About
Sunny & Cooper
Who I am, and why I started First Light.
Sunny, owner“I wish my dog lived as long as I do.”Updated
I'm an owner, not a vet. This is not veterinary advice, so check anything medical with your own vet.
The questions I’m answering
Plain answers to the questions owners of diabetic dogs ask. I'm not a vet, so check anything medical with your own vet.
No ads, no sponsors, and nobody pays me to recommend anything.
I'm Sunny. I live in India, and my Labrador Cooper has diabetes. Before he was diagnosed, he was drinking and peeing a lot more than usual. Here you'll find plain answers to the questions owners ask, and a simple daily log you can show your vet.
Why I started First Light
After Cooper was diagnosed, I read whatever research I could find on diabetic dogs. A lot of the studies were tiny. The ones below followed between 7 and 13 dogs each.
I’m not knocking the vets who ran them. Studies like these are hard to do, and each one answered the question it set out to ask. But a handful of dogs can only tell you so much about a normal morning with a dog like mine. I’m not a scientist either, and there may be bigger studies I missed.
So I wanted a place built around what owners actually go through: what he ate, how he seemed, what the vet said, and what to ask next. Please don’t use it in place of your vet. You won’t find insulin amounts here.
A few of the studies, and how many dogs each followed
I’ve only listed how many dogs were in each study, taken from its published abstract. Ask your vet what the findings mean for your dog. Every study and vet source I used is listed on the Sources page.
7 dogs
Effects of insoluble and soluble dietary fiber on glycemic control in dogs with naturally occurring insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
Kimmel SE and colleagues · Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2000
10 dogs
Influence of a high fibre diet on glycaemic control and quality of life in dogs with diabetes mellitus
Graham PA and colleagues · Journal of Small Animal Practice, 2002
12 dogs
Lack of advantage of high-fibre, moderate-carbohydrate diets in dogs with stabilised diabetes
Fleeman LM and colleagues · Journal of Small Animal Practice, 2009
13 dogs
Oral chromium picolinate and control of glycemia in insulin-treated diabetic dogs
Schachter S and colleagues · Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2001
Cooper's story
Cooper is my Labrador. In his eighth year he started drinking a lot more water and peeing more than usual. It was winter, so at first I put it down to that.
Then he had two accidents indoors, near his bed. That isn't like him. We took him to the vet, and that's how we found out he has diabetes.
After that I went looking for answers. Most of what I found was small studies, some with only 10 or 12 dogs, and I read all of it myself. I made First Light so other owners whose dog has just been diagnosed don't feel lost.
This week with Cooper
Video coming soon.
Who I am
I live with this every day, but nothing here was written in a clinic, and I don’t know your dog. These are notes from an owner, so check anything medical with your vet.