How do 'diabetes dogs' detect low/high levels of insulin?

I’ve read that the body odor of diabetics is sweeter than that of someone who isn’t. Maybe that’s it.

I am suspicious.

While it’s certainly possible that the dog may be be picking up on indicators, there’s no way that it’s more accurate or effective than testing blood sugar. The whole idea behind regular self testing is to regulate the blood sugar so that the patient does not have dangerously high and low levels, which is what the article seems to indicate that the dog picks up on.

It’s my understanding that individuals suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis may have a sweetish body odor or breath, but if you’re ketoacidotic, you are sick. Alternatively, if she has very low blood sugar, she may behave more like a seizure patient, something else that the service dog may be picking up on.

I think it’s possible that the presence of the dog may be a good idea if the child (or her parents) aren’t doing an adequate job of monitoring her, but that should be an adjunct, not the norm. My guess is that the tone of the article (suggesting that the dog is the main monitor of the child’s health) is misleading. I think it more likely that the dog is a last stage warning system that something may be seriously wrong.

Not many dogs are that sensitive, but some can smell the change in their owner’s body odor when they have a dangerously low blood-sugar level. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1288589/Diabetic-girl-6-life-saved-times-WEEK-dog-sniff-needs-insulin-injection.html

Drat. I didn’t notice you had already referenced the same article. Look at it again. It does mention that the dog does it by smell.

Yes the dogs detect the change by smell first and then additionally by the way you move.

Sense of smell.

“A dog’s brain is also specialized for identifying scents. The percentage of the dog’s brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is actually 40 times larger than that of a human! It’s been estimated that dogs can identify smells somewhere between 1,000 to 10,000 times better than nasally challenged humans can.”

From Dummies

“why don’t they just buy a machine to do this”

Well, it depends on the person. Some people are capable of regularly checking their sugar and being good about keeping an eye on it. But not everyone is very good at that kind of thing. I mean, plenty of people can’t handle taking “the pill” because they can’t guarantee they’ll take it every day and at roughly the same time. A dog is a good way to do it for those kinds of people.

I’m half and half on using it for a girl so young. It teaches her to be sort of independent with her meds but at the same time, if the dog has to save her so often, something isn’t being done right. I mean that with regard to her parents. They should be more on top of her insulin and blood sugar testing.

FYI- the Daily Mail isn’t widely regarded as an objective/in-depth news source, it’s more like Fox News Light. I would be reamed for including it as a source in a paper.

Here is an article from Diabetes Forecast that has some interesting anecdotes about the subject. It also includes interviews with those who train the dogs.

It’s generally regarded that the dogs (and cats) can smell the changes in glucose through sweat glands and visually pick up on small behavioral clues that humans miss.