Service dog smells diabetic girl's blood-sugar level

A new dog will change Bekah Timm's life and could one day save it. Bekah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2010, when she was 6.

Recently, Heidi Timm, her mother, heard about service dogs specifically bred to detect blood-sugar levels. The Vancouver, Wash., family hopes to receive a diabetic-alert service dog for Bekah. The family is raising money because of the $15,000 cost of the highly trained dog.

Diabetic-alert service dogs are bred with scent recognition. When an individual's blood-sugar level changes, it changes the body's scent — which allows a trained dog to detect a problem.

Bekah has to check her blood sugar at least 10 times a day. It could escalate when she is older if she develops hypoglycemic unawareness, in which a person can't feel whether his or her blood-sugar levels are low or high, a typical problem for those with long-standing Type 1 diabetes.

Heidi Timm believes the dog will be a backup during the night if Bekah doesn't sense her blood-sugar levels changing.

The Timms will get the dog from Warren Retrievers, which breeds dogs with scent recognition for diabetics of all types. Guardian Angel Service Dogs is a nonprofit philanthropic arm of Warren Retrievers and helps with public awareness and funding. Families who are trying to raise money for these service dogs can work with Guardian Angel to raise money in their community.