Just had another call with Dr. Gillette. He certainly is generous with his time. At some point I will have to talk to him about compensating him for his time. I really appreciate his generosity but certainly do not want to take advantage of him or insult him either. These things can get so complicated. But, I feel like we have a pretty well established level of comfort about discussing our more personal issues in this situation. We are both being as sensitive as possible to the other, under the somewhat strange constraints of this working partnership. So, I am pretty confident that I can have that discussion with him without damaging our relationship or impacting the outcome of it.
Anyway, he suggested a pretty easy next step, something that I can do on my own. I'll purchase a pet glucose meter, get Gata accustomed to it (probably Tor, too, as a control), and then set up a pretty simple experiment to see if we can get Gata's blood glucose level to increase by providing her with a dextrose solution by mouth.
Our theory on this one is based on the observation around the last collapse being coupled with a lack of sugar water for her on that particular day. Plus, when we tested her blood glucose levels down at Auburn, they were in the normal range, but they did not fluctuate at all during work. Based on his previous work, this is quite unusual in working dogs. If her blood glucose level does not increase, we know that it is one of the metabolic defects surrounding glucose/glycogen and is at a fairly early point in that process. If it does go up, it doesn't mean that her collapses aren't due to a defect in the glucose/glycogen processes. So, it's not a super simple result at that point ...
So, I've ordered the equipment. Though, I'll have to figure out where/how to get the dextrose solution. I'm guessing that my local vet will sell me some. Hopefully, I'll be able to address this theory by Christmas time. Fingers crossed ...
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