Griffin Buckley October 6th 2008 To December 29 2021

[Raysaint]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

Lots of humans struggle with heat, and I'm sure dogs too. Nothing to worry about. Heat doesn't usually affect blood sugar, except during exercise, the body may use a bit more of its sugar in the heat.

[Lolo]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

My vet actually said the heat can make them run higher. It’s not uncommon to have to adjust doses with season changes, but you’d want to do testing before you make any changes. I’ve recently made some small increases to Lucy’s dose. We live in AZ and we’ve had temps around 110-115 lately. It also just makes her more lethargic overall. Even she knows it’s too hot to do anything.

[emz.buckley]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

So...

We took griff to the vets today just to be checked out and she did his urine sample and his blood sugars were normal and his kidneys were fine... she believes it’s the heat that is making his blood sugar too low because he is using things up much quicker in the heat... so we have to watch him, if it happens again we give him some honey and if he perks back up, we know that his blood sugar is too low... if not, we have to take him in and she will do a blood test just to check the levels... but she thinks because it went cold and then hot, that it has thrown his body out of kileter and he is feeling it a bit...

I swear to god I am getting paranoid and hysterical over everything... he twitches and I am stressed out, lol!

[jesse girl]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

So...

We took griff to the vets today just to be checked out and she did his urine sample and his blood sugars were normal and his kidneys were fine... she believes it’s the heat that is making his blood sugar too low because he is using things up much quicker in the heat... so we have to watch him, if it happens again we give him some honey and if he perks back up, we know that his blood sugar is too low... if not, we have to take him in and she will do a blood test just to check the levels... but she thinks because it went cold and then hot, that it has thrown his body out of kileter and he is feeling it a bit...

I swear to god I am getting paranoid and hysterical over everything... he twitches and I am stressed out, lol!

We do get that way with our diabetic dogs . Not sure if your testing blood sugar at home but if not i would recommend as it will give you some peace knowing what your dogs blood sugar is with no guessing

[emz.buckley]

Re: Griffin... New to this and stressed out...

I’m back...

So I thought i would give you a full update on griffin... I am sorry I haven’t been around but I got very sick over the winter and I am still having side effects from it, which just sucks...

Anyway, he was pretty much stable, he had a few peaks and was taken to the vets a couple of times just to be sure things were ok, which they were and we finally got him on a diet that worked and kept the numbers good...

But he was dropping weight rather rapidly, which we weren’t too concerned about, he is supposed to be thin it he was getting too thin, you could literally feel his ribs... so back to the vets we went and he had gone from 10 to 5.2 in about 3 months... now I know he is meant to be thin but that was just wrong, so she adjusted his diet, he now has 6 oz of food morning and night and he is heavier than he was, he isn’t going to overly heavy but at lest he has more fat between his ribs and your hand when you touch him...

He is now stable, his urine tests come back completely blue, his kidneys are fine, his pancreas is back to normal, his liver is still a little iffy, it’s getting there but it’s not correcting itself as fast as she would like so not only does he have an injection, he has his pills and he has milk thistle as well... we also buy him a specialist diabetic bread which humans with diabetes eat and that has done wonders for him... we did have a moment when he decided to eat a suiet pellet that was designed for birds and he threw up his breakfast, so that was another trip to the vets... I swear he gets into anything and everything, lol!

The only thing I have noticed is that when his insulin is running out, he does get a little shaky on his legs but as soon as he has his injection and food he is fine. Also, when he over does it, we try to keep him to a strict time table but some days he is up and moving around the house following people about, but when he does over do it, he has this bouncing thing going on like his muscles are too tired to hold him up... the vet isn’t too concerned about it or about the shaking in his legs at times just putting it down to his age and diabetes but does anyone else have this? It really happens when he is trying to sort his bed out and he keeps scratching up the bedding, he stops and he just bounces for a little bit and then carries on, does it again and then he settles down and he is fine...

Also, with what I said in the other thread... how long does it take to see the effects of the sugar rising from low blood sugar to normal?

[emz.buckley]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

We do get that way with our diabetic dogs . Not sure if your testing blood sugar at home but if not i would recommend as it will give you some peace knowing what your dogs blood sugar is with no guessing

Quick question, with low blood sugar, how long does it take until you see the affects of the glucose has on the dog?

[jesse girl]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

Quick question, with low blood sugar, how long does it take until you see the affects of the glucose has on the dog?

