Angus is one of those West Highland terriers who never look as white as his owners think he should. For all that he had been robustly healthy for most of his nine years until a couple of weeks ago.

His owner brought him along because he had noticed him drinking more than usual. He was hungrier than usual too, although he had lost a little weight.

As I examined him I could find little to explain his symptoms so my next step was to send him out with one of my nurses armed with a clean bowl. A few minutes later they appeared triumphant with a urine sample and disappeared into the laboratory to test it.

Here was the answer. His urine was full of sugar: he had sugar diabetes. Now the real work started.

First I talked to his owners about the illness. Diabetes is a lifelong illness and although many dogs with diabetes are well and lead full and happy lives, the illness does impose some restrictions.

Diabetic dogs need a regular routine of an injection and meal at the same time each morning. Although it only takes a few minutes, this can be a problem. Once I had explained that they could organise it as early as they liked so that they could get it sorted out before they started looking after grandchildren, they were reassured.

Their next worry was cost. There is always some expense in the initial tests and stabilisation. Once this is done treatment generally costs around £5 to £10 a week. Then came their biggest worry.

Like every owner, they were unhappy about the idea of giving him an injection every day. They were worried that the injections would be painful and that they might get it wrong with disastrous consequences. They were surprised when I explained that insulin injections do not hurt in dogs. Thanks to the combination of the loose skin that dogs have and the very tiny needles on insulin syringes dogs do not usually feel the injection at all. Angus, being male, made it easier to catch a urine sample each morning.

I explained that they would need to keep a chart of how much food and insulin he had and the results of his urine tests, even his weight and how much food he ate. From now on this would be their bible for controlling his diabetes.

After the discussion his owner agreed to going ahead with treatment, so Angus spent the next eight days in hospital while I did tests to check for any complications, started him on his new diet and gave him gradually increasing doses of insulin until he had just enough to keep his blood sugar balanced.

For the first few days when he was ready to go home, my nurses helped his owner give the insulin. Now he is back at home and doing well.

His owner knows that sooner or later diabetes will cause some complications, but for now he is well and there is no reason why he should not stay that way.

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