Shine OnDogs can save the lives of diabetics
Dogs — with their keen noses — can help sniff out drugs and find missing persons. But some people living with diabetes also put that superior canine sense of smell to work, using service dogs to help warn them about spikes and drops in blood sugar levels
A recent CBC article profiles a Regina family, who got a four-month-old black lab named Keeva, who already knows how to detect high and low blood sugar levels. Keeva will help seven-year-old Taeghan Rice to manage her diabetes and let her parents sleep through the night, instead of getting up three or four times to check their daughter's blood sugar.
"Knowing that even when we're not there, she will be able to be there to protect him and to do what needs to be done in the situation, that makes us feel so much better," Teaghan's mother Pam told CBC.
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Dogs like Keeva are also trained to bring their owners sugar-filled snacks or insulin kits if their blood sugar gets too low or high. In an extreme emergency — for instance, if the owner falls unconscious due to extremely low blood sugar — the dogs will dial 911 using a special phone pad.
Scientists have found anecdotal evidence that even untrained dogs react during owners' hypoglycemic episodes.
According to Dogs4Diabetes, a California-based company that trains diabetic alert dogs, trainers use the dogs' natural aptitude for smelling low blood sugar and teach them to react a certain way when they smell that particular scent. The dogs, however, cost thousands of dollars.
Check out the video below of a CBC news report on this story:
