Sweet Tee has passed - January 2019

[jesse girl]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

its nice to be able to give some insulin at regular shot time even if no food is consumed my jesse has been on just one meal a day and gets a shot without food now she does get a snack and the size of the snack depends on her fasting

now if you got a low fasting and food is not eaten you may not want to give any insulin

you can wait up to an hour to give insulin so you can see if fasting comes up to a level you are comfortable with and then give that quarter dose .

its great you ask these questions and have a plan before things get crazy and more than likely there will be a day your pup will not want to eat . home testing really helps with temporary adjustments

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Hi Guys,

I haven't had the opportunity to speak to my vet yet, she's postponed our 2nd glucose curve an additional week, considering we've noticed improvements in him and it can take time for his body to adjust.

I've also ordered some larger gauge needles, so hopefully I'll be able to take some readings to home soon.

We feed Tee 1/4 can of wild calling (96% meat) wet food and 1/2 cup hills prescription diet at 6am and 6pm. He never eats his meal when initially provided, some days he wont eat till hours later. Its completely our fault as we use to give him table scraps, so he waits around to see what else he might get. I know its extremely important to have him on a strict feeding schedule, so we're considering changing him to a completely wet feed diet or homemade. My question, will he get all his essentially nutrients from only wet food? Are there brands/type anyone can recommend? Is it unwise to switch him to wet food only diet?

Thanks again for the help.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

No problem with a canned food only diet.

Homemade diets are more challenging in terms of providing all the necessary minerals and nutrients. There was an article recently on some research at UC Davis saying that most recipes for homemade diets, even ones crafted by veterinarians, do not provide everything in the dietary standard for canines. They were touting veterinary nutrition experts and I doubt if anyone knows all that much about the "ideal" diet for a dog.

Our dog started on dry WD and then went to canned food. When we switched to canned, he digested the food pretty fast and we wound up splitting the canned food 50/50 with lowfat cottage cheese, which was digested more slowly and gave him more even blood sugar.

You also can just "supplement" the dry by coating it with canned food, lowfat cottage cheese, a sprinkling of parmesan cheese or some grated cheese of other kinds, water from water-packed low sodium tuna, a bit of lowfat meat - pretty much anything your dog can't resist and is relatively diabetes friendly and preferably something that can't be picked out..

Sometimes that is enough to do it. You may also find that he will adjust to eating his meal with time.

Some folks have put the bowl down for a specified period of time and then removed it so their dogs learned that it's now or never and gave smaller doses of insulin when the dog didn't eat the entire meal.

Natalie

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Thanks.

We changed Tee's diet to an all wet food, which he loves, and have clinic signs are starting to go away.

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

How would I know if he's digesting his food too fast?

[k9diabetes]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

The blood sugar level reflects a constant race between sugar and insulin.

When the food is being digested faster than the insulin is being absorbed, the blood sugar rises.

When the insulin is winning the race, the blood sugar falls.

So any time there is a sharp rise in blood sugar after a meal, the food is being digested pretty quickly, faster than the insulin is able to keep up.

A dog who digests food fast and puts insulin to work slowly with have a mountain followed by a valley in the glucose curve, representing a mismatch of the two.

I had one such curve online - you can see on August 2nd, the green line and diamonds, that first Chris' blood sugar rose as food was digested quickly, and then it dropped quite sharply as the food was now pretty much gone and the insulin was kicking in more strongly.





Hope that makes sense!

Natalie

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Thank you.

Tee's seen improvements in his water consumption, urination and energy levels. His weight continues to drop, he didn't eat anything yesterday and thus far today. Anything he eats, he vomits within an hour. I don't know if his new food created this, although I doubt it as he's been on it for many days prior. He has very little energy and just lays around all day. He is drinking water and usually keeping it down, few times he vomited the water as well. This morning he drank some water and vomited a yellow liquidy fluid.

Is there anytime I can do? Can I give me Pedialyte?

[Lucy10]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

My dog started vomiting when she had a bladder infection. There could be something else going on with his health? Testing his urine may give you some additional clues. With a bladder infection you'll see blood and protein in the urine. Note: I am a newbie, just relating an experience that may have some relevance. Can you call or email your vet?

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

I spoke with the vet, they said to wait till tomorrow and not to feed him today. She mentioned doing some blood work and urine testing.

[Lucy10]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

I spoke with the vet, they said to wait till tomorrow and not to feed him today. She mentioned doing some blood work and urine testing.

You can buy urine testing strips at the pharmacy to use at home. I like to test if anything seems wrong so I have more information. Urine testing can also tell you if ketones are present, which could be an emergency situation. I'm sure a more experienced person will comment soon, but I've got to say that I would be a bit concerned about the advice to wait another day and not feed, especially since he has been losing weight already and has been on a small amount of insulin once a day. Did the vet say to give insulin or not while he is not eating?

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for all your help and support. I wish I would have listened to you guys versus my vet.

Tee was diagnosed with DKA and pancreatitis on Thursday and has been hospitalized since, the house isn't the same without him.

We took him to a different vet, one that provides 24 hr care and has multiple doctors, so he's getting the treatment he needs. When we took him in, he could barely walk, couldn't keep anything down and seemed very ill. We just visited him and he's doing substantially better, off his IV fluids, eating regularly and should be home in the near future.

I just wanted to use this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone that's helped us through this. I'm sure I'll be leaning on you fine folks again.

Thank you,

Dave

[Rubytuesday]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Oh Dave, so sorry he got that sick, but glad he is on the mend.

I can't tell you how many times taking the advice of folks here over the advice of my vet saved my dog. It can be hard early on to know which way to turn.

I don't think you are testing the BGs at home, but now would be a good time to consider it. It would help you fine tune his regulation and prevent ketones from building up in the future.

It would be good to have some Ketostix on hand when he comes home so you can keep an eye on the ketone levels. You can pick these up at most pharmacies.

Tara

[momofdecker]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Glad you took him in when you did and that he is doing better now. How scary for you and him.

One thing I learned from my boy's diabetic experience and from the folks here is to ask for copies of all vet records. Always helpful to read through on your own and also helpful to have a binder to keep on hand should you ever be faced with an emergency situation.

I agree with Tara and admit that I did seek vet advice but then ran everything by the folks here before taking any action.

Hope Tee continues to see improvement. Keep us posted and don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

We are anxious for news on Tee - hope he is doing well!

Natalie

[kingd]

Re: Procedure Used by Vet's to Regulate Dog Diabetes

Hi Guys,

Tee came home yesterday after 6 days, , what a relief. We visited him daily and its remarkable how much he progressed everyday, so thankful we had an amazing team of vets.

We're still in the process of getting him completely regulated but we're getting really close. He's now get either 3 or 4 units twice daily, depending on his BG post feeding, vet's been advising us, and diabetic food.

On Tee's glucose curve, we noticed his BG peak at 600 (post meal) and a low of 140 seven hours later. That's on 4 units, the day after all his signs on DKA and pancreatisis went away. Seems like a massive drop, is this normal? What is the typical range to have your dog? Will the difference between his valley and peak decrease?

Just a note, Tee's BG peaked at 460 (today) at home and 600 (yesterday) at the clinic, I'm assuming due to lack of stress.

Again guys, thank you.