Treatment of Canine Diabetic Neuropathy

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. Bob Pane with South Kendall Animal Clinic. Let's talk a little bit about diabetic neuropathy and the treatment of that. It's an interesting syndrome because you don't see it very often. It usually occurs with dogs that are diabetic that aren't really being controlled so the first thing we recommend is making sure we are controlled with diabetes and sometimes we have to change the Insulin type or the food type you are giving. If it doesn't respond well there are new medications that we recommend using. One of the things if you are in to holistic medications is through Omega Fatty Acids or something that may help. Gabapectin also helps, we have been using that more frequently lately. It helps the nerves that are being I guess deoxidized or not properly nourished by the high levels of hyperglycemia in the body. Nobody really knows why this happens. It happens a lot in cats but we see it infrequently with dogs. Again there are medications we use. Again I would recommend having a veterinarian check the glucose level you have a urine glucose. Make sure you are being properly given the injections in the proper dose in the proper areas. Make sure that if that is not working maybe change the type of diabetic mediation that there are some Insulin type, there are several Insulin types we use out there and some work better than others. So I would think most of the time you can probably circumvent the diabetic neuropathy by getting a better control of the diabetes and that means not having a hyperglycemic, because chronic hyperglycemia causes this syndrome where they don't feel, they just feel a little ataxic, they don't feel their nerves that well and it is a sad syndrome, it happens a lot. So talk to your veterinarian. There are medications out there we recommend and maybe you could change the Insulin type and see if that will help the neurology that you are seeing or neuropathy that you are seeing."