Re: Diabetic Rottweiler/Meter & Curves
Tim,
I just want to follow up what Natalie discussed. My newfie is 125 pounds and is currently on 15.25-15.5 (day / night) units of insulin. Spirit definitely was honeymooning in the beginning since his dose was only 11 units for a long time. I know it's hard to get your head around the fact that LOWER insulin indeed can give you lower numbers.....I can attest that it did in my case.
When he came home from the vet on 17 units within days he was down to 15, a few weeks later he was down to 11 where he stayed for at least 4 months. I truly believe his pancreas had time to "heal" a bit and continue to produce insulin. My guy may still be honeymooning a bit because it is the only thing I can think of that would explain such a low dose for such a large dog.
I also noted that indeed we needed to wait at least 3 days between dose changes.....sometimes on the 4th day of an increase or decrease I would get my best numbers. Again, hard to understand but true. It has been 8 months since diagnosis and I believe it has only been in the last 10 days that I am getting close to good regulation. For us that is keeping his BG between 100-225 most of the day and night. He will still throw me some lows and highs but it is becoming less frequent.
I just wanted to chime in as another large dog owner. Spirit is obviously sensitive to insulin because a half unit increase or decrease makes a BIG difference for him. Best of luck and keep up the good work. Once you get your strips you will be able to paint a better picture just to make sure that low is really the LOW of the day. Many days I've tested spirit a dozen times just to get a clear picture.
Tim,
I just want to follow up what Natalie discussed. My newfie is 125 pounds and is currently on 15.25-15.5 (day / night) units of insulin. Spirit definitely was honeymooning in the beginning since his dose was only 11 units for a long time. I know it's hard to get your head around the fact that LOWER insulin indeed can give you lower numbers.....I can attest that it did in my case.
When he came home from the vet on 17 units within days he was down to 15, a few weeks later he was down to 11 where he stayed for at least 4 months. I truly believe his pancreas had time to "heal" a bit and continue to produce insulin. My guy may still be honeymooning a bit because it is the only thing I can think of that would explain such a low dose for such a large dog.
I also noted that indeed we needed to wait at least 3 days between dose changes.....sometimes on the 4th day of an increase or decrease I would get my best numbers. Again, hard to understand but true. It has been 8 months since diagnosis and I believe it has only been in the last 10 days that I am getting close to good regulation. For us that is keeping his BG between 100-225 most of the day and night. He will still throw me some lows and highs but it is becoming less frequent.
I just wanted to chime in as another large dog owner. Spirit is obviously sensitive to insulin because a half unit increase or decrease makes a BIG difference for him. Best of luck and keep up the good work. Once you get your strips you will be able to paint a better picture just to make sure that low is really the LOW of the day. Many days I've tested spirit a dozen times just to get a clear picture.
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