My 2 Yr old Lab/Retriever has been sick for 4 months now with (in my mind) no clear answers. I have been to the vet and eventually the consensus was that she had a tumor in her pancreas but she should have been dead by now if that was the case.

Results from blood tests are that she has extremely low glucose (below the lowest possible okay level) and is on cortisone tablets to help this. She also has crazy insulin levels - they should be between 5 - 20 and hers was tested at 129!

In the months that she has been sick she has always indicated low levels - hypoglycemic and never had any indications of high levels. We have been recommended to feed her a high protein diet and since putting her on that she showed definite improvement.

A couple of weeks before Christmas we thought she was going to die because we were thinking it was a tumor. She had deteriorated to the point of seizures, she could get up to eat or toilet, she had the shakes. But then after about 10 days of being particularly sick she improved. However still not better - most of the time she is still inidcative of low glucose - she is disoriented in the morning and often wobbly, can't stand properly and walks into things. I give her her cortisone crushed up in corn syrup (a tip I read from people who's dogs are diabetic but also need to watch for a low/hypo). This helps her to improve quite quickly but then she still mainly just sleeps all day and has enough energy to eat and toilet. She is nothing like her normal self - being a young dog we could easily walk her 3 times a day and she would have plenty of energy - now she is not even interested in any play whatsoever.

She drinks a ridiculous amount of water - up to 2 buckets a day (20L)! And wees all the time. She is obsessive about food, has lost a little bit of weight but has never been off her food.

She had an ultrasound which showed nothing. The vet does not recommend surgery as he thinks there is a very good chance she would not survive it and a good chance they would not find anything anyway.

Thanks for reading, hope you can help.

I am diabetic, and have many clients who are; these are all diabetic symptoms, so why is she not being treated with insulin? Any pancreatic condition is going to go towards diabetes. You post indicates you are an intelligent caring person and know your pet, do you not think you need a second opinion vet. I don't know how well you know the one you have now.

It is a shame when a pet has diabetes but it can be controlled, is expensive and touch and go because they can't indicate when they are having a low blood sugar issue. Diet is an important part of this.

Mine is not the only answer you will seel; we do have some very good pet experts ready, as soon as they read this of course, we are all volunteers, so they may not all be on line at the same time.

Good luck and god bless.