Hershey

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

Well before all this started she was 86, now she is a mere 69. On last visit to vet when he bumped it back up to 19 after the roller coaster ride and dropping back to 17 only for 2 weeks he said we may have to give her a ton of insulin. But now seeing how they have continued to go up with each insulin increase I am scared to take her back.

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

Was looking for perfect numbers he said

[jesse girl]

Re: Hershey

Was looking for perfect numbers he said

Thats not a good philosophy . I asked jesses original vet what kind of regulation we were looking for and he grabbed a book and read the page and said normal blood sugar . Just that one comment delayed jesses regulation for months till i figured what he said was just not possible

[Lolo]

Re: Hershey

I asked jesses original vet what kind of regulation we were looking for and he grabbed a book and read the page and said normal blood sugar . Just that one comment delayed jesses regulation for months till i figured what he said was just not possible

What do you mean by this? Do you just mean don’t aim for perfect/normal with a diabetic dog and instead just aim for safe/relatively healthy zones?

[jesse girl]

Re: Hershey

What do you mean by this? Do you just mean don’t aim for perfect/normal with a diabetic dog and instead just aim for safe/relatively healthy zones?

Yes . We know now dogs can do perfectly fine with regulation within 150 to 250 . I have seen dogs on the forum have regulation much higher and lived 5 years with the disease and most die of other things or old age but not tied directly to diabetes

Some vets still dont realize attaining perfection is setting you up for failure . I have only saw one dog on the forum that had what looked like normal blood sugar and my jesse has her moments .

Now this doesnt mean you dont try for the best possible sugar and stability you can . It just says its not mandatory . I think all individual caretakers discovers what regulation is for there dogs and situations . Some may like to stay a bit higher because they live on a farm and there dog runs around allot . Every situation is different for each dog and care taker . The goal is to have a happy healthy dogs life with some limitations

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

I agree but now that her numbers are so jacked out of shape I don't know what to do. He wants to do another curve the 1st and I know he is gonna want to increase her dose again. Her numbers are very high and scary. When she was first diagnosed she was peeing more and drinking more and seemed to be lethargic at times. Nothing has changed. When he first started her on the 17 units the water intake and peeing slowed down but still lethargic. Her weight when diagnosed was 79 and now 69. Normal is around 85.

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

Not sure I understand the last sentence about fast acting insulin.

[jesse girl]

Re: Hershey

there are insulin's that are used as a correction to higher sugar. They are more potent and can lower blood sugar quite rapidly . They also dont last as long as the insulin you are using on your dog now . Most vets use at there clinic to reduce sugar in dogs that are in crisis do to higher sugar . It does take knowledge an understanding to use them

I would recommend reading all the information the site has . The better you understand the disease the more you can help your pup

Another factor is you want to make sure no other medical conditions that can affect blood sugar . Infections of all kinds are known to cause that .A primary one is UTIs

Most get to a place that works and go on with normal lives with some limitations . I am bit concerned of your vets methods . The problem sometimes we make it up as we go when there are not solid protocols in place and thats the nature of this disease

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

Yea, she was already on meds a week ago for UTI

[jesse girl]

Re: Hershey

UTIs can cause symptoms similar to what you see in high sugar in diabetics

So you got some things that are muddying the waters as far as regulation Possibly a dose that may be to much and A UTI possibly causing resistance to insulin

Now are you testing sugar at home ? Its possible once that UTI is cleared the need for insulin may need to be reduced so something to keep an eye on . Also some of these UTIs can be stubborn to cure if you dont find the correct antibiotic

You really cant regulate while a UTI is alive . You could substantially raise the dose as your vet is doing to try to break resistance but once its broken as with the UTI numbers could plummet

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

He put her on a 7 day prescript of Baytril 136mg on 26 Jan. I recently purchased any easy tough glucose meter which I was excited about, but it kept malfunctuning , so trying to figure out a good pet meter that won't break the bank as we are older and been retired for 7 years and on a fixed income.

[Judi]

Re: Hershey

we used the one touch ultra. it requires a little more blood than some other meters do but you can find strips on ebay a little cheaper than buying in the store.

even though it wasn't a pet meter. I felt comfortable that by using the same meter I had consistent readings. Perfect regulation was never gonna happen with my crazy dog

hang in there

[Phyllis Diot]

Re: Hershey

Craig, an update on glucose meters. The Easy touch was nice and easy, however as careful as I was it took 12 strips to get 4 results as kept coming up err1 meaning defective strip. I returned it. I bought a relion prime until I get good at this. I remember you saying you use it for daily testing. How far off it is from what actual glucose is. For example, last test was 349. Would that be about 400?

[k9diabetes]

Re: Hershey

I would be happy to send you one of the donated AlphaTrak2 meters. All you would have to buy are the strips. And you can hold onto it until you feel more comfortable testing and are ready to try it.

Natalie

[k9diabetes]

Re: Hershey

Now that I think about, how about my sending you the donated AlphaTrak2 as a way of "calibrating" your Relion meter. The cost to you would just be one box of AphaTrak test strips. And then, when you know how the Relion readings compare you can just use it if they are close enough.

You "calibrate" your Relion meter using the AlphaTrak with side by side tests for a week or so.

That's something I did with an AlphaTrak and my OneTouch Ultra meter and it was really helpful. After that, I used the OneTouch and had a good idea of the "actual" readings.

Natalie