| ‘Doctor dog’ is a real-life lifesaver
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| Ayla Rae Casebier and her “doctor dog,” Sari, hang out in her room on Thursday, Dec. 20. Ayla and her mom, Raynie, spent three weeks training with Sari before coming home with her in July.
Umpqua Post Photo by Jolene Guzman
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By Jolene Guzman
Staff Writer
The first words out of Ayla Rae Casebier’s mouth when she met her new dog were “Mom, where is my dog’s tail?”
Ayla, 4, had not seen a dog without a tail until being introduced to Sari, her new service dog. What Sari is missing in a tail, she makes up for in a special talent.
Still very much a puppy at the time, Sari was trained to detect fluctuations in blood sugar in a diabetic master. Ayla was diagnosed with type I diabetes in February and has since experienced extremely high and low blood sugar levels. The problem quickly became difficult for Ayla’s parents, Andy and Raynie Casebier, to manage.
A trip to Heaven Scent Paws in Saint Elizabeth, Mo. offered the family a solution. Raynie Casebier and Ayla took a three-week trip in Missouri to meet and train with Sari in July.
“Basically it was training for the people,” Casebier said of the class which included 13 families. “The dogs were already trained, but the people learned how to handle the dogs in public and about our dog in particular ... It’s a lot of work until it becomes routine.”
Contributions from people in Reedsport and Eugene helped make the $6,000 the trip possible.
Ayla’s comment about her dog’s missing tail became a running joke in the class. Eventually, a fellow classmate gave Ayla a tiger tail for Sari to wear.
Now in the family’s new home in Reedsport, Sari, a black and tan shepherd mix just barely a year old, no longer has to wear the tiger tail. What she does wear is a vest that identifies her as a service dog and also is her work uniform of sorts.
“She is a different dog with the vest,” Casebier said, adding that without the vest on, she turns in a playful puppy.
With the vest firmly attached, Sari is all business. If commanded to lie down, Sari will stay in that position until told to move, even if she had been left behind, which has happened once before, Casebier said. Sari lifted her head from her spot underneath the table the family where the family was sitting and appeared a little concerned that her people left without her, but otherwise did not moved a muscle.
Sari has two reasons to move without being told: The first is if she needs a trip outside and the second is if she is alerting Ayla’s parents of a fluctuation in their daughter’s blood sugar.
On a recent morning, Ayla’s levels were high. The test meter read 581, much higher than her optimal level between 100 and 200. This time Casebier knew that Ayla needed insulin and already had administered the shot.
Ayla was hyper, bouncing like a superball from one activity to another ” and from one outfit to another. Her light brown hair pulled back into pony trailed behind her as she moved from room to room.
Sari’s demeanor tended toward the opposite: She sat quiet as a mouse at Casebier’s feet. While Ayla lounged very briefly on the floor, using her dog as a pillow, Sari stood up to get Casebier’s attention. She persisted even with reassurance that everything was OK. A test revealed that Ayla’s levels had dropped 200 points in one half hour. Casebier said Sari’s response is even more adamant when Ayla’s blood sugar levels are low. She won’t stop alerting until something is done.
That time the Casebiers knew to watch Ayla’s levels, but at other times, it’s Sari who knows first. Casebier recalls a time when the dog was in the backyard with the door closed at her mother’s house and Ayla was inside. Sari started begging to come inside and once she got the attention of someone, alerted that Ayla’s blood sugar was low.
“She was low. She was really low,” Casebier said of Ayla. “I have learned not to doubt her.”
Sari’s unique talent requires that she have a different relationship to the family and other dogs than most. As a working dog, she cannot be treated as a pet. That is a struggle for all the Casebiers to remember, especially Ayla’s little brother, Peyton. To him, she is known as “sissy’s doctor dog,” and at times he can’t resist wanting to play with her. The only exception to the no playing rule is for Ayla. She has learned to walk Sari and tries to play fetch, a concept that the young dog doesn’t quite understand yet.
The rest of the family has to remember that she is doing a job.
“I’ve had to get over that ‘Oh I feel sorry for her because she can’t play with other dogs,’” Casebier said. “I also have to remember she has a service. She has a job and her job is to keep Ayla safe.”
Sari’s success in fulfilling her role in Ayla’s life is only part of the complicated equation the family and doctors have to solve regarding Ayla’s condition. Treatments are not evening out Ayla’s blood sugar level as well as they could and the reasons for that are not yet clear.
“It’s a lot harder to stabilize when they are younger and they are growing,” Casebier said, adding that sustained periods with high blood sugar levels can cause damage to internal organs and low levels may cause her fall into a coma. “For her age, they don’t think it is that uncommon for her blood sugars to be like that.”
Although Sari can’t help the seemingly ineffectiveness of Ayla’s treatment at times, the Casebiers can be given peace of mind with her on duty.
“I can’t even remember what it was like before having her,” Andy Casebier said. “It’s been really nice having her around.”
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