A volunteer project turned into a life saving event for a family in Texas.
The family was playing with diabetic alert dogs when one of the animals detected its playmate had the disease.
Lakenyan Carter has tagged along with his parents, volunteering at Drey’s Alert Dogs, ever since school let out for the summer.
While LaKenyan and other kids play with the puppies, older dogs are trained as diabetic alert dogs.
The dogs are trained to paw at a diabetic person when they can smell that their blood sugar hits dangerous levels, usually above 180 or below 90.
During one routine visit, much to the surprise Kenyatta Carter, LaKenyan’s mother, a dog named Marshall began pawing at her son.
“It pawed me and my blood sugar went way up,” LaKenyan said.
The Carters were confused. They had never suspected their 7-year-old of having diabetes.
Later, Kenyatta took LaKenyan to the doctor where he was later diagnosed with the disease.
“If we wouldn’t have been [at Drey’s Alert Dogs], I probably would have never knew that he was a diabetic,” Kenyatta said.
~ Courtesy of CBS 42
Tags: diabetes dog, diabetic detection dog, dog detects diabetes, Drey’s Alert Dogs, volunteer project
