My heart or my purse

[k9diabetes]

Since diabetes is a completely manageable condition, I don't think any dog should be put down because of it. At worst, rehomed to someone willing to take care of a diabetic dog.

If you switch to Walmart's Relion N insulin at $25 per bottle, that's the very best insulin price out there. Each bottle contains 1,000 units of insulin.

Just to use round numbers, if Wilbur needed 10 units per injection, that would be 20 units per day. So each $25 bottle contains 50 days worth of insulin - just 50 cents per day.

Walmart's syringes are also a good deal and syringes are not very expensive in general - I believe a box of 100 is about $12. One box will last about a month and a half.

So one month's cost for insulin and syringes is about $24 - $9 worth of syringes and $15 worth of insulin.

If you test blood sugar at home, test strips are at most $1 each. Which means you can do a full curve for less than $10. The meter is an upfront investment, but buy a good one (OneTouch Ultra would be my recommendation) and it should last all of Wilbur's life. I still have and use one from 2005. And you can often get a coupon or rebate on the meter. But even if it costs you $80, over it's lifetime it's not much per year.

Natalie

[CraigM]

Just to lighten the mood a bit, there is a potential good thing. After you get a meter, you will likely test yourself and other human family members!

[Rubytuesday]

Love you Craig, you always bring a new perspective to the mix!

I can really understand where you and even your husband is coming from. I used to work at a vet's office and used to say I could never afford to care for a diabetic aminal. I would see people coming in the hospital with their animals so frequently for day long blood tests. So when I had concerns about Ruby, I am ashamed to say I buried my head in the sand rationalizing for a bit.

We had also just adopted Ruby. She came with a disclosed condition, EPI. Then she started regurging about 4 times a day, which the foster folks said hadn't happened there....., but that is another story. Went to many vets and no one could help us, all the while she is losing more and more weight. After talking to the EPI forum about it someone suggested megaesophagus. So I joined a forum for that, instituted the prescribed approach and no more regurgitation. Still she continued to decline. She had tested negative for diabetes, but I always suspected she had it. So I decided to let her go if there was no improvement after the weekend, but before I did I went down to get some UA sticks just to confirm for my own peace of mind that she wasn't diabetic. Surprise, surprise, she was.

Now at this point I have her, she is part of our family so I will give it my best shot. I started home testing right away. Come to find out my meter was very unreliable. We struggled along with the vets for awhile, but were not having good results. I had so much success with forums for her other conditions I figured I would find one for the diabetes.

With the help of this group we have come so much further. Ruby will never be an easy diabetic as all of her conditions seem to make the others more problematic. The biggest cost for us is probably the testing strips, so I have tried to pair the costs down and use the walmart Prime meter. The meter has it's quirks and the technique of the tester can help, but I am familiar with Ruby's trends and have gotten much better at getting a nice fat dollop of blood which that meter does best with.

I also have other meters that I have purchased for when my human diabetic friends have extra strips to share. Once Ruby was diagnosed diabetic people came out of the woodwork.

On the couples end of it we also had our problems. Jim really didn't want a second dog much less one with EPI.....or two other significant diseases. The first time she regurgitated - it was in bed on his head. S Now he says she can still sleep on the bed only she has to be in the corner by my head. Sometimes he gets irritated, but I still think he is a saint because I know a lot of folks would not put up with all that is Ruby.

What helps is the costs for Ruby's upkeep comes in dribs and drabs, but so far no big outlay. It is easier that way, doesn't feel as though I am spending as much and it can just be rolled into the household account. For as many problems as she has we rarely go to the vet and not any more then i might with an otherwise healthy dog who gets ears infections or hot spots, for instance.

I wish you good luck.

Tara

[amholmesy]

Hi Dawn and Wilbur. Welcome ! My CJ was dx in may and I did not find this forum until July and it has been a lifesaver for me and for cj ! The people are so kind and know so much about diabetes and other complications with the disease and are so generous with their knowledge and support. I only startedctestingbin July as the vets I was with when cj was diag. Told me not to home test. I was bringing him in a lot as he was hypo ing a lot due to too much insulin. It was costing a fortune . Once I changed vets and took all the advice from the forum members I home tested and have never looked back. It's so much cheaper and most importantly you can see exactly what is going on . Even last night at fastings ( before food and insulin). Cj was only 3.8 very low so I gave him honey food and reduced the amount of insulin and went straight on to forum to ask advice . Straight away members came on to help me.

There will always be times when our babies need to go to the vet with perhaps an infection or skin problem but the diabetes itself as all the others have pointed out is not that expensive provided you home test.

Wilbur looks adorable - hang in there you will get him sorted out and am sure hubby will come around once he sees how little it costs in the long run to manage Wilburs diabetes. Recently a friend ( ex friend) was telling me hw his little girl had been sick a lot. He then asked how cj was so I explained how I was now how cooking for him to help his pancreas and diabetes. He said I should just put him down. I said well why don't you just put your daughter down she's been sick a lot. He looked at me and said don't be silly shes human and cj is just a dog. I said cj is part of my family and he's human to me he is my baby just like your daughter is your baby and I will do everything I can to give him the best quality of life he can have. I then left.

