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Diabetic – alert dog helps CNY girl know when her blood sugar drops
Marissa Garlock, 8, of Union Springs, hugs her diabetic-alert dog, Sandy, earlier this month. Marissa’s father, Jeremy, said Sandy is able to smell when Marissa’s blood-sugar level changes and can alert the family when that happens. Marissa said the dog can even track her if she wanders off.
Jeremy and Joya Garlock’s mini-labradoodle is more than a family pet, he’s a lifesaver.
The Cayuga County couple believes their dog, Sandy, has saved their 8-year-old daughter’s life at least three times in the past year.
The Garlocks’ daughter, Marissa, has Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to allow sugar to enter cells to produce energy. Sandy is a diabetic alert dog, who is trained to sense dangerous highs and lows in Marissa’s blood sugar.
“When Marissa’s blood sugar moves, it moves super fast and Sandy is able to tell us before something dangerous happens,” Jeremy Garlock said.
In November 2010, Jeremy and Joya Garlock sought the community’s help to raise enough money to buy Sandy. The family, who lived in Camillus at the time but has moved to Union Springs, was amazed by the generosity of the public. They raised more than $12,000.
Emma Louise, 6, checks her blood sugar after school this month in her Liverpool home. Her brother, Andrew, 4, is shown in the background. Badgley’s family is trying to raise enough money to have a diabetic-alert dog placed in their home.
Organizations that breed and train diabetic – alert dogs have multiplied in recent years. More people with diabetes — especially children with the disease — are starting to use the dogs. Nonprofit groups have formed to help families and patients raise money to buy dogs.
Doctors say anecdotally there are many patients who say their alert dogs have saved their lives, but there haven’t been full studies that prove conclusively whether diabetic-alert dogs work.
However, a 2009 survey by a researcher at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, found that about two-thirds of 212 insulin-dependent diabetics said their dogs showed a reaction to at least one of their episodes of low blood sugar. One third of the dogs showed reactions before their owners realized their blood sugar levels were low.
In Liverpool, Kelly Badgley and Allan Louise hope a diabetic alert dog will give their 6-year-old daughter, Emma Louise, an extra layer of protection from dangerous drops and spikes in her blood sugar. Emma has Type I diabetes.
“Emma doesn’t want to have diabetes, she just wants to be a normal kid, but she can’t,” Badgley said. “She can’t eat what other kids eat and she can’t play like other kids play.”
Emma checks her own blood sugar about 8 to 10 times a day, she knows how many carbohydrates are in the food she eats and she knows that wrestling with her father is sometimes too much for her.
“I think a diabetic – alert dog would help give her some freedom to just be a kid,” Badgley said. “I don’t let her out of my sight unless she is in school. The dog would just be an extra alert system.”
Badgley has been fundraising in her community since December. She’s placed donation cans in Liverpool businesses, held a bottle drive and sold homemade jewelry to raise money. The family has raised $620 and needs $380 more to be put on the list for a dog. The dog will cost about $18,000 and the family will have three years to pay for it.
After doing research, Badgley decided to get a dog through Guardian Angel Service Dogs. The organization, which is based in Virginia, trains black, yellow and brown Labradors to be diabetic alert dogs. Once the family makes a $1,000 deposit they will be placed on a waiting list for a dog and the organization will help the family with more fundraising.
Dan Warren, the owner of Guardian Angel Service Dogs, said he started breeding, training and placing diabetic – alert dogs in homes in 2007, five years after he was diagnosed with diabetes.
“We were breeding detection dogs for explosives and such, but after my diagnosis, I was interested in dogs that help people with invisible disabilities, such as seizure-alert dogs and diabetic – alert dogs.”
Warren said Labradors have more receptors in their nose than humans do. When a person’s blood sugar rises, the person puts off a sweet or fruity smell. When a person’s blood sugar drops, the person puts off an acidic smell, similar to fingernail polish remover.
“Humans can smell it but it’s too late at that point,” Warren said. “The dogs are trained to smell it about 45 minutes before the drop or high registers on a meter. For a mother like Kelly, who is worried about their child falling too low in the middle of the night, the dogs are able to alert the parents sooner.”
Once Badgley is on the waiting list, the family will have to wait about six to eight months before receiving their dog. The dog will be trained for about four months from the organization before it is placed in the home. The training will continue every 90 days for eight phases.
Warren said a fully-trained dog will be able to push a button that calls 911, retrieve a juice box from the refrigerator and even act as a search and rescue dog in the event of an emergency.
It’s been almost a year since Emma was diagnosed with diabetes, but on Wednesday the family discovered that her condition had worsened. Emma was diagnosed with hypoglycemic unawareness, which is when a person with diabetes does not experience the usual early warning symptoms that their blood sugar is dropping.
A diabetic alert dog would be able to sense that for her, Warren said. Jeremy Garlock has experienced the early detection with his daughter’s dog Sandy.
“He alerts us before Marissa’s blood sugar even reads low,” he said. “That can be a lifesaver. Just last night he alerted us and we checked her levels and she was still in the normal range, but shortly after she dropped to 89. Sandy knew it was dropping.”
Badgley, who has had little sleep in the last year, hopes a diabetic-alert dog will help her daughter, Emma, live a better a life.
“There’s a lot of ups and downs, but she’s learning what her body is doing,” Badgley said. “She looks happy and beautiful on the outside, but her body is fighting a horrible disease on the inside.”
Contact Sarah Moses at [email protected] or 470-2298.
Diabetes & Diabetic Recipes with Bill & Sheila
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