Hills W/D

[CraigM]

Re: Hills W/D

isn't this fun?

[amydunn19]

Re: Hills W/D

Higher protein foods very commonly spike bg so what you are seeing is pretty common. High protein food just doesn't seem to work with the action of the insulin as well as a lower protein.

My dog never would eat wd. Her current food, Nutrisca, is not a perfect match by itself, but I do prop it up a bit with some add-ins but it is grain free. I tried the next level of foods from the same brand which were higher in protein(called Live Free) which was a few percentage points higher in protein and her numbers went crazy. Big swings in blood sugar and the components were the same - just different quantities of each I am guessing. I personally would be feeding the wd or one of the prescription foods if she would eat it but Maggie's current food keeps her pancreatitis in check so that is the main reason she eats it. Not every food is a fit for every dog so sometimes, you have to go outside the box to find the answer.

Insulin and food is a delicate balance, for sure.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Hills W/D

Another option is the insulin got ahead of the 1/3 cup of food which caused the spike. The recommended feed guide says 1/2 cup twice a day. I,d try the 1/2 cup inject then test 1 1/2 after food and insulin to see if the food is meeting up with the insulin.

[Cpaura]

Re: Hills W/D

My dog Miley started on Purina DCO in early October, she loves it. It is a dry food and I do not even have to mix wet with it. Since she has been on Purina DCO I find her appearance and energy level has improved and her spikes are not as crazy high as they were prior. I was concerned about the price, but I find it about the same as any of the mid to high grade foods in the pet store. I do not have her numbers perfect, but I move her up very slowly, we are getting there and no huge swings with her on this food.

[CavMom]

Re: Hills W/D

Okay, I think we're making some progress on the Hills! The low numbers are more or less the same as before, but the high numbers are WAY down, which means he's not having the big spikes with this food.

He's gone from numbers between 15 to 38 (270 to 684) to 15 to 20 (270 to 360). We still need to work on getting that bottom number down, but at least it's a tighter range.

Here are his numbers from today. I ran home from work at lunch to take a mid-day, as I'm nervous about him going too low. Meals/injections are 6am and 6pm.

6:30am - 20.4 (367)
11:30am - 18.4 (331)
5:00pm - 13.8 (248)
8:15pm - 8.6 (155) - not sure about this one?
10:00pm - 16.0 (288)

Much better than the numbers a few days ago which were all over the map.

One oddity I've found and it's happened a couple times is we get a number, either very low or very high that doesn't make sense with the previous number. Tonight's 10pm reading, for example. The first time I tried I got what I thought was sufficient blood, but it mixed with some moisture on his lip and by the time I put the test strip on it looked a little diluted. I got a reading of 25.5, which as you can see from the 8:15 reading (that my husband took) that's really out of whack - so I tried it again, then got 16.0.

Would a bit of moisture mixed in the blood throw the result off that much, or do the strips have a tendency to be wonky? They are a pain in the butt. We waste so many strips. You get what 'should' be enough blood and then the test strip doesn't read. Of course you can't re-use it or it errors out. We probably scrub at least 4-5 strips a day.

We're testing mostly on the inside lip as he doesn't seem to mind that. He's decided he doesn't like his paw pads poked, and that's fine as it's a hit and miss with getting blood anyway.

[CavMom]

Re: Hills W/D

isn't this fun?

If this is fun, I'm having it!