Sweet Zoe has departed February 18, 2018

[SandyL]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Awww she's BEAUTIFUL!

Sandy

[peggy0]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Zoe looks just like my toby!! Sweet girl!

[Cebe]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Thanks guys!! I think she's pretty darn cute myself.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

I can't explain why but how long people manage to get from a bottle of insulin seems to vary quite a bit. I am starting to think that perhaps NPH is more sensitive to potency issues over time because it seems like it has presented more challenges as far as using a bottle past four or five weeks.

Many of us who used lente insulins - Vetsulin/Caninsulin is a lente insulin as was the old, now discontinued Humulin L - seemed to be able to stretch a bottle to the last drop even if that meant three months. One of first (perhaps the first) dogs to use Vetsulin in the U.S. started using it several years before it was approved here so it was a lot of work to get hold of it. She had a small dog and she used every last drop of every bottle, making them last a lot longer than 6 weeks.

The clear faster acting insulins are a lot more stable because there's no mixing.

It's a combination of the mixing process - which can affect how much of the stuff in the fluid winds up in the syringe over time, and also the number of needle sticks into the bottle, which can introduce contaminants. So if you were to draw from a bottle 10 times and then let it sit in the fridge for a couple of months and then starting using it again, you wouldn't need to count the time it sat undisturbed in the fridge. After all, the only difference between an open and unopened bottle is flipping off the cap.

But there's another reason to avoid using a bottle to the last drop. It makes a handy backup bottle in case you accidentally drop the newer one and shatter it or find that something may be wrong with the newer bottle. Having a bit left in the backup bottle (keep it refrigerated and standing upright so the insulin doeesn't stick to the rubber stopper) can be a lifesaver when those kinds of things happen.

Natalie

[Cebe]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Keep the old bottle as a back up. Great tip!!

I will see what the vet says when I talk to him next about the old bottle.

NEW QUESTION:

Hair loss! Zoe is still losing hair. The hair loss is on her belly but it seems to be spreading or at least appearing to spread. I mean she's a black dog with a lot of fur on her back. The hair loss could be uniform but it's just more noticeable where it was thin to begin with. Anyway, it continues but she seems good otherwise. I'm not noticing any other symptoms. She has a couple of "postules" on her belly but those have come and gone throughout her life. Thoughts on this? The vet says we will look into it, but after we get her stable on the insulin. I'm afraid she might go bald before then.

Btw, she's running in her sleep right now. Always cracks me up.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

I think the short list of things that cause thinning hair like you describe would include both hypothyroid and Cushing's disease and both also tend to cause skin problems.

There are probably others too. Those are the ones I'm most familiar with. I think allergies can result in hair loss also.

Natalie

[Cebe]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Has anyone ever done a 24 hr curve and did you survive?

I have to wonder if a 12 hr curve is good enough for my dog. Her two hypo episodes happened in the late evening. I think she might need fine tuning with possibly two different doses during the day.

[jesse girl]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

If you are seeing problems in the pm cycle it is a good idea to see whats going on and a curve will do that if it mirrors the daytime cycle you could spot check once in a while at approximate low point to see if things are stable

it is a very good idea it is the other half of the day that most dont check my daughter had a school mate that had diabetes and passed at night they believe he went to low

[eileen]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Has anyone ever done a 24 hr curve and did you survive?

I have to wonder if a 12 hr curve is good enough for my dog. Her two hypo episodes happened in the late evening. I think she might need fine tuning with possibly two different doses during the day.

Many times!...and I'm still here to be able to talk about it ;-)

Often they respond differently during the sleeping hours so it is a good idea to also curve at this time too.

[Cebe]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Then it looks like a sleepless night for me next weekend.

Another question about using the freestyle lite strips. I just did a side by side test, but I had to poke her 2x. I can't get her to hold still long enough to get blood from the exact same spot for both strips. is that ok? I found a 50pt difference between the two strips with the freestyle showing lower. How do I get this set up so that I trust the freestyle readings?

[CraigM]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Then it looks like a sleepless night for me next weekend.

Another question about using the freestyle lite strips. I just did a side by side test, but I had to poke her 2x. I can't get her to hold still long enough to get blood from the exact same spot for both strips. is that ok? I found a 50pt difference between the two strips with the freestyle showing lower. How do I get this set up so that I trust the freestyle readings?

Did you have the AlphaTrak meter set to 7 when you used the FreeStyle Lite test strip?

[k9diabetes]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

LOL! A 24-hour curve is painful, alright! But you don't usually have to do them too often. I was always good at going back to sleep so late night readings and early injections weren't so bad for me.

Looking forward to seeing the curve!

Natalie

[CraigM]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Did you have the AlphaTrak meter set to 7 when you used the FreeStyle Lite test strip?

Annie and I were a little bored just before going off to bed, so we decided to dust off the AlphaTrak meter, AlphaTrak strips, and open a new box of FreeStyle Lite strips and do a quick test. We got a nice blood droplet and tested the droplet with both strips.


AlphaTrak strips container indicated "code 7" for dogs. Read 147

FreeStyle Lite container indicated "code 16", but I left the meter set on 7. Read 141

Pretty darn close!

[Cebe]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

Natalie, I'm finding it harder and harder to go without sleep these days but if it's for my girl, I'll do it.

As for the strips, the freestyles are no code and the new vial I'd alphatracks are coded 6. So, I did the alphatrack 1st and coded the machine to 6, and left it that way. I'm gathering that I should have switched back to 7 for the freestyle strips?

[eileen]

Re: Zoe, a new diabetic with a worried mommy

yep, we're finding that we want to use code 7 on our Alpha Trak meters when using the Freestyle Lite strips.