KITLIVING
continued over
It's a big commitment from the owner
too, but very much worth it. As Pesterfield
says, "Magic comes with me everywhere
even onto the paediatric ward in the
hospital where I'm a DSN. He has the
same rights as a guide dog as he is an
accredited assistance dog and meets an
international standard that means that he
is safe to be in public environments. He
is trained to respond to only my blood
glucose level. He detects when I'm in
trouble by smell. Whatever else I am
doing, this smell prompts him to do the
action - his behaviour has to be obvious
so I know I have to act. He can't do the
blood test for me, that part of the deal is
for me to do. Some dogs do an intense
stare, but Magic always jumps up. He is
trained to alert me when I'm at 4.7mmols
or below, so I have time to act before
I'm in hypo, as by then I could be too
confused to act appropriately."
Magic is a four-legged glucose
monitoring device - a canine with CGM
capabilities. Pesterfield says, "He's
better than CGM; he picks up to my
blood sugars up to 45 minutes ahead of
time, where as the CGM is arguably 15
minutes behind. At Medical Detection
Dogs we are undertaking some research
comparing dog versus CGM to prove this
statistically."
IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC: Claire Pesterfield and her hypo
awareness dog, Magic. He certainly lives up to his name.
In the photo below Magic was alerting Pesterfield that she
needed to do a blood test. He was right, she had a low blood
sugar. Magic stays with her all the time, and she now reports
havng no bad hypo events.