Home
You can view the current or previous issues of Diabetes Health online, in their entirety, anytime you want.
Click Here To View
See if you qualify for our free healthcare professional magazines. Click here to start your application for Pre-Diabetes Health, Diabetes Health Pharmacist and Diabetes Health Professional.
Latest Blood Sugar Articles
Popular Blood Sugar Articles
Highly Recommended Blood Sugar Articles
Email to a Friend
Send a link to this page to your friends and colleagues.
Zip the Dog's Nose Knows Lows: Diabetes Alert Dog Saves a Life
Zip the Diabetes Dog
That long snout on a typical dog is there for a very good reason. It gathers up scent molecules and sends them deep down to special sniffing cells that hold 25 times the number of scent receptors that we humans have. Dogs can sense complex odors that are 100 million times weaker than our little noses can. Among those scents is the chemical mix that bodies manufacture when they are getting dangerously low on blood sugar.
Karen Hayes, a 45-year-old Mississippian with a warm southern accent and a long history of type 1, knew nothing about hypo-sniffing dogs when she got Zip, her beloved toy poodle. Six weeks old when she brought him home, Zip was already fetching a week later. Karen knew then that she had something special and she was right: when he was seven months old, Zip saved her life.
The day before it happened, Karen held a family party and had a busy day full of swimming and eating shrimp. That night, her husband Peter took a Benadryl for a horsefly bite, and the couple went to sleep with Zip, as always, between them on the bed. At about 1:30 a.m., Peter was awakened from his heavy slumber by the persistent whimpering of Zip, who was pawing at his face. Once Peter was awake, Zip immediately rushed to Karen and started whining. When Peter reached over to touch her, he found she was sweating profusely, cold, and pale, and he couldn’t wake her up. By the time the ambulance arrived, Karen’s blood sugar was 31 mg/dl. Zip stayed right by Karen’s left shoulder and wouldn’t budge throughout the entire incident.
Since that time, Zip has alerted Karen to low blood sugars three more times when she’s been asleep. Each time, her blood glucose has been about 50 mg/dl. Twice he’s alerted her when she was awake, and she’s had blood sugar of around 47.
Although Zip taught himself, there are a number of organizations in existence that train diabetes alert dogs. They teach the dogs to distinguish the subtle changes in odor of sweat and breath that are associated with low blood sugar, and to respond by alerting others when it happens. Dogs4Diabetics is a non-profit located in Concord, California. Great Plains Assistance Dogs Foundation is based in North Dakota. Heaven Scent Paws, in Missouri, trains dogs and also sells training materials with which you can home-train your own dog.
The need for such dogs is greater than these organization are able to keep up with. Parents of diabetic children are especially interested, because they often have to check their child’s blood sugar several times during the night. Many parents would love to have the security of a dependable dog in their child’s room, ready to alert them if their child’s blood sugar were to go low. Continuous glucose monitors are becoming available, it’s true, but they’re just not very cuddly. Certainly, Karen wouldn’t trade Zip for all the CGMs in the world. As she says, “He’s just a once-in-a-lifetime dog.”
Categories: Blood Glucose, Blood Sugar, Diabetes, Diabetes, Personal Stories, Type 1 Issues
You May Also Be Interested In...
-
Diabetes Health
Diabetes Health is the essential resource for people living with diabetes- both newly diagnosed and experienced as well as the professionals who care for them. We provide balanced expert news and information on living healthfully with diabetes. Each issue includes cutting-edge editorial coverage of new products, research, treatment options, and meaningful lifestyle issues.
-
Topics
- Diabetic / Diabetes Health
- Type 1 / 1.5 Diabetes
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Blood Glucose / Sugar
- High/Low Blood Sugar / Fast Acting Glucose
- Insulin- Pumps, Pens & Syringes
- Continuous Glucose Monitors, CGM, Infusion Sets
- Type 2 Medications
- Hyperglycemia
- Hypoglycemia
Comments
Add your comments about this article below. You can add comments as a registered user or anonymously. If you choose to post anonymously your comments will be sent to our moderator for approval before they appear on this page. If you choose to post as a registered user your comments will appear instantly.
When voicing your views via the comment feature, please respect the Diabetes Health community by refraining from comments that could be considered offensive to other people. Diabetes Health reserves the right to remove comments when necessary to maintain the cordial voice of the diabetes community.
For your privacy and protection, we ask that you do not include personal details such as address or telephone number in any comments posted.
Don't have your Diabetes Health Username? Register now and add your comments to all our content.
Register...
Register your Diabetes Health Username here.
Have Your Say...