Homer 11 year old pug

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

Forbin was on blue buffalo weight maintenance and did great. The protein level of wilderness spiked his BG

Yep. Homer's blood glucose is 354. I tested it right after reading your post just 5 minutes ago. Just bought an 11 pound bag of Blue Buffalo wilderness today and mixed it with his DCO. He did get his shot at 9 instead of 7 because I was out. What should I do? Toss the blue buffalo wilderness? Could It be high because He got his shot late and because I mixed it with the DCO?

[k9diabetes]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

Keep in mind that their ratings are completely unrelated to diabetes management.

A number of people feeding high protein grain free diets have wound up having to supplement the food with carbohydrates and/or vegetables because the heavy amount of protein did not match their dog's absorption of insulin, causing sharp drops in blood sugar during the first couple of hours.

Protein takes a while to digest, and some diabetic dogs really need something in their diet that is digested quickly.

It's just so dog-specific. All you can do is try something and see how it goes.

And if what you're feeding is working, I usually vote not to change it if you don't have to. There's tremendous value in good blood sugar regulation.

There's also a lot of ongoing debate about the idea that dogs are gastrically essentially wolves and so should have an all meat diet. I personally don't believe that's true.

If there's any "truth" out there, it's that we don't know what's best for humans to eat, let alone dogs. Every time you turn around, a new study contradicts the last one. Just this year, Scientific American published an article saying that everything we have believed for a couple of decades about anti-oxidants could be wrong - that they not only aren't helpful but actually may be harmful... There's almost nothing we know for sure. Which could eventually mean food isn't as meaningful to health as we think it is (is your head exploding yet?!?!!?).

Which leaves you back at square one deciding what you feel most comfortable with and working the benefits against the risks/ problems.

Natalie

It seems some official site reviews have problem with the blue buffalo life protection not having enough protein content. Is that a big thing for diabetics as well? Leaning towards trying the wilderness.

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

Tested Homer a couple times today. I guess right after he eats it's isn't a great time to test?

food and inuslin at 7am
tested right after - 244
two hours later at 9am 143
730pm half hour after he ate- 411. I fed him a little more at night.

The 143 is good right? But the 411 is really bad. Last night I though mostly likely the food was raising his BG but two hours after he ate in the morning he was 143. But I guess the 411 shows that it is the food because since reducing him to 6 units at the beginning of the week he was never that high when I tested.

[CraigM]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

Tested Homer a couple times today. I guess right after he eats it's isn't a great time to test?

food and inuslin at 7am
tested right after - 244
two hours later at 9am 143
730pm half hour after he ate- 411. I fed him a little more at night.

The 143 is good right? But the 411 is really bad. Last night I though mostly likely the food was raising his BG but two hours after he ate in the morning he was 143. But I guess the 411 shows that it is the food because since reducing him to 6 units at the beginning of the week he was never that high when I tested.

Most test before feeding & insulin. Some, my Annie, would get a pretty big rise in BG after a meal. I don't think I ever tested 30 minutes after, but being up 100 points 1-2 hours after the meal & injection happened frequently.

Craig

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

At 9 it was 369. Thats two hours after he ate. Should I stop the blue buffalo? I was thinking give him the DCO tomorrow and test before and after he eats. If it's lower than stop the blue buffalo.

[amydunn19]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

You have to give any changes a chance. One or two meals is not indicative of how it will be long term. Just like an insulin change, a food change needs to settle in. I would continue it and see what happens. Any time you change food, your numbers will change and may require more or less insulin. You won't know that until at least a week, though.

You have to make changes sometimes to see improvement but it take patience and restraint.

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

You have to give any changes a chance. One or two meals is not indicative of how it will be long term. Just like an insulin change, a food change needs to settle in. I would continue it and see what happens. Any time you change food, your numbers will change and may require more or less insulin. You won't know that until at least a week, though.

You have to make changes sometimes to see improvement but it take patience and restraint.

Will he be ok if his numbers are around 400 though? He has already gone blind. I see what you mean but I'm just torn on what to do.

[amydunn19]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

For a short period of time, around 400 is ok. If he starts going up much further, you may have to up the insulin dose. You don't want him to have ketones present as that could be huge problems. Do you have any urine testing sticks?

I think once you transition to this food completely, the numbers will stabilize and that will tell you whether you will need more insulin or less. Just because his numbers are high right now doesn't mean they will stay high - it will take his body a while to transition. He may stay high on this food - every dog has their different combo that works for them. You never know until you try it.

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

For a short period of time, around 400 is ok. If he starts going up much further, you may have to up the insulin dose. You don't want him to have ketones present as that could be huge problems. Do you have any urine testing sticks?

I think once you transition to this food completely, the numbers will stabilize and that will tell you whether you will need more insulin or less. Just because his numbers are high right now doesn't mean they will stay high - it will take his body a while to transition. He may stay high on this food - every dog has their different combo that works for them. You never know until you try it.

