Introducing Jazz

[Jazz's Mum]

Hi everyone,

My furry son, Jazz has recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I'm having a really hard time with his blindness due to cataracts in both eyes. Have any of you tried holistic eye drops to help with this? I've been looking at Primalix Cataractin online and don't know if it's a scam or really works. Thank you.

[CraigM]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Welcome to the forum.
Dogs are usually like type 1 diabetics, others will confirm this.
I would recommend seeing an ophthalmologist for recommendations for drops / treatment.

Just heading to bed, but I'm sure others will checking-in in the morning.

Craig

[Jazz's Mum]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Thanks Craig. This is all very new to me and I appreciate the feedback.

[amydunn19]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Hi and Welcome to you and Jazz! As Craig said, dogs are type 1 diabetics - cats are usually type 2.

I would avoid holistic drops and go with an opthalmologist - it is very important to get on the right one asap. In fact, there are only about a handful of any supplements that work well with diabetes and most are to address a concurrent issue. It is best to get them on a stable diet and insulin dose before adding in extra stuff.
Tell us more about Jazz - how old is he? What type insulin is he taking? Hiw much does he weigh?

[Jazz's Mum]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Jazz is a beautiful 9 year old Black Lab/Border Collie cross. He went blind so quickly that I'm still in mourning period. The vet just increased his dosage of Humulin to 12 units. He is adapting quite well, way better than me. We can't afford to have surgery on his cataracts. It will cost us about $8,000. I've thought of getting a second job. I hate to see him this way.

[Eddie]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Hello
I just wanted to say that I can completely understand the mourning of the loss of sight. I don't know about cataracts as we have not had to deal with them since our dog had already lost his sight.
Our dog lost his sight several years ago, long before he was diagnosed with diabetes and for non-diabetic reasons. There was nothing we could do to reverse it so we just had to get on with looking after him as he was. As you say with your dog, they do seem able to adapt remarkably well.
He does bump into things but not as much as you would expect. I have learned to accept that some days he will just bump into things and he mostly just seems to shrug his shoulders and carry on.
The best new word we taught him was "Bump" which tells him that he has to stop or he will hit something. It is really useful because we can call it out when we are not right by him and can't just grab him.
You can do lots of things to help (many are set out in a book called "Living with Blind Dogs") - just basic things like not moving furniture, not leaving random stuff lying around where he won't expect them, cushioning sharp edges (like table legs) with bubble wrap, using scents to mark particular spots etc etc. If he likes to play you can get balls that make a noise all the time (didn't work for us though as it frightened one of the other dogs!).
It will get easier - but it is a tough thing to accept I know.
Antonia

[Charlie's mom]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

As Antonia said they do adapt amazingly well to blindness. Charlie sometimes does get turned around in my office (gets under the desk and can't get out)and we do pick up our shoes more diligently, but he is able to walk throughout our neighborhood. It did take a good 6 weeks before his strength came back is his back legs. While he was never well trained (yes my fault not his) he does understand Wait and seems to have learned Jump for the step into the house.

Keeping you two on my good wishes list.

Laura

[Jazz's Mum]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Thank you for your encouraging words. I will see if I can find that book, Antonia. It will be helpful for me. I've been guiding Jazz down the outside stairs in the morning and I notice that he touches his nose against my leg alot so he can find his way around. His strength has come back and he seems happier so that makes me feel better, although I'm going to miss seeing him looking out the window when we come home from work. Lately he's been ravenous and has a craving for veggies. So I've been cutting up carrots, celery and cucumber and giving it to him instead of dog biscuits!

[Eddie]

Re: Jazz and Cataract Eye Drops

Glad he seems to be feeling better.

You might find he still looks out of the window anyway. Eddie has a way of sitting in front of us and fixing us with a steely stare when he has decided it is food time. The fact that he can't actually see us doesn't seem to bother him!

If you think he is at all worried about knowing where you are you can do what I do which is wear a little jingly cat bell on my shoe for when we are outside. It's nice when I'm walking towards the dogs and the others can see me but Eddie also knows I'm approaching and looks up for me too because he can hear me. We also talk to him a lot so he knows where we are.
Antonia

[Jazz's Mum]

Introducing Jazz

Hi All,

Jazz, our 9 year old Black Lab/Border Collie cross was diagnosed with diabetes two weeks ago. He also went blind so quickly that it has been the hardest adjustment for us and for him. I am devastated that he can't look out the window anymore and I miss his beautiful brown eyes. It makes me want to cry thinking about it.


My husband and I noticed that he had been drinking a lot of water lately, and one day I found him in the corner of the room shaking and bumping into things, so we took him to the vet and was told to give him two injections per day of Humulin, 10 IU to start with. We are now giving him 12 IU which I give him at 6:30 am and 6:30 pm along with his meal.

He is such a sweet boy and doesn’t fuss when I give him his shots, probably because he is so busy eating and is ravenous all the time. The vet told me to feed him vegetables instead of biscuits or jerky so I’ve been feeding him celery, carrots and cucumbers when I am making salad and I keep a baggie of chopped up carrots for him as well.



Do you have any ideas for healthy snacks? We are hoping that his appetite is eventually satisfied. Right now he is getting dry dog food with chicken or salmon mixed in.

This forum has been such a great help. Thank you.

[vivianne79]

Re: Introducing Jazz

hi There!!

Just wanted to check with you if you ever got to use the Primalix Cataractin supplement for your dog? Did it work?

We have a diabetic 9-year old Mini Schnauzer and dealing with controlling his diabetes over the last couple of months has been very difficult. Thank God, he's now doing much better... But now his eyes are getting cloudier and he's developing diabetic cataracts. We already took him to the ophtalmologist and to a naturopath (his glucose levels are doing much better after we have followed the naturopath's recommendations). We really don't want to go through the surgery process. We have a younger schnauzer who happened to have juvenile cataracts and we know how tough is the post-care process. Is not easy to deal with our diabetic schnauzer when it comes to eye drops, he has to use muzzle, he moves from side to side very aggresive... and if we do the surgery and he doesn't do well with the eye drops, he might loose the vision and we also loose the money. (The first two weeks after the surgery they can not do tough movements, jump, etc etc).

The naturopath already gave us some eye drops recommendations for his cataracts before we decide whether to do the surgery or not (our next appointment with the ophthalmologist is in 6 weeks), but if I can find a product that is not eye drops that can reverse his cataracts, that would be most amazing thing in the world...

Hope anyone can help! Thanks so much :-)

Vivianne

[k9diabetes]

Re: Introducing Jazz

It seems like this post got lost along the way back in February - my apologies for that!

How is Jazz doing?

Natalie