Good luck and keep up the great care you are giving your Wilbur you are doing great!
Xx

[k9diabetes]

Originally Posted by CraigM

Just to lighten the mood a bit, there is a potential good thing. After you get a meter, you will likely test yourself and other human family members!

So true... I think just about all of us have wound up testing ourselves and a few found out their blood sugar was a little high!

Natalie

[k9diabetes]

Sometimes another worry people have is that their dogs will suffer from the sometimes terrible side effects that people with Type 1 diabetes do. They worry that their dog will suffer.

The good news is that dogs tolerate diabetes and higher blood sugar a lot better than people. Aside from diabetes-induced cataracts, there aren't any serious side effects of decently managed diabetes for a dog.

Besides the fact that they won't have to live with diabetes for 20 or 30 years, there are major genetic / species differences in dogs and humans (and cats) in how they experience diabetes. One example is that dogs often get cataracts while cats almost never do even with very high blood sugar.

So Willy can have a happy normal life as long as his diabetes is managed reasonably well.

Natalie

[Wilbur]

Thanks for all the replys and great advice. It's such a blessing to have found this site. I have been doing some research in terms of the different types of insulin and have a few questions. Willie is on Humulin N at this time and I have noticed (I am still waiting on my meter to come in to test him at home) that he tends to peak around 2pm, drinks loads of water and have accidents in the house and that this insulin doesn't last as long as say the Novolin N. Why then do the vets put them on an insulin that only last 6 - 8 hrs when the Novolin lasts so much longer. Further with the longer lasting insulins, would you need to still have twice a day injections?
Last question...if when I test I find that he is high during the day I obviously cannot give him another dose so then what do I do?
Thanks again everyone.

[Bagel's Mom]

hang in there Dawn..There are so many people here who will teach you a lot more than the Vet- because they have so many years experience...

it isn't so expensive... and I am not sure why you have to go to the Vet to get regulated?

It has been over three and a half years since I was in the throes of panic here...
My vet sent me home with a bottle of insulin and some syringes and I thought it was the end of the world...

The really whoopie pet glucose meter is very expensive..but I have used the same One Touch Ultra 2 meter I got off ebay cheap and have used it for all three and a half years with only replacing the battery lately...It came in within 5 points of the Vet's meter. I took it there to see...

WALMART carries the Novolin N insulin and because they put their Relion name on it, it is half price at $24.00 a bottle. That lasts a long time! the syringes are about $12.50 for 100.

I buy the test strips from Amazon and pay about 31.00 for 50- I test 2 X a DAY under her lip.

There are so many people here who can help you better with regulating-and you can do it yourself at home! Bagel was a Cushings baby first, so she has never regulated consistently, but she has been, and is worth every minute and her quality of life has been excellent through this diabetes season....
HOPE you get some great replies here!!

Sande

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by Wilbur

Thanks for all the replys and great advice. It's such a blessing to have found this site. I have been doing some research in terms of the different types of insulin and have a few questions. Willie is on Humulin N at this time and I have noticed (I am still waiting on my meter to come in to test him at home) that he tends to peak around 2pm, drinks loads of water and have accidents in the house and that this insulin doesn't last as long as say the Novolin N. Why then do the vets put them on an insulin that only last 6 - 8 hrs when the Novolin lasts so much longer. Further with the longer lasting insulins, would you need to still have twice a day injections?
Last question...if when I test I find that he is high during the day I obviously cannot give him another dose so then what do I do?
Thanks again everyone.

Humulin-N and Novolin-N are both NPH insulins. Some have found their pups react slightly different to one or the other, because there is a slight difference. I made the switch back to Novolin on 11-1 because of the cost ($25 for Novolin-N at Walmart) and think I see Novolin-N doesn't have the same "duration" in my Annie as Humulin-N did. "Every dog is different" and their response might be different. I think vets just recommend the one (NPH) they are familiar with.

I believe it is very unusual for any pup to get by with only one injection. I don't think any dog on the forum, using any insulin, gets 24 hours duration.

After you get your meter and home test yo will see how long the insulin really lasts, and how high / low he goes during the 12 hours. You might be lucky and only have to adjust the amount of insulin to make it last. Or, you might have to make a food adjustment as well as insulin adjustment. Hard to tell until you have a full, every two hour curve, to interpret.

[k9diabetes]

It is best, even though it's frustrating, to start with less insulin than you think a dog will need and work the dose up slowly, giving each amount time to settle in and develop a long-term response.

So there's a good possibility that he will need a larger dose of insulin before you see significant improvement in his blood sugar. And if he's still not getting enough, it can run out earlier.

If you can check for ketones with Ketostix or Ketodiastix (urine test strips that are not every expensive), you can monitor him for the only urgent danger from his high blood sugar - ketones, which can be deadly if the levels get too high.

Otherwise, you don't want to do anything to "correct" high blood sugar. You want to observe and give his body time to adjust and work the insulin dose up slowly until the lowest blood sugar he gets is about 100. At that point, you can look at the curve of his blood sugar and see how long the insulin is lasting and whether he's going through large spikes or drops during the day.

There are various ways to resolve those kinds of problems, but you may not actually have them. So I would wait to see how he regulates and then deal with any problems that pop up. We can help with those if and when they occur.

I promise - it gets easier with time. Eventually, it's about as stressful as brushing your teeth most days and so much a part of your daily routine that you don't think about it as a big deal.

Natalie