Usually any type of liquid sugar will have an almost instantaneous affect . From what i have seen with jesse the affect is also short term maybe a half hour at most . Early on jesse was overdosed and we needed spoonfuls of honey to keep her sugar up over a few hours . That was a tough time

If this becomes more than an oddball event you may need to reduce the dose and get out of a lower range if thats what is occurring and not something else like the heat creating the unsteadiness

[emz.buckley]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

Usually any type of liquid sugar will have an almost instantaneous affect . From what i have seen with jesse the affect is also short term maybe a half hour at most . Early on jesse was overdosed and we needed spoonfuls of honey to keep her sugar up over a few hours . That was a tough time

If this becomes more than an oddball event you may need to reduce the dose and get out of a lower range if thats what is occurring and not something else like the heat creating the unsteadiness

It was just that he was a little restless and shaking a bit so we gave him so golden syrup, about 4 fingers full on his gums and he seemed to come round and has settled now... he has gone back to sleep... was kinda wondering how on earth he got where he had but he was more with it... I just wanted to check...

I think if he has another episode, we will take him back and she can do the blood tests to see what is going on with his sugar levels and whether or not they need to be lowered...

[emz.buckley]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

So... after last nights little incident, he was perfectly fine this morning... he is a little clingy but I think it shook him up, I know it did with me, lol!

Anyway, we call the vet, she was happy that the glucose had helped him. She thinks his blood sugar is too low and that is why it happened. She dropped his insulin from 5 to 4.5 and we will see how things go. If it helps then we will stick with it until the hot weather is over and then go back up, if it doesn’t, she will do a curve and sort out his levels after the curve.

So we are back on the levels game again... if I keel over from stress, I am blaming the dog, lol!

[jesse girl]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

Glad things are back on track . Good idea to reduce the dose

[emz.buckley]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

Glad things are back on track . Good idea to reduce the dose

It seems to be at 6 hours he has a little stumble and shakes a little bit... we are thinking of asking the vet to do a curve tomorrow just to see what is going on... he has been fine all night, he went outside, had his night wet came back in, stumbled a little bit and has a little bit of a shake but overall he is good so far... he wasn’t like he was last night where he was bouncing around and could barely stand, he can stand fine and can walk fine... or are we just being paranoid after last night? I seriously don’t know anymore, lol!

We are going to phone the vet in the morning and see what she says...

This is so bloody stressful... he was absolutely fine until the weather went cold and then hot again and now this...

[jesse girl]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

the thing is you just dont know if its low sugar or something else . If your still running into low sugar the dose may need to be reduced further

I ran into that with jesse early in her diagnosis and ran to the vet to get tested until i invited a diabetic friend to bring his testing equipment over and we tested jesse for the first time . It was a bit of a circus act but jesse took it in stride and we never looked back and worried about that anymore

[Raysaint]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

When sugar gets too low, a body can get unstable, wobbly etc. If my sugar gets too low, I can feel, and act, like I'm drunk.
If it's happening about 6 hours in, that's when the insulin is peaking, and his nadir may be happening. You should test his sugar at 5 hours and then 6 hours to see what's happening.

Every diabetic needs a meter to be able to test. If his sugar isn't low and you're giving him honey because you think he's low, that's not good.

[emz.buckley]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

When sugar gets too low, a body can get unstable, wobbly etc. If my sugar gets too low, I can feel, and act, like I'm drunk.
If it's happening about 6 hours in, that's when the insulin is peaking, and his nadir may be happening. You should test his sugar at 5 hours and then 6 hours to see what's happening.

Every diabetic needs a meter to be able to test. If his sugar isn't low and you're giving him honey because you think he's low, that's not good.

We have just taken griffin to the vets, she wanted to do a blood glucose test and he was at 2.1 which is way too low... the last time he was checked he was at 4 and that was low but nothing to be concerned about but this is... so she what she thinks has happened was on Wednesday, he had burnt up all his reserves, the blood sugar level wasn’t enough and then he had his normal injection and it just took the rest of it out and when it hit his peak, there wasn’t enough sugar... so tonight, he isn’t going to have an injection so his levels will be raised, we then go back to 4.5 morning and night and on Monday, she will do another test and see what is going on... if it is ok and more stable, we may stick at 4.5 or if it is not ok, she will do a curve test and we may drop the insulin again or take one injection out altogether... but apparently his little wobble last night was because the sugar is still low but because the injection was lower it didn’t affect him as badly...

We are looking into self testing as well... she is going to look into the meter and which one is the best before we get one...

So there is the latest update from griffin... oh and we have to cut his exercise down as well while the levels are low as well... so we have gone from too high to too low... it just never ends does it, lol!

[jesse girl]

Re: Heat and Diabetes...

do you have a recent curve from the vet and can you post it ? If not you may want to ask for it for you personal records. You did pay for it .

I did not see what weight you dog is can you post that also