Roscoe was surrendered to APARN about a month after being diagnosed with diabetes. He was prescribed insulin injections twice a day, and started on a special diet.
Over the course of the next 18 months, it was a constant struggle to get his blood sugar stabilized. Roscoe was tried on different foods, different dosages of insulin, and even visited the internal medicine specialist, and nothing really seemed to help.
During this time, he not only lost the vision in both eyes, due to the diabetes, but one eye developed glaucoma and had to be removed.
Roscoe loves his foster mom, and loves snuggling with her on the couch when she comes home from work. He can, however, get a little bossy with the other pugs in the house. Most of them just ignore him and go about their business.
Roscoe loves going for car rides and also going for walks. He also LOVES to eat. APARN advises against “free feeding” a pug. “Free feeding” is where you leave a bowl of kibble out all day, or have an automatic dispenser that keeps a bowl filled with kibble. Most pugs love food, and Roscoe is no exception. Given the opportunity, he would eat until there was no food left. This is simply not a healthy option for a pug. APARN recommends set amounts of high quality kibble at set times each day.
At the end of the day, when he is tired and almost ready for bed, Roscoe’s favorite thing is for his foster mom to hold him like a baby and sing to him. It is hard to guess the lifespan of a pug once it is stricken with diabetes. APARN works hard to educate pug owners about the importance of keeping pugs at a healthy weight. Diabetes, such as Roscoe’s, is brought on by being fed too much unhealthy food for too long. Diabetes in pugs is so hard to treat and mange, yet it is so easy to avoid. Please keep your pugs on good food, and at a healthy weight.