Appropriately adjusting diet for a diabetic dog can help a little further with managing the condition. While additional exercise and losing weight will improve the quality of your diabetic dog's life, insulin will be the main medicament for maintaining the condition. Therefore, insulin is the only adequate treatment for a dog with diabetes, and there are different types of it. Since lack of insulin in your dog's body is the problem, injecting insulin is the only way to manage this condition. Overweight dogs are more likely to have diabetes as well. The dog can be born with diabetes, but these cases are quite rare. In any case, diabetes is not that common but according to statistics, the number of dogs suffering from this disorder is somewhere between one in 500 to one in 100.ĭiabetes mostly affects middle-aged and senior dogs, usually after the age of 5 or 6. Your dog is far more likely to develop Type 1 diabetes than Type 2. In this case, the dog’s organism creates insulin but the cells don’t respond to the normal insulin level. Type 2 is also called insulin-resistant diabetes. This is a hormone used for regulating the glucose level and the lack of it means that the organism cannot adequately regulate blood sugar levels. Type 1 diabetes prevents a dog's body from creating sufficient insulin. The characteristics and effects of canine diabetes are similar to that in humans, but the disorder still differs in certain regards. What Is Diabetes?ĭiabetes in dogs is a permanent endocrine disorder. Eventually, the symptoms of lack of insulin will start showing, and will get worse with time, to the point of needing to hospitalize the dog. The exact time highly depends on each individual pet. In most cases, a diabetic dog can go anywhere from 1 to 3 days without insulin injection and not go into a crisis mode. So you might ask yourself, what would happen if you skip a dose and how long can a diabetic dog go without insulin. It also requires regular administration and commitment. A 100-units insulin bottle can cost anywhere from $200 to $300. However, insulin for dogs is quite expensive, and the prices have been going up in the last five years. What Happens If You Don’t Give Your Dog Insulin At All?.What Happens If You Skip Your Dog's Insulin Shot?.