Barking that saves lives: medical alert dogs that accompany diabetics and epileptics

Milka and Forque are much more than pets, companion animals or canine members of the family. These two canines are four-legged superheroes capable of saving lives thanks to their highly developed sense of smell. Milka, a Labrador, and Forque, a Jack Russell Terrier, are medical alert dogs trained by the Zaragoza company Canem to detect in advance increases or decreases in blood sugar in people with diabetes and epileptic seizures in people with epilepsy .

Eleven years ago, Lidia Niecuesa and Paco Martín decided to found Canem with the aim of training medical alert puppies for people who needed more continuous medical attention, such as diabetics and epileptics. Since then, they have trained 262 dogs for a total of 12 countries such as Colombia and Mexico. They also created the Canem Foundation to financially support those families who could not afford the cost.

Canem trains dogs to detect the smell given off by patients when glucose levels change in their bodies due to diabetes or when neurohormones are released minutes before an epileptic attack.

TRANQUILITY IN A BARK

A few barks and a stare are the signals Milka gives to alert her owner, Melanie Gallardo, that in about twenty minutes she is going to suffer a rise or fall in blood sugar. Plenty of time for Melani to check her levels and administer insulin or carbohydrates as required by the situation.

“ I trust my dog ​​more than my sensor ,” says Gallardo. The type 1 diabetes patient says that she has always been very prone to nighttime sleep disturbances, a situation that was difficult to avoid before she had her dog. However, Milka wakes her up during the night to alert her. During the day, she alerts her as many times as necessary without limit. “There are cases of dogs that alert 18 or 20 times a day ,” Nicuesa points out.

Melanie’s mother urged her daughter to get a medical alert dog when she was going to study in Germany for a year because she was worried that something might happen to Melanie while she was alone. Since then, Milka has been with Melanie for nine years. The dog brought peace of mind to those around her because she is “a guarantee that nothing will happen to you, since it has been proven that my dog ​​does not fail ,” she says. “You can travel safely wherever you go because you are safe.” Thus, Melanie has taken her with her to all the cities she has traveled to.

“It gives you a lot of room to act, it allows you to be more confident in moments when you would normally be very alert and it allows you to rest better at night ,” Nicuesa adds.

THE TOUCH THAT PREVENTS SCARE

Canem also trains dogs to prevent epileptic attacks just a few minutes in advance . In this way, patients “avoid the shock and get into a safe position” and “warn their families that they are going to have an attack,” says Lidia Nicuesa. A situation that brings peace of mind to the family environment , since they already know what is going to happen to them.

Marc Campo is a 16-year-old boy with generalized epilepsy and another rare type of epilepsy known as “fright epilepsy .” The latter is characterized by epileptic seizures when Marc is frightened, whether by a noise, a sneeze, a blow or another cause. Xavi, his father, says that, thanks to medication, both types of epilepsy are under control.

However, his dog, Forque, brought calm to the Barcelonans’ home four years ago when the fright epilepsy was still untreated. When Marc gets scared, Forque warns his parents or anyone nearby to check on him because, sometimes, “he has lost his balance and consciousness,” says his father. The peculiar thing is that he warns by insistently hitting Marc’s leg with his muzzle or any part of his body, since if he barks, Marc gets scared . Teaching him not to bark was one of Canem’s challenges with this patient because they had never had to train a dog in these circumstances.

The dog detects Marc’s scent in the event of a case of fright epilepsy even 300 meters away from him , so Marc’s parents can relax and let the young boy play alone in the garden.

TRAINING

The training process is carried out by Paco Martín over a period of three to six months at the Canem headquarters in Zaragoza (they have another one in Barcelona). First, they adopt a Jack Russell Terrier and foster families are responsible for giving it “love” and “taking care” of it, with all expenses paid when it is not at Canem.

The educational psychologist and founder of Canem, Lidia Nicuesa, says that the first step in training puppies is as basic as teaching them to “behave well, sit or lie down .” Once they have achieved this, one of the most important phases begins: the smell phase. At that point, Canem teaches them in a laboratory the smell that patients give off before attacks and how to warn us. Later, they go out into the street “with the aim of them being able to identify the smells and warn us , to be able to discriminate, whatever the distractions,” since many dogs have to work in public places, travel on a tram or bus.

When this training process is over, the patient and his family have to go to the clinic to be taught the guidelines they must follow so that the dog maintains what it has learned. “They simply have to have a good relationship with the dog. It sounds obvious, but in the end they are families who live through complicated situations derived from their pathologies and they have to add the stress of having a dog,” says Nicuesa.

They help them to establish schedules for going out on the street, to understand when the dog wants to play, when it should work and to schedule breaks because “ you can’t forget that it’s an assistance dog, that it’s a dog first and then an assistance dog. In other words, it adds value, but you can never forget that it’s a dog. It means sharing your life with an animal and being willing to give it everything it needs,” she says.

CANEM FOUNDATION

Obtaining a Canem medical alert dog costs around 5,000 euros. For this reason, the pioneers decided to also create the Canem Foundation with the aim of providing grants to dogs for families with financial difficulties. The Foundation is responsible for raising funds, usually private, so that a call for grants can be issued. This call for grants can be for full or partial grants if it has not been possible to raise enough money to carry out a complete project.