Dogs pick signs of owners' illness

British research showing dogs can detect diabetic attacks comes as no surprise toa local expert, reports KATHERINE HOBY.

British research shows that some dogs can detect when their diabetic owners have low glucose levels and are likely to sink into a coma.

And the findings come as no surprise to a diabetes expert here.

A report in the British Medical Journal says dogs react strongly, informing their owners in their own ways of the need to act to counter hypoglycaemia.

Gareth Williams and Mimi Chen, of University Hospital, Liverpool, and Mark Daly, of Wansbeck General Hospital, Ashington, described the dogs' unusual life-saving abilities, citing three cases.

They believe about a third of dogs living with diabetics show changes in behaviour during hypoglycaemic episodes, when control of blood sugar becomes dangerously low.

Diabetes New Zealand national president Margaret Jamieson said the findings did not surprise her.

"I've been around diabetes sufferers for 30 years or more. Once you're around one for a long period of time - whether you're a person or a dog I suspect - you get a feeling for these things."

She said many diabetes sufferers had partners who could detect a low glucose level.

"Many, many people's partners can sense it before the people themselves know. They can look across the room, or look the person in the face and see it coming on."

It was easy to see in the face of someone you know well.

"They look quite different. You can just tell."

She said dogs were almost certainly similar to humans in that if they had been with their owner long enough they could pick up different feelings and moods.

"I'm sure it must be them going by smell. Or feeling. They tend to sense mood changes."

The British research cited three case studies.

Natt, a 3-year-old golden retriever, can detect through the bedroom door when his sleeping owner is about to go into a coma. He barks and scrabbles on the door to wake her up and settles only when she has stabilised.

He paces up and down, or puts his head in the lap of his 34-year-old owner, when he becomes aware of hypoglycaemia. Like the other two dogs, he will settle only when he is sure all is well.

Candy, a 9-year-old mongrel bitch, jumps up, runs out of the room and hides under a chair in the hall when her owner, a 66-year-old woman, suffers hypoglycaemic symptoms, even though she is often unaware of it.

Candy re-emerges only when her owner has eaten and is comfortable again.

Susie, a 7-year-old mongrel bitch, will not leave the house, or turns down her favourite chocolate treats, if she suspects that her owner, Gwendoline Ball, 47, is hypoglycaemic. Sometimes she nudges her awake at night.

The team is not sure how the dogs become aware of the condition of their owners.

"All were clearly able to sense hypoglycaemia accurately under circumstances when the patients themselves were initially unaware of falling glucose levels," the team said.

"Susie and Natt deserve special mention because they were able to detect nocturnal episodes in their owners and then undertook further corrective action by waking them to eat - thus going further than any available glucose meter."

The dogs could be noticing changes in smell, caused by sweating, muscle tremors, or behavioural alterations such as failing to respond to the dog in the normal way.

"We are attracted by the notion of the sixth sense, with which dogs are commonly credited, but acknowledge that this will need to be substantiated by further research," the team says.

* To find out more about diabetes, call the national office on 04-499-7145 or 0800-DIABETES (0800-342-238).