New member Snowball

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

something to consider if you continue to see your dog being lethargic is to reduce the dose maybe temporarily and see if your dog perks up a bit

some dogs on rare occasions have a reaction to the insulin . One dog i remember could not use NPH insulin . My jesse is a 26 pound beagle cant have more than 3 units at one time or her sugar spikes

Now its very possible your dog may need more insulin and we define insulin resistance as giving the same amount of insulin as weight so that would be 8 units for your dog but that is fairly extreme

Usually there is a medical reason why a dog needs so much insulin . Like thyroid problems . high cholesterol things like that

If things dont improve you may have to explore further with some lab work the problem with that is he elevated sugar can skew the results .

I think it took 6 months for jesse to be back to her normal self but she was very sick

like i suggest a curve will be helpful and if you can get the curves from the vet to compare we can see the progress or not with raising the dose

[Raysaint]

Re: New member Snowball

The arching of the back can sometimes indicate pancreatitis. A simple test right at the vet's office can check for elevated pancreas.

It's best to try and eliminate other conditions that might have an effect on regulation. As others mentioned, insulin resistance can have a few causes.

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

just to add infections of any sort like UTIs and ear can create resistance and the dog wont feel well

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

The arching of the back can sometimes indicate pancreatitis. A simple test right at the vet's office can check for elevated pancreas.

It's best to try and eliminate other conditions that might have an effect on regulation. As others mentioned, insulin resistance can have a few causes.

Yea, its just weird that it started like right after hitting the ear for blood. Someone said I might be hitting a nerve or something. I did just call the vet and they said they would send the other curves over.

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

302 at 6:05pm this evening. I got the stuff from the vet. This is on 3 units. I'm thinking I'll put her back on 3.5 units and see how it goes. Still the only place I can get blood is the ear. i tried both sides of the mouth on the lip. She is fine with it, but no matter what I do, the meter either doesn't register the blood or it doesn't get enough blood. I'm thinking maybe it gets saliva in it?

First curve 6/16/2018 she was on 1 unit.

8:40 320
10:56 366
12:56 360
2:56 306

They had me increase to 2 units

6/24/2018

8:30 472
10:30 377
12:50 340
2:40-406

Said increase to 3.

7/14/2018

8:30am 516
9:30am 435
10:30 536
11:35 516
12:35 606

Told us they didn't think my wife was giving the insulin correctly and said to stay on 3 units.

7/21/2018

They had me do the shot at the vet at 8:25am
8:30am 439
9:30am 185
10:30am 130
11:30am 98
12:30pm 102
2:30 pm 99

They said to drop to 2.5 at that point I think we did that for a day, but we could clearly see that the dog was still constantly thirsty so we put it back to 3 pretty soon and she has been on that since.

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

from the curves you posted it appears numbers went higher with a larger dose maybe showing you have passed the dose that was needed . Raising the dose at full unit increments was probably to large for a dog your size and its very possible you are giving to much insulin

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

They appear to have gone down each time except the third one when they said my wife didn't do it right.

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

if you look at the trend on one unit all numbers were in the 300s . The second curve 300s and 400s . Now the third one as you said they believe the shot wasn't given correctly and thats possible and its just as possible it was given correctly and the higher trend was correct

What you want to keep an eye on if you continue to raise the dose and the numbers stay high or go even higher may give you the answer . Also be watchful for a crash when the body reaches its limits to protect itself with the bodies stored sugar

also you did see what was a possible crash in sugar on the forth curve with that big drop is sugar from 8:30 to 9:30 thats a very large drop in one hour

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

On the fourth curve I gave the insulin right before they did the first reading. I do agree that it did go down quick. Currently the numbers are going down as we increase. I'm nervous going past 3.5 though. Is there like a level you get to when it finally gets it down and then you have to reduce to maintain it? Or do we just kind of increase till it's low enough and then leave it there?

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

Its hard to say . All i go by is the clues from what the numbers tell me and my opinion its possible the dose maybe to much but like i said other medical condition maybe playing a part keeping things higher

You really have to be a detective and its fortunate you are testing sugar

if the dose is to much it can be difficult finding your way back thats why its so important to go slow and conservative dose adjustments

My jesse was on 6 units which was a normal starting dose . I ended up giving her 3 units . It took a long time to figure that out . So even doing everything correctly did not work out for jesse

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

Just tested again at 10:12pm 323. Higher than it was at 6pm before she ate, but I'm assuming maybe the food is keeping it up. I'll test again in the morning before the next shot.

Its hard to say . All i go by is the clues from what the numbers tell me and my opinion its possible the dose maybe to much but like i said other medical condition maybe playing a part keeping things higher

You really have to be a detective and its fortunate you are testing sugar

if the dose is to much it can be difficult finding your way back thats why its so important to go slow and conservative dose adjustments

My jesse was on 6 units which was a normal starting dose . I ended up giving her 3 units . It took a long time to figure that out . So even doing everything correctly did not work out for jesse

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

288 at 6:20am with 3.5 units. I'm going to try to test her every couple of hours at work today.

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

She was at like 120 at 9am and actually licked me a couple of times this morning. She hasn't done that in a few days. Testing again in a few minutes.

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

make sure you keep records on your testing. add things like feeling better and anything else that maybe pertinent food treats exercise

remember big swings in sugar can be problematic for regulation . So keep an eye on numbers going lower and you may need to intervene with sugar going below a 100 with liquid sugar like honey to stabilize it from going lower

Also keep an eye on the numbers spiking back up and may show your dog is going through rebound which is caused by sugar dropping to fast or going to low and the body uses its stored sugar to protect the body

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

Now she was 194 at 11:10am. She is licking me and seems more like her normal self. She still walking a bit funny though. I"m not sure how these numbers correspond with an alphatrak 2 though. At lower numbers I believe they are closer to the pet meters? So like 124 and 194 would be relatively close? I don't need to divide those by .66?