Taking A Bite Out Of Diabetes: Texas A&M Veterinarians Save Therapy Dog Sharky
Story by Megan Bennett, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
As a small animal veterinarian with experience in recognizing emergency cases, Dr. Brittany King knew to turn to the Texas A&M Small Animal Teaching Hospital (SATH) when her own dog, Sharky, developed a life-threatening complication from diabetes.
Sharky, a 9-year-old Scottish terrier and schnauzer mix, had already proven that he was a fighter by overcoming heartworm disease and learning to trust people again after a history of abuse, even to the point of serving as a therapy animal in local hospitals.
During Sharky’s two-and-a-half week stay at the SATH, though, he would have to fight like never before as complications made his recovery challenging. Fortunately, his veterinary team’s quick thinking and around-the-clock care helped get Sharky back home to his owner and her newborn daughter.
A Friend To All
About eight years ago, King was living in Houston and recovering from the loss of her previous dog to cancer when she met Sharky.
“A rescue group actually found him, funny enough, running free in the Bryan-College Station area,” King said. “I went to his foster’s house and sat down on the ground and he came and curled up in my lap. That was all it took.
“When I adopted Sharky, I could tell that there had been some level of abuse in his past. He was scared of people and would attack men’s feet,” she said. “He was not the dog he is today. He hid in my closet all day long for a good couple of months. But I did a lot of work socializing him, and his little personality started to blossom.”
During that time, King also helped Sharky recover from heartworm disease and, once he was comfortable playing with other dogs, discovered a cute behavior that led to his name.
“He loves to play with other dogs by circling them like a shark,” King said. “Then he’ll go in and tag the other dog’s bottom with his nose and then runs around in a circle and tags them again.”
The aquatic-themed name also ties back to King’s history as a member of the Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team while she worked toward her 2005 bachelor’s degree in animal science.
Once Sharky’s true personality began to shine, King decided to have him certified for pet therapy and began taking him to nursing homes and children’s museums. After they moved north to their current home in Mansfield, they began visiting local hospitals, which quickly became their favorite destination.
“I remember one time, a lady was there with bad diabetes and high blood pressure,” King recalled. “She was petting Sharky as they were taking her blood pressure and it went down to completely normal.
“Our favorite is going to see kids before they go into surgery,” she said. “The kids may be crying and scared because they don’t want to have surgery, and Sharky just completely takes their mind away from it.”
A Sudden Decline
Sharky got the opportunity to give even more love to his family after King gave birth to her daughter in July. Shortly after the mother and daughter returned home, however, Sharky’s health began a sudden decline.
“The week that we got home from the hospital, I noticed that he was peeing and drinking more than normal,” King said. “A week or two later, we visited the hospital where he does pet therapy and he peed on the floor, which he would normally never do.”
King took Sharky to get bloodwork done and discovered that he had elevated glucose in his blood, an indication of diabetes.
Diabetes, which is common in schnauzers, occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to control blood glucose levels. The disease causes symptoms like increased urination and thirst, and can ultimately become life-threatening, but it is manageable with twice-daily insulin injections and close monitoring.
Unfortunately, in Sharky’s case, the disease progressed quickly. When Sharky also began acting especially tired and stopped eating, King rushed him to the emergency clinic where she was employed.
“I reran his bloodwork and things were much worse,” she said. “We started hospitalizing him at my clinic, but three days later, he really wasn’t responding. I decided that we needed to go to a specialist, and I wanted to go to the best.”
King loaded her car with Sharky hooked up to IV fluids in the front seat and her father and newborn daughter in the back. They headed straight for Texas A&M and arrived at the SATH’s Emergency and Critical Care Service at 8 p.m., dropping off Sharky before finding a local hotel that would become their home away from home for the next two weeks.
One Battle After Another
Shortly after Sharky arrived at the SATH, he was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) because of high levels of glucose and a buildup of an acid called ketones within his blood and urine.
“When blood sugar gets too high for too long, the body starts to metabolize differently and isn’t able to use glucose for its energy source, so fat is broken down for energy instead,” explained Dr. Abby Ostronic, a third-year internal medicine resident. “This will lead to the formation of acids called ketones in the bloodstream as an alternate energy source, which causes the patient to feel really ill.”
The veterinary team’s first step was to administer insulin to reduce the amount of glucose, and, therefore, the amount of ketones, in Sharky’s body. They also needed to test his blood frequently to closely monitor his blood sugar levels, electrolytes, pH and minerals, as these are all affected by DKA and insulin injections.
“We placed a central line, which is a catheter into the jugular vein that allows for instantaneous sampling of blood without needing to poke animals over and over again,” Ostronic said. “This is really important in our diabetic and DKA cases because we need to draw blood from them repeatedly for blood panels and at least every two hours to get a blood glucose curve.”
Although Sharky’s DKA began to resolve thanks to the insulin and vigilant monitoring, the condition’s impact on his body led him to experience a variety of other health concerns, including seizures, regurgitation and a suspected stroke. The biggest problem was that he was not eating consistently, which is a requirement for insulin to work.
“Sharky was interested in eating but would then spit up his food and couldn’t reliably keep food down. He also developed aspiration pneumonia within his lungs, likely from inhaling some of the regurgitation or from being so mentally dull that he could not keep his head up when he was so sick,” Ostronic said. “This required staying on oxygen therapy to support his lungs as they healed.”
To ensure Sharky received consistent nutrition and, in turn, could be provided with injectable insulin, the team used an endoscope with a camera to place a special tube, called a Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) tube, into Sharky’s stomach. After placement, Sharky was fed through the tube slowly in increasing amounts to ensure that he was able to keep food down.
The exact causes behind many of his ailments remained a mystery, but, with time and consistent care, Sharky’s health finally began to improve.
“There were a lot of days when he looked better, and then a lot of days when I was extremely concerned about him,” Ostronic said. “But the fact that we were able to push through and get him out of the hospital was honestly one of the highlights of my residency.”
Ostronic credits Sharky’s recovery to the efforts of everyone involved in his case, including fourth-year veterinary students, veterinary technicians in the intensive care unit and Dr. Andrew Bugbee, a clinical associate professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and chief medical officer at the SATH.
On Sept. 3, Sharky was healthy enough to go home under King’s care. He made so many friends during his long stay at the SATH that he was thrown a shark-themed goodbye party.
“All of the students were very familiar with his case and loved Sharky, so we wanted to do something really special for him,” Ostronic said. “It was a fun way to celebrate him leaving the hospital as well as our efforts and care for him while he was here.”
Providing Hope
Now back at home, Sharky continues to receive care for his diabetes and improves every day.
“With diabetic animals, the tricky part is trying to get them regulated, but once they are, they can have many quality years of life left,” King said. “Sharky’s getting stronger and is able to walk further every day. We rotate through all the local parks, and at the one that has ducks, he will just take after them like there is nothing wrong.
“As a Catholic who relies a lot on my faith, I am so grateful for God’s miracle of healing for my best friend and for the exceptional scientific knowledge of the team at Texas A&M,” King said. “Without them, Sharky wouldn’t be here.”
King’s perspective as a fellow veterinarian gave her insight into the Texas A&M team’s efforts to heal Sharky.
“It takes a village, and that’s what Sharky needed,” King said. “I’ve been in practice for 14 years, so I understood how unique and challenging his case was. His doctors never gave up. If you want to keep trying and keep having hope, A&M is the place to be. We couldn’t have asked for better care or better compassion.”
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Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216
