Pet of the Month - Gindy

Gindy is a beautiful 9yo Blue Heeler who presented in early June to us to have a nasal flush and chest x-ray performed. However, within that week we noticed she had lost 900g! Her owners also noticed that she was drinking a lot more than usual. We went ahead with a pre-anaesthetic blood panel and a urine test which showed Gindy had elevated blood glucose levels that there was both glucose and ketones present in her urine. This confirmed that she had diabetes.

Treatment was commenced, and she was started on IV fluids and insulin injections. We rechecked her blood glucose levels throughout the day to ensure her glucose levels weren’t getting too high or too low. She was transferred that night to CVES (Canberra Veterinary Emergency Services) for continued treatment and monitoring.

It was also noticed on the pre-anaesthetic blood panel that Gindy had elevated liver parameters and a workup to see what is causing this was recommended. Once she was stabilised after a few days of blood glucose curves she was admitted for an abdominal ultrasound to investigate what might be causing the elevated liver parameters. Changes were noted on her ultrasound and it was suggested biopsies would need to be taken to work out if they are cancerous or not. Gindy’s dedicated owners allowed us to go ahead with the liver biopsies and the results thankfully came back with benign liver changes and no indication of cancer.

We are pleased to report that Gindy is managing very well with her diabetes and she has recovered from her biopsy surgery. She now requires twice daily insulin injections but her glucose levels are very well controlled and she is back to being a very happy dog again