Everything you wanted to know about a little old dog who has been diagnosed with insulinoma (an aggressive insulin producing tumour), but were too afraid to ask.

To recap. Our little dog, Ama, had a bad episode of pancreatitis in January. Too much cheese and yoghurt. She came home from the specialist vet with a not unreasonable diagnosis of insulinoma and a blood glucose sensor. Her medical team had trouble stabilising her blood glucose levels and a blood test showed a high insulin blood serum level. Two weeks of BG data indicated that her BGLs were fine.

We suspect the diagnosis may be wrong. So we took her back to the specialist vet who confirmed she had insulinoma. However her regular vet hadn’t sent through her BG data, so we did that after the appointment. People get busy. It happens. And then we heard nothing.

This week we took Ama to the regular vet for another BG sensor and follow up blood tests because nothing much seems to have changed. And those tests were fine! However the new BG home data indicates lowish but steady BGLs. So, who the hell knows?

By necessity, Ama has been rather sedentary. Don’t want her to go hypo. Mostly she sleeps in the kitchen. It is her domain now, reinforcing her superiority over the other dogs. We will do a few experiments while she has the new sensor and see what happens to her BGLs when we introduce some exercise.

Anyway, the prognosis for untreated insulinoma was six months at most. It’s been three months. Ama continues none too shabbily.

So we wait and wonder. None of us are in a hurry to see the back of her, including her regular vet team who we overhead call her the nice one. We shall not mention that to Fynnie or Makea.

Is my backside too big?

In the meantime, we medicate Ama with non-fat treats. Ama doesn’t complain but she would prefer cheese.

Take care, everyone. Stay calm and don’t forget to eat a treat every now and then.

Kind Regards.

Tracy.

27 thoughts on “Ama – The Nice One”

  3. It’s so worrying when they get sick and you have to change their whole routine. We have one dog with pancreatis and fatty foods are now off his diet. He doesn’t understand why he can’t have cheese either. In fact we switched both dogs to a home cooked diet. I make their treats too. I have even made birthday cakes for them. The change in food has helped though. Last year Teddy seemed to be becoming a little old man. Now with new diet and arthritis medicine he’s a new dog. I hope Ama will continue to manage well. As Brian say as long as she’s happy.

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    1. Teddy sounds like he has bounced back well from his pancreatitis bout, Vanda. He sounds like he is living like a king with all those home cooked meals.
      Ama is going well and is happy to be able to spend so much time in the kitchen, close to the food.

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  6. Tracy, so sorry about Ama. It sounds like she’s doing better on her low fat diet. Her happiness is what counts. We had to put our Gem down this week. He was 14 1/2 years with a heart murmur of 5 out of 5. The house feels so different now, but our memories bring us joy. Enjoy Ama and your other two and continue to create joyous memories.

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      1. Thanks for the hug Tracy. I’m sure Gem is making his presence known in the cosmos. I’m missing him, but slowly getting used to not having him doing his usual things in the house, nagging me to take him out or walk him. He was the one and only dog, and the last. Life without a dog takes getting used to.

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  10. Confusing advice – but as long as she seems happy, I guess she is! So good to see her and good to know that you think “what will be will be”. It feels good to hear that she is close to you in the kitchen and will get a patting now and then. That’s all they ask for – having their family close.

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    1. We’ve just finished a second round of continuous glucose monitoring and think we may have identified the source of the problem. A protein based blood glucose spike between 3am and 6am causing her pancreas to pump out a lot of insulin to return her level to normal. Quite possibly when the vet did the insulin serum test, it was at the back end of the spike when her body had lots of insulin circulating but a low blood glucose level. That’s my theory anyway. In other words, she is as fine as an old dog can be.

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