Lily - My English Setter became an angel April 24, 2021

[MikeMurphy]

Cataract Surgery Follow-up

Hi Everyone,

Lily went for her third follow-up visit after successful cataract surgery and her eyes continue to do great. Her eye drops are gradually being reduced. Her current eye drops are:

Dexacidin three times per day.
Flurbiprofen one time per day for one more month and then stop.

The eye vet said that it is important to gradually ween diabetic dogs off of the flurbiprofen.

She has another follow-up visit in two months.

[CraigM]

Re: AlphaTrak2 vs. Free Style Lite Strips

I thought that I may have given Lily a fur shot Tuesday night, so I decided to do a curve on Wednesday and compare readings using the AlphaTrak2 and Free Style Lite strips, using my AlphaTrak2 meter set to Code 5. Sure enough, she had very high readings to start off on Wednesday. I gave her some peanut butter after the low reading at 1:30 PM.

Lily's curves normally run from the low 200s to low 100s and then back up to the 200s. I'm kind of surprised that the fur shot caused such a dramatic effect the next day.

Today she is back to normal with readings, every two hours starting at 6:30 AM, of 173, 147, 135 and 116 using the the Free Style Lite strips.

The FSL strips ran a little bit lower than the AT2 strips, but overall followed the same curve. This gives me some proof that the FSLs can be used with a certain degree of confidence.

Here's the results ...

Love your charts!

Craig

[momofdecker]

Re: Lily - My English Setter - Diabetis and Hypothyroidism

Yeah for Lily and her continued good eye reports!

[farrwf]

Re: Lily - My English Setter - Diabetis and Hypothyroidism

That's great!

[MikeMurphy]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

Even diabetic dogs get a treat every now and then.

Lily with her best buddies Dakota, Maisy and Carly. That's the poodles' mom handing out the treats.

[Soaphie & Sydney's Mom]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

Beautiful babies!!!!

[farrwf]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

What a great looking group!

[Monsters Momma]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

Love it!

How is she doing, Mike, since getting rid of the cone?

[MikeMurphy]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

Love it!

How is she doing, Mike, since getting rid of the cone?

Mel... She's been doing really well since losing the cone. With her thyroid issues and BG level under control, she's pretty much back to her normal self. It's been a long and bumpy road, but worth it.

[Patty]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

What a wonderful picture!!!

[amydunn19]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

A fine looking group!

[MikeMurphy]

BG Curve Question

Lily has been on 18 units of Novolin N, 2 times per day, since January. She normally has a bowl shaped curve that runs from the mid 300's to low 100's and then back up to the mid 300's. Her nadir is always around 6 hours after getting insulin. I periodically spot check her at the six hour mark.

Last week's spot checks after 6 hours were in the low 200's, so I decided to up her insulin to 19 units. She has been on 19 units for 7 days, so I did a curve today. I'm concerned about the high 6:00 AM and 6:20 PM readings. I'll probably call her vet on Monday, but in the meantime maybe someone might help with interpreting this curve. It kinda looks like the Somogyi Effect that can happen with too much insulin. I'll get her fasting and mid day numbers this weekend and see if anything changes.

Everything else about Lily seems OK. She is eating well and her diet is the same.

Here's her curve. She ate and got her insulin after the 6:00 AM reading ...



Thanks,

Mike and Lily

[jesse girl]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

i think lily could be sensitive to the action of insulin a bit and upping the dose may have intensified the action showing she can be quite sensitive to adjustments .

it is possible the 18 units could be to much and you maybe going in the wrong direction a battle i have had with jesse for years . her dose ended much lower then a normal starting dose for her actually by half which is quite substantial . that actually was the biggest part of the battle .

her body could tolerate the higher dose by almost twice as what was needed but had very erratic blood sugar . i believe many dogs are mildly overdosed . my jesse could easily tolerate 50 percent more and not go to low but as i said the numbers became more erratic and the spread from high to low became larger .

now if you have gone past the dose thats needed it can be difficult to find the dose needed and working backwards . sometimes you can work back to a dose were blood sugar is fairly flat but still elevated .

sometimes adding a type of food that seems to balance insulin. i actually use milk bones with jesse sometimes it works some real magic sometimes she returns to her bad habits . some have used millet lentils that kind of stuff .

one thing we do know stable blood sugar leads to better regulation. for lily that drop has to be slowed down to have better regulation how to get there involves trial and error food and or insulin adjustments . sometimes a change in insulin can be helpful

it took years to get stable consistent blood sugar for jesse . in general numbers were pretty good just not very dependable so i had to a few things to keep things in a good range which i dont need to do as much anymore .

[MikeMurphy]

Curve

i think lily could be sensitive to the action of insulin a bit and upping the dose may have intensified the action showing she can be quite sensitive to adjustments .

it is possible the 18 units could be to much and you maybe going in the wrong direction a battle i have had with jesse for years . her dose ended much lower then a normal starting dose for her actually by half which is quite substantial . that actually was the biggest part of the battle .

her body could tolerate the higher dose by almost twice as what was needed but had very erratic blood sugar . i believe many dogs are mildly overdosed . my jesse could easily tolerate 50 percent more and not go to low but as i said the numbers became more erratic and the spread from high to low became larger .

now if you have gone past the dose thats needed it can be difficult to find the dose needed and working backwards . sometimes you can work back to a dose were blood sugar is fairly flat but still elevated .

sometimes adding a type of food that seems to balance insulin. i actually use milk bones with jesse sometimes it works some real magic sometimes she returns to her bad habits . some have used millet lentils that kind of stuff .

one thing we do know stable blood sugar leads to better regulation. for lily that drop has to be slowed down to have better regulation how to get there involves trial and error food and or insulin adjustments . sometimes a change in insulin can be helpful

it took years to get stable consistent blood sugar for jesse . in general numbers were pretty good just not very dependable so i had to a few things to keep things in a good range which i dont need to do as much anymore .

Jesse girl,

Thanks for looking at Lily's curve. I think you were right about going in the wrong direction by going from 18 to 19 units and even 18 units being too high. So ... I dropped her down to 16 units this morning. I didn't test her at fasting, but here are some spot tests:

6:00am - insulin
8:00am - 309 BG
12:30pm - 113 BG
5:30pm - 132 BG

So far so good. That 5:30pm reading has been near 600 the last 2 days when she was on 19 units.

I'll keep her at 16 units for five days, testing her at fasting and mid day and then do a curve.

Thanks,

Mike

[CraigM]

Re: Lily - My English Setter

Very interesting Mike! I was tempted the other day to say Lily's curve didn't look like Somogyi to me because the graph from 8:30 to 4:25 looked soooo perfect for those 8 hours. Strange how dropping to 16 units seems so much better Be sure to post the rest of the readings, I'm really interested in things like this.

Craig