I gave him the DCO this morning. I guess I should give it more time but I was just really worried. His BG was 469 this morning before food and insulin and 392 two hours later. If I continue with the blue buffalo how long to wait before increasing insulin? A week. I don't have any urine testing sticks. Any recommendations?

[harleychik66]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

My guy needs 10 days for a new dose of insulin to be properly in his system to show what true numbers are going to read. I am lucky that different kibbles do not change his bg levels at all.

Perhaps your boy will not do good on the BB...may be the potatos. May be something else.

IF he was fairly well regulated before you changed food then I would give the food a couple days to see if his body acclimates to it. If you don't feel comfortable doing that than by all means go back to the DCO.

In regards to the bag of BB. You SHOULD be able to take it back to the store for a full refund. Most of the makers of these brands of food stand behind it 100% if it does not work for your boy they will give you a credit. I have yet to hear of any place not giving a refund.

If for some odd reason they won't refund you I would donate it to rescue or a shelter before tossing it. They can always use things like this.

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

My guy needs 10 days for a new dose of insulin to be properly in his system to show what true numbers are going to read. I am lucky that different kibbles do not change his bg levels at all.

Perhaps your boy will not do good on the BB...may be the potatos. May be something else.

IF he was fairly well regulated before you changed food then I would give the food a couple days to see if his body acclimates to it. If you don't feel comfortable doing that than by all means go back to the DCO.

In regards to the bag of BB. You SHOULD be able to take it back to the store for a full refund. Most of the makers of these brands of food stand behind it 100% if it does not work for your boy they will give you a credit. I have yet to hear of any place not giving a refund.

If for some odd reason they won't refund you I would donate it to rescue or a shelter before tossing it. They can always use things like this.

One of my problems is that he's not well regulated. Since going down to 6 units at the beginning of the week he wasn't near 400 until he had blue buffalo on Wednesday night. What about adjusting his insulin with the test before each meal? Don't some people do that? Like testing him before he eats and then adjust the insulin according to those results.

[jesse girl]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

there are people who do adjust n insulin depending on the fasting . for most of them there dogs are not consistent and making those adjustment helps them to stay in a better range for longer period of time these caretakers usually have been doing it for a while and understand there dogs regulation pretty well

i usually don't like to adjust the n to much but will under certain circumstances

i would rather keep n constant and add a fast acting from time to time as a correction which to me is safer to do than adjusting n because its not in the system as long

these things have the potential to muddle the waters for a dog that is fairly consistent which is where you would like to be and your dog has had seen some consistent regulation before the food change . with change sometimes is a re regulation process takes time to figure . with higher numbers you must make sure your not getting big swings in blood sugar which may point to to much insulin with the food change. consistent elevated numbers may point to a need for more insulin

my jesse did not do that well on bb wilderness. healthy weight was better for her but it appeared her home prepared diet was the best of those 3 foods . i believe the wilderness was just to rich for her system . she was on the prescription diet for a few days but i did not give that enough time to really evaluate

so i dont think your at a point at this time making adjustments to n or adding a fast acting just because you did see some good numbers i think your decision is based on the diet and have to decide whether to continue or return to the diet that had some positive results for me i will give something a specific amount of time if i do not see any positive results out to the trash heep it goes. sometimes thats maybe a day. most would say that is not long enough to evaluate. sometimes for me its mostly a gut instinct and know deep down i maybe going in the wrong direction .

[Pugcat914]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

Maybe I need to transition the food more slowly. The first night Wednesday, I mixed DCO and bb wilderness. Yesterday I only gave him blue buffalo. I think I made a big mistake. How should I portion it? Like a quarter cup of bb wilderness and 3 quarters DCO to start? Jeez writing this I'm mad at myself for being impatient. I got caught up in giving Homer a better quality food.

[jesse girl]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

it may have been easier to go more slowly and maybe that would have been easier on a decision on dose adjustments lower or higher because it may have not been so dramatic .

it really depends on the individual dog some do fine moving from food to food and need little transition

[Eddie]

Re: Homer 11 year old pug

One of my problems is that he's not well regulated. Since going down to 6 units at the beginning of the week he wasn't near 400 until he had blue buffalo on Wednesday night. What about adjusting his insulin with the test before each meal? Don't some people do that? Like testing him before he eats and then adjust the insulin according to those results.

We do tend to do this sort of tweaking of the insulin dose BUT we really do only tweak it ie the total range is only between 13.25 and 14.25 units (for a 63lb dog) since we find Eddie is sensitive around that dosage. We don't make big changes to his insulin dose - and we do monitor him quite closely and are with him virtually all day.
Antonia

PS for transitioning the food I would do it over at least a week maybe more. Eddie has digestive problems and I would take at least two weeks to change his food, maybe more but I do have to be very cautious with him.