I just saw a conversation on FB about a dog who went wobbly after an hour of dashing around on the beach. The owner immediately took him to the vet and was advised to keep a Mars Bar for such a situation. Everyone said the vet ought to be struck off until this chap posted:
Thought you might like some input from a vet. Low blood sugar is quite common in active dogs, especially when there are unusual bursts of high activity. Mars bar is a great way to deal with it. There is very little actual chocolate in a Mars Bar - a fatal dose works out to about 2 Bars per kilo bodyweight, (so about 60 Mars Bars for a 30kg retriever) which is considerably more than your vet would have recommended. The two biggest ingredients in a Mars Bar are sugar and glucose syrup, which is exactly what your dog would need in this situation. A big advantage of using Mars Bar is that most dogs will still eat it, even if almost comatose. I always used to carry 1cm thick slices to give our Jack Russell, who occasionally went hypo - it worked fine for her. (In humans, the recommended first aid treatment is Coca-cola - the full sugar stuff, but most dogs dislike fizzy drinks). Of course you can use glucose tablets etc, but we like to give advice that people can follow easily in an emergency & Mars Bars are quite easy to obtain. As regards her diet, changing it is unlikely to make much difference, because the diet largely affects how much glucose will be in long-term storage. Hypoglycaemia happens when there is a lot of activity in a short space of time. This uses up the glucose which is free in the bloodstream, before the body's stores can be mobilised. Giving lots of carbs will just increase her long-term stores (ie make her fat) which, paradoxically, may even increase her risk of hypoglycaemia in these circumstances. I'd stick with her current raw diet. Them's the facts. Hope that helps.
Thought you might like some input from a vet. Low blood sugar is quite common in active dogs, especially when there are unusual bursts of high activity. Mars bar is a great way to deal with it. There is very little actual chocolate in a Mars Bar - a fatal dose works out to about 2 Bars per kilo bodyweight, (so about 60 Mars Bars for a 30kg retriever) which is considerably more than your vet would have recommended. The two biggest ingredients in a Mars Bar are sugar and glucose syrup, which is exactly what your dog would need in this situation. A big advantage of using Mars Bar is that most dogs will still eat it, even if almost comatose. I always used to carry 1cm thick slices to give our Jack Russell, who occasionally went hypo - it worked fine for her. (In humans, the recommended first aid treatment is Coca-cola - the full sugar stuff, but most dogs dislike fizzy drinks). Of course you can use glucose tablets etc, but we like to give advice that people can follow easily in an emergency & Mars Bars are quite easy to obtain. As regards her diet, changing it is unlikely to make much difference, because the diet largely affects how much glucose will be in long-term storage. Hypoglycaemia happens when there is a lot of activity in a short space of time. This uses up the glucose which is free in the bloodstream, before the body's stores can be mobilised. Giving lots of carbs will just increase her long-term stores (ie make her fat) which, paradoxically, may even increase her risk of hypoglycaemia in these circumstances. I'd stick with her current raw diet. Them's the facts. Hope that helps.
