Comment

Comment by Suftroml on January 30, 2011 at 11:24am

Google diabetic alert dogs, and if you are in a heavily populated area add your city/state. AZ has at least four kennels that train DADs. Some require you provide the animal, others only train their own, and some do both. When I looked it up training your own dog (not including the expenses for having the dog) ran between 4-6k. Some was resident training (they kept the dog onsite for 24/7 training) and some was non-resident (you bring the dog to classes and train at home). Those who provide you with a dog generally run between 8-10k (the extra money covers food, shots, etc). The dog is pre-trained, then non-resident training is used to essentially train you how to handle the dog. If you have a dog you are extremely close to it may be worth it to have them trained (note - some kennels have an old age cut-off for training). In addition it takes approximately two years to train a DAD, so patience is required.

To offset the costs of training there are several aid packages available. Some insurance plans offer stipends for service animals. Many states, local communities and even the kennels themselves offer grants and scholarships to receive and train service animals. Also, for Veterans the VA Administration has a program to provide service animals. Discuss with your provider (the program is run through the Aids and Prosthetics Dept in the hospitals). Keep in mind DADs are relatively new in the medical/service animal field and many doctors and insurance companies may need to be educated as to what they are.

Comment by Sarah Keech on January 29, 2011 at 4:46pm

Thanks for sharing. Finding out more about these dogs may help a lot of diabetics. Especially if they have a CGM that is not that accurate.

Comment by GiGi on January 29, 2011 at 3:33pm

The CGM probably wouldn't have worked for me. I would set my alarm every couple of hours to check my sugar and I wouldn't hear it go off. Cooper nudges me constantly until I get up. I googled diabetic alert dogs. The dog, vet bills and I believe food and grooming are deductible as medical on your taxes. My husband justified the cost of Cooper saying he was cheaper than a funeral. I got Cooper from Betheden Kennels, plus there is another kennel Wildrose that is supposed to be good.

Comment by Sarah Keech on January 27, 2011 at 6:42pm

I have heard about the "diabetic dogs" trained to smell when your BG is going low. I currently have a CGM to help me. Is it difficult to find people who train these dogs? What do they typically cost? I have two hounds so I know the usual costs of owning a dog like vet bills, good food that has no corn fillers and lots of good proteins, grooming, etc. I also know the seeing eye dogs "fail" their tests for sometimes silly things that most people could work around like if they have allergies like my beagle who has allergies to a lot of pollens.It might lower the costs of training health related work dogs if the associations were willing to place those dogs with people who can work with those issues.

Comment by GiGi on January 27, 2011 at 5:38pm

I've had numerous lows. The two scariest were almost 2 years ago (before I got my diabetic alert dog). The first I remember waking up and not being able to speak, I tried to get out of bed and fell, the left side of my body was limp. I dragged myself to the doorway with my right side and kept hitting the floor until my husband heard me and came back to check. It really scared him even my face sagged. A carefully swallowed glass of chocolate milk and everything returned to normal. With the second one I had just left my doctors office and I don't remember leaving his parking lot. I drove thru traffic and missed my turnoff home I was probably 8 or 9 miles out on another road and hit a culvert and turn my dodge durango end for end, landing luckily on the tires. No one but me was involved, thank God. I haven't had a bad low in almost 2 years.

Comment by LaGuitariste on January 26, 2011 at 8:45pm

One time (three years ago?) I had an exercise-induced hypo. I just remembered this one. Anyway, I was at a Safeway trying to purchase a bottle of juice and I couldn't understand the instructions on the debit-card reader -- at the Safeway where I had been using my debit card twice a week for years! It was like the instructions were in Swahili or something: "Slike Yr Cabara Et Selt Enrert". HUH?!? I told the manager, I'm diabetic and I'm in trouble here -- can I drink this juice and sit for a few minutes and pay you when my brain starts working again? He was very nice and walked me to a chair. Lesson learned: people in stores would prefer that you drink/eat some sugar, rather than passing out cold, collapsing, soiling the floor with your blood when you bonk your head and needing the EMS.

I was fine in 15-20 minutes.

Comment by LaGuitariste on January 26, 2011 at 8:34pm

Thanks, Linda! I'm happy to find this website and a group where we can talk about hypos. I'm still trying to figure everything out.

Comment by Linda G on January 26, 2011 at 5:00am

Hi Jean....nice that you're here :)

Comment by Linda G on December 20, 2010 at 6:56pm

Hey Kelly.............welcome to the rabble! Nice to have you!!

Comment by Linda G on December 20, 2010 at 5:26pm

Well, I've gone as far as having the metre and the blasted tabs next to me once.........and still overlooking the obvious!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• …
• 12
• Next ›
• Page