By James Callery
Published: 07:55 EST, 19 December 2023 | Updated: 08:29 EST, 19 December 2023
This is the incredible moment a trained diabetes service dog saved a young girl's life by sniffing out a dangerously high blood sugar spike even as she slept.
The Virginia family's pet has being hailed as a hero for drawing attention to the medical emergency.
Mother-of-three Shannon Boggs and her husband were watching TV at home in November when their dog, Spy, alerted them.
The pet led them to a bedroom where their nine-year-old daughter Raelynn, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, was asleep, according a video Boggs shared on Instagram.
A blood sugar meeting told them that her level was dangerously high at 338 mg/dL.
Mother-of-three Shannon Boggs and her husband were watching TV at home in November when their dog, Spy, alerted them.
The pet led them to a bedroom where their nine-year-old daughter Raelynn, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, was asleep, according a video Boggs shared on Instagram
A target glucose range for a person with diabetes at bedtime is between 90 and 150 mg/dL, according to the Joslin Diabetes Center at Beth Israel Lahey Health in Boston.
'The nose ALWAYS knows! Even when it's sleeping,' Boggs wrote underneath the video shared on Instagram.
'This dog is such a blessing to our family! We truly can't be more thankful.'
Boggs wrote on Instagram that Raelynn wears a continuous glucose monitor, but on this occasion, the new monitor she had put on was still calibrating, so her blood sugar levels were going unchecked.
Boggs also said that her daughter, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last year, had the flu at the time.
An illness such as the flu is one factor that can cause high blood sugar, according to the Joslin Diabetes Center.
A blood sugar meeting told them that her level was dangerously high at 338 mg/dL
High blood glucose, or hyperglycemia, occurs when levels reach 160 mg/dl or above, according to center.
Diabetic alert dogs are trained to detect the scent hypoglycemia produces in a person due to chemical changes in their body.
They are also trained to alert the person with diabetes, and some can even pick up juice or glucose tabs, fetch an emergency phone, or get help from another residents in a property, according to CanDoCanines.org, an organization that matches specially trained dogs with people with disabilities.