New member Snowball

[MikeMurphy]

Re: New member Snowball

Please remain at 2 units for 5 - 7 days so that her body can adjust to the change. Then you can do a 12 hour curve and evaluate the results. Depending on the results, you may need to drop another .5 units.

In the meantime, it would be good to spot test at fasting and possibly mid day.

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

now 300 at 9am, still on 2 units.

[RowansRys]

Re: New member Snowball

Excellent! The waiting is the hard part, doing something by carefully doing pretty much nothing....

This is looking very hopeful. If you compare it to 10/9, where she started in a similar place but had dropped down at 9am, and then went way up, it's much better looking that she's gone up very gently and doesn't appear to have triggered a rebound. Fingers crossed! First we wait for the curve to turn from mountains and valleys into gently rolling hills, and then see if the overall range needs to be adjusted at all in a week or so. Stay strong!

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

337 at 11:25am

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

How is snowball feeling at these levels without it appears any big swings up or down

I try to correlate physical symptoms with specific levels i see with jesse at specific times . when she drops or spikes she gets a bit lethargic . Usually stable sugar without allot of movement she feels good and she doesnt have to be in the 100s . Just the other day she was acting like a puppy being very playful i went to test her thinking her numbers had to be very good and she was at 313

So you look for where snowball does better physically and try to correlate that to blood sugar and see if there is some kind of pattern . Sometimes you have to dig to see the pattern

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

446 at 1:44pm. This is not with an alphatrak. this is like 675 on a pet meter. I feel like maybe I should just go back to 3.5u. I know everyone says that is a bad idea.

She has been moving around a bit. STill stumbling. It is pretty constant that she can't walk in the morning until about 10. I"m thinking maybe it has to do with the medicine the vet gave. That should be done in a few days and then we will know if the being able to stand is from the medicine or not.

[RowansRys]

Re: New member Snowball

Ok, here's the thing. If you can find where you found this "conversion" information, please toss the link in here. Reading around, I'm seeing that people with both pet and human testers have done side-by-side tests on the same blood sample and have not come up with NEARLY the variation that you're expecting. Unless your meter has been to the vet and tested on the same sample against their dog meter, you really have no way of knowing how close it is to the dog meter or the gold standard blood draw and big machine.



Moving away from the 2 units would be a huge mistake, as we have already seen massive swings in her numbers at higher levels. This is FAR more dangerous than waiting a few days at higher levels for her numbers to stabilize, expecially factoring in that your conversions are possibly looking much worse than the real number is. Hell, Bean had WEEKS at higher numbers when you factor in that we found her number BY MISTAKE at the vet, and that measured in at over 500, then we waited and tested again, and then took 2 weeks to wean her off prednisone before we could test for another week or so to make sure the numbers were real, all before the vet was willing to start us on insulin. We started with 2 units. She's a 30 lb dog. It was all 400's and 500's for a while there, and sure she felt lethargic, but she perked up as her numbers drifted down and we slowly adjusted her insulin. And then her back legs came back and she went from barely managing 4 stairs in (sometimes getting carried) and having trouble getting up because she would get her back legs tangled and couldn't figure out how to undo them, now she's back to doing 2 flights of stairs solo and jumping in the van unaided. Give Snowball and chance to weather this and stabilize on the other side.

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

http://k9diabetes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3440

From this forum.

[jesse girl]

Re: New member Snowball

the problem with conversions at a higher range it may not work out . Jesses humane meter early in her diagnosis which was the Walgreen tru trak read at a 150 points lower with the vets lab analyzer at higher ranges so when she was at 500 the lab analyzer read at 350

Not saying you are not correct but unless you compare with more exact measurements and of course labs are better than any handheld including pet your are kind of guessing on your assumption and in my opinion i dont think your dog is dropping at times 500 plus points if you go with the conversions

for me right or wrong i have always taken jesses numbers as is and she has done well over her 8.5 years being diabetic without any diabetic symptoms of thirst or excessive urination

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

326 at 3:27pm

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

Interesting you mentioned symtoms. She is thirsty all the time still. She will suck whatever water I put in her bowl up very quickly. The difference I notice is she is making it through the night reliatively consistently. 7 hours or so without issue so I'm not sure if I should be worrying about the thirst.

the problem with conversions at a higher range it may not work out . Jesses humane meter early in her diagnosis which was the Walgreen tru trak read at a 150 points lower with the vets lab analyzer at higher ranges so when she was at 500 the lab analyzer read at 350

Not saying you are not correct but unless you compare with more exact measurements and of course labs are better than any handheld including pet your are kind of guessing on your assumption and in my opinion i dont think your dog is dropping at times 500 plus points if you go with the conversions

for me right or wrong i have always taken jesses numbers as is and she has done well over her 8.5 years being diabetic without any diabetic symptoms of thirst or excessive urination

[RowansRys]

Re: New member Snowball

I would take Jesse girl’s accumulated and up to date experience over a thread that is about 6.5 year old electronics. 8.5 years of hands-on daily management is worth a ton!!
Also nice to see the updated number coming back down. I would think the improvement I’m peeing is good, although I have no experience as Bean was not typical and would drink less or the same at super high levels

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

289 at 6pm. Better curve but still high.

[RowansRys]

Re: New member Snowball

That's a much improved curve! They did say that high sugars could last 3 days after a rebound like she's been getting, then we should see them settle down and start to find their level as long as we don't poke the Somogyi bear with a sharp stick

[robl45]

Re: New member Snowball

174 at 10pm still on 2 units.