k9diabetes
07-02-2008, 12:10 PM
One of the huge advantages of testing blood glucose at home is the ability to determine how much of your dog's normal insulin dose s/he can use when s/he can't or won't eat.
I needed to fast Chris last night and actually had limited his breakfast because of some weird stuff going on with him (will update his thread). I know from testing that Chris can take 1/3 to 1/2 his normal dose of insulin if he eats nothing. Yesterday morning he had only the cheese that goes around his pills and his milkbone after his shot.
He's been at about 7 units this week and his blood sugar was 172 at that point so I gave him 4 units of insulin with the very limited food.
Then after his normal dinner and insulin last night around 7pm I fasted him completely.
Gave him 3.5 units at 2am with a BG of 248 and 4 units at 8am with a BG of 232. Three and a half units held his BG level so I gave him the extra half a unit to bring it down into the hundreds.
This is with faster acting insulin, Regular, which tends to have a sharper profile, though Chris does not put it to work very quickly.
You can start with a conservative 1/4 or 1/3 dose of insulin and test while not feeding to see how the BG reacts to insulin alone and then you will know how much you can give without food.
I needed to fast Chris last night and actually had limited his breakfast because of some weird stuff going on with him (will update his thread). I know from testing that Chris can take 1/3 to 1/2 his normal dose of insulin if he eats nothing. Yesterday morning he had only the cheese that goes around his pills and his milkbone after his shot.
He's been at about 7 units this week and his blood sugar was 172 at that point so I gave him 4 units of insulin with the very limited food.
Then after his normal dinner and insulin last night around 7pm I fasted him completely.
Gave him 3.5 units at 2am with a BG of 248 and 4 units at 8am with a BG of 232. Three and a half units held his BG level so I gave him the extra half a unit to bring it down into the hundreds.
This is with faster acting insulin, Regular, which tends to have a sharper profile, though Chris does not put it to work very quickly.
You can start with a conservative 1/4 or 1/3 dose of insulin and test while not feeding to see how the BG reacts to insulin alone and then you will know how much you can give without food.