Diabetic Labradors

Discussion in 'Labrador Health' started by Brewster Bear, Oct 28, 2024 at 2:00 AM.

  1. Brewster Bear

    Brewster Bear Registered Users

    Joined:
    May 6, 2017
    Messages:
    15
    In general if a Labrador is diabetic and their condition is regulated and on insulin, how many years can they live please?
    I Googling and getting conflicting answers.

    Thank you
     
  2. Sammie@labforumHQ

    Sammie@labforumHQ Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2011
    Messages:
    569
    Hi there. I've no personal knowledge of canine diabetes, sorry! But... I do have a human child with type one diabetes. I'll share a little of what I know from that in case it's helpful.

    Human diabetes is rather different from canine - but I can tell you that in humans with type one diabetes (where no insulin is made by the pancreas), life expectancy is normal if you have *excellent* control of sugar levels. I can also testify that achieving that control is REALLY difficult.... we have all the best technology currently available, and a co-operative patient (mostly - he's a teenager so.... :D), who understands his condition. It's still a constant daily fight to keep his sugar levels in a safe range.

    Dogs have a more predictable diet which I imagine will help.... but my understanding is that they are managed with just one or two injections of insulin a day (as opposed to my son who is microdosed every 5 minutes by amazing modern tech!). My assumption is that their life expectancy will depend massively on how well those daily doses are titrated against their food intake, exercise, and metabolism - which will depend on the dog, their appetite, their diet in general, how and how often you monitor their sugar etc.

    I believe long term outcomes for dogs with diabetes also depend on their breed, gender, age at diagnosis, the cause of the diabetes, and what co-existing conditions there are.

    Sorry I know this doesn't answer your question... but it may help explain why you aren't finding a nice straightforward consistent answer online!
     

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