All dog owners need to read this

[critters]

I'm not aware of any dog going deaf from diabetes... could you point me to a source for that?

Natalie

No sources, but I've seen it happen in humans as part of the general nerve problems diabetes can cause. It seemed a lot more rare than blindness but happened occasionally.

[k9diabetes]

Fortunately for dogs, they rarely suffer from neuropathy from diabetes and do not suffer the kind of widespread neuropathy that people do. You mostly see hind leg weakness only and it typically occurs when a dog has had very high blood sugar for an extended period of time - usually when it's sustained at 600 or higher so very very high - or at less severe blood sugar levels (but still high) if they already suffer some kind of spinal neuropathy from another cause. It's rare enough that some authoritative articles have said it doesn't happen. But I have seen it in the circumstances I mentioned. I'm glad that not many dogs show up with blood sugar that's exceeded 600! And the good news is that most of them will recover from it once their blood sugar levels are controlled.

The species differences are really interesting. Dogs' main side effect from poorly controlled diabetes is blindness caused by cataracts. The high blood sugar destroys the dogs' lenses, rather quickly usually. They generally don't experience the heart disease and other severe side effects that human diabetics do, probably thanks to a combination of genetics and a shorter life span. And while cats almost never get diabetes-induced cataracts, they are prone to hind-leg weakness from neuropathy.

Natalie

[critters]

Fortunately for dogs, they rarely suffer from neuropathy from diabetes and do not suffer the kind of widespread neuropathy that people do. You mostly see hind leg weakness only and it typically occurs when a dog has had very high blood sugar for an extended period of time - usually when it's sustained at 600 or higher so very very high - or at less severe blood sugar levels (but still high) if they already suffer some kind of spinal neuropathy from another cause. It's rare enough that some authoritative articles have said it doesn't happen. But I have seen it in the circumstances I mentioned. I'm glad that not many dogs show up with blood sugar that's exceeded 600! And the good news is that most of them will recover from it once their blood sugar levels are controlled.

The species differences are really interesting. Dogs' main side effect from poorly controlled diabetes is blindness caused by cataracts. The high blood sugar destroys the dogs' lenses, rather quickly usually. They generally don't experience the heart disease and other severe side effects that human diabetics do, probably thanks to a combination of genetics and a shorter life span. And while cats almost never get diabetes-induced cataracts, they are prone to hind-leg weakness from neuropathy.

Natalie

for the info! You'd know!