
Alert dog for diabetes senses blood sugar drop miles away, warns family
(KUTV) Sadie, 4-years-old, has Type one diabetes and Down syndrome, which makes it difficult for her parents to keep her blood sugars stable.
That's until a special Labrador joined the family.
Sadie's Hero has quite the nose. He is a trained diabetic alert dog, so he can tell when her blood sugars are going too high or too low.
When her blood sugars start drop below 100, Hero will whine or nose or paw Sadie's parents in the left hand to let them know there's a problem. When her blood sugars get above 200, Hero lets her parents know using the same tricks, but this time in the right hand.
"I'll hold out my hands and say, what is it? and he'll paw for, paw my left hand for a low, and he'll nose my right hand for a high," explained Sadie's mom Michelle.
But back in December 2015, Hero truly lived up to his name.
Sadie was in her special needs class at Deerfield Elementary School in Cedar Hills while Hero was at home in Pleasant Grove -- more than five miles away.
That's when he started to act out, trying to warn Sadie's mom that the girl's blood sugar levels were dropping.
"He's normally a very quiet dog. Whining is not in his protocol. But he just started whining and he would not stop," Michelle said.
He was alerting to Michelle that Sadie's blood sugars were dropping -- but he was nowhere near Sadie.
Sadie's mom decided to contact the school just in case.
Kimberly Stoneman was teaching Sadie's class when she got the call.
"(Sadie's mom) called me and asked if I could check her numbers and they were fine," Ms.Stoneman explained. "I tested her and it was fine. Then within half
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