-minded about trying anything they didn't learn while they were in school. 

The most important things to do to manage diabetes are:

Closely monitor blood sugar. Your goal is to smooth out the highs and lows of blood sugar fluctuations as much as you can. Pee strips aren't really great for this. You'll know the blood sugar's too high, but by how much? When did the spike start? What if the blood sugar crashes - you won't be able to tell with the strip and you may not pick up on the symptoms of an overdose - some animals are obvious about it, some are not. My recommendation is to pick up a blood glucose meter. You can use any one made for humans. Then make a chart, Excel is good for this: blood sugar level vs hour of the day. We tested every 2 hours until we had the insulin dose calibrated and the blood glucose levels were predictable. Then we backed off and tested every 4-6 hours as well as before giving insulin to make sure it's necessary and 15-30 min after giving insulin to make sure levels were in the expected range and that the dosage was correct (an easy error to make, especially if you're tired or the pharmacy makes a mistake with the concentration which happened to us).

Regulate diet. Raw is great for a diabetic dog or cat, but if you're not willing to go against your vet, another improvement would be grain-free food if you're not already using it. That will also help stabilize blood glucose levels. Be careful with treats, obviously. Avoid high glycemic index ingredients.

A couple of years ago, I'd have told you to look into PZI insulins as an additional help since they are more effective and longer acting then the stuff vets usually suggest. It helped my mother get her Type 2 diabetes cat off of insulin permanently. I was told that they were not going to be manufactured any longer back in 2009 because of cost issues. But, a google search is bringing up pages, so you might want to check it out anyway.


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## Gilly1331 (Apr 16, 2011)

Where in CT are you? I do daily dog walks and depending on where you are could fit you in. I dog walk privatly and through a friends pet sitting business which is bonded/insured. If you want you can PM me with your town/city to see if you are in my area. My friends petsitting business is more expensive then my private walks it is bc the business is insured and bonded where as I am just bonded bc I work at a police dept. If we are not in your area I can prob suggest some other ideas. If this helps I am located in Newtown, CT but I travel a good distance daily for my daily walks.


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