Pathologies of dogs - Incorrect practice can result in pathologies
This involves two processes:
peripartum hypoglycemia and pre/post-partum eclampsia
Gestational hypoglycemia
Possible Causes
The possible causes are not well defined, but various hypotheses
have been proposed:
✔ Poor management of the pregnant female’s diet:
• Changes to the frequency of feeding.
• Inadequate diets: high energy foods, rich in fat and poor in carbohydrates (without compensating with protein).
✔Poor body condition during pregnancy.
✔Uterine atony.
Other options are offered in human medicine as well:
forced fasting, fatty liver degeneration, insulinoma, and hyperadrenocorticism.
Symptoms
✔Neurological symptoms: muscle weakness 48 hours before the clinical condition appears, lack of response to stimuli,
clonic spasms (especially of the jaw) and general collapse.
✔The body temperature reduces by one degree. There are no changes to the respiratory or heart rates.
✔It is sometimes confused with eclampsia and treated as such, but the results are not satisfactory.
✔Blood values: marked hypoglycemia, with rates under 1.1 mmol/l (reference 3.5-5.0 mmol/l)
and ketonemia. Also hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia. The rest of the biochemical and electrolyte values are normal.
Treatment
✔This is an urgent condition that requires hospitalization.
✔As a first step, we can administer 0.2 ml/kg of a glucose solution at 40 % in an IV bolus.
The muscular condition improves in a few minutes. Afterward, we can use the saline solution
with 4 % glucose at a velocity of 2 ml/kg/hour, monitoring glycemia levels.
✔Wet, carbohydrate-rich food can then be offered with values greater than 120 g/1,000 kcal ME
(for example, foods for hepatic diseases), or semi-wet food, as it uses simple carbohydrates as binding
elements and produces a glucose peak in a short period of time (20-60 minutes).
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