Hypoglycemia

Written by Geraldine Whitaker

I have 20+ years experience and research dealing with the causes of hypoglycemia and the measures that can be taken to prevent and treat it. Copies of this article appearing on other websites without giving recognition to me and my entire website is plagiarism and is done without my consent.

Hypoglycemia is an extremely serious central nervous system disorder caused by low blood sugar. It occurs mainly in Toy breeds between the age of six and twelve weeks, and precipitated by stress, such as weaning, vaccinations or being placed in a new home. My experience with hypoglycemia is that it is a symptom, and not particularly a disease.

Puppies that are weaned suddenly at an early age (less than 8 weeks) will have a tendency to have low blood sugar. They aren't given enough time to adjust to solid food, and suddenly removed from their mother without a thought as to how it is affecting the babies. Usually this is done out of greed and not wanting to take care of the puppies any longer than necessary to get them out the door and someone else's responsibility. A responsible breeder will take the time necessary to see that the puppies are on solid food long enough to avoid upsetting their digestive system before they let them go to a new home. Since they can't tolerate a sudden change in their food, their digestive tract becomes upset, they do not get the full value of their food, then their blood sugar drops.

Parasites will prevent puppies from absorbing the nutrients from their food. Parasites all have different life cycles. Worming one time and a few days of Albon won't do the job. The wormer only kills what is in their stomach at the time, Albon is an antibiotic that only tides them over an outbreak of coccidia and counteracts a secondary infection coccidia causes, and does nothing to kill the parasites. The only alternative to that is a program of PREVENTION. 

Hypoglycemia in an otherwise healthy puppy can be prevented by owners who permit the puppies to be handled by everyone they come in contact with. Puppies become body sore, just like human babies do. Then they get tired, just want to sleep, then when, or IF, they wake up, their blood sugar has dropped. Common sense tells us that a human baby can't tolerate a lot of activity, handling, and constant playing. Neither can a fur baby. Traveling sometimes causes car sickness, until he has had a period of time to slowly adjust to traveling, be prepared to give Nutri-Cal about every two hours while traveling.

Most neonatal puppies have very little subcutaneous fat. Energy is supplied through frequent feedings, and reserve energy is supplied by glycogen in the liver. The liver is the last organ to grow in size, usually matures about 12 weeks, while the brain consumes the most energy. Puppies in the six to twelve week age group have a liver too small to produce the glycogen needed to fuel the brain without frequent feedings. Any time a puppy is not fed frequently, becomes tired, chilled, has a digestive upset, or has a parasite overload, he is headed for trouble, in the form of hypoglycemia.

The first signs of hypoglycemia are listlessness and/or  depression. The next signs are muscular weakness and tremors, especially in the facial muscles, sometimes in the back muscles, which causes the head to be pulled back or to the side, sometimes crying pitifully. Convulsions and/or seizures follow, then coma and death. The entire sequence is not always seen in all hypoglycemic puppies. The puppy may seem weak, or uncoordinated, unable to stand or walk, with the appearance of being drugged, or wobbly and jerking, or he may be found in a coma and totally unresponsive.

Hypoglycemia can occur without warning when a puppy is placed in a new home, or while being shipped to a new home. Symptoms may appear if anything upsets his feeding and rest routine, if he plays too hard and too long, or when his diet is changed. It can happen within 72 hours after he has had vaccinations.

Treatment consists of restoring blood levels to normal as quickly as possible to avoid brain damage. Intravenous dextrose, done by your veterinarian, is the fastest way to restore the glucose levels. Until you can get the puppy to your vet, give Karo syrup or honey. Because hypoglycemia is a symptom of something else going on with the puppy, the puppy will need to be vet checked to determine what the existing problems are that need correcting to prevent further episodes.

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