10 year old doberman with diabetes

[doberman1]

Hello,

New to this forum, I found it while searching for answers on the internet. Our 10 1/2 year old female doberman had a seizure about 5 weeks ago and after a blood test the vet found her BS to be over 600. We have been on insulin ever since trying to find her "dosage" Her starting units were 18 and we are currently at 40 units twice a day. We were very happy that her number went down (finally) to 179 two weeks ago and 89 last week. Vet kept her at 40 units but this weekend she seems to be struggling Weakness in back legs, has a hard time walking across wood floor etc.....Any suggestions?

[k9diabetes]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

Are you testing her blood sugar at home?

You may have actually overshot her insulin dose and she is now, at certain times of day, experiencing low blood sugar.

Weak back legs are also a symptom of a long period of high blood sugar but it would not normally develop AFTER you get her blood sugar down.

Did it just start recently?

Natalie

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

Thank you for your response. We are not testing at home yet, she has been going to vet twice a week for the past 5-6 weeks with a day of "curve" in there. When we went in last week her BS was 89 and he was happy with that (so were we). My Gut is telling me the 40units twice a day is a bit much for her? My husband and I have no diabetes experience so we are very new to all of this.

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

She has been weak off and on in back legs for a few months, we assumed her age and this was normal. Last night and today the weakness has definately increased. I did give her some Karo Syrup about 2hrs ago because we were really concerned. First time giving that as well

[k9diabetes]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

Testing blood sugar at home would be a huge help in sorting these things out.

How much does she weigh?

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

She is 64lbs. Our vet was looking into an-- at home testing kit for us. We are going to adjust to 38 units tonight and tomorrow until I can call Vet Monday. Is there a danger of giving syrup too close to insulin?

[k9diabetes]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

Sustained very high blood sugar definitely can cause neuropathy, which typically shows up as equal weakness in both back legs.

The other thing that can happen is that moderately high blood sugar can add an additional layer of neuropathy over some existing sort of problem with communication through the spinal cord. In that case, you will see neuropathy at a much lower blood sugar level.

I would say intermittent weakness is somewhat unusual - it could be there's a separate problem.

It's easy, with a new diabetes diagnosis, to attribute everything to blood sugar, but that's not always the case.

Still, I'd like to know what her blood sugar is doing throughout the day at home.

And you certainly could try reducing the dose a couple of units and see if the weakness improves.

Have you tested with urine strips?

If you tested urine often, you might see the urine go negative after a low blood sugar event.

Natalie

[k9diabetes]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

The only danger from syrup is driving blood sugar higher. If she doesn't have high blood sugar most of the time, there wouldn't be any risk at all. If she has ketones, then it would make that situation worse.

Natalie

[k9diabetes]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

Know anyone whose diabetic?

You could borrow a meter in the meantime. Or buy one of the relatively inexpensive human meters.

For dogs, I always recommend the OneTouch Ultra, which you can often buy for very little money since they make most of their profit on the strips.

It's the meter we used throughout our dog's diabetes even though we had an AlphaTrak pet meter.

Natalie

[CraigM]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

Wondering what brand of insulin you are using?

Craig

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

No, we are not testing urine. I was thinking from her 89 reading on Monday that perhaps her blood sugar is dropping but you are saying it could also be spiking? We have been concerned since day 1 that there could also be an underlying issue going on. Our vet has been pretty up front about that, unfortunately. We started with insulin.....When I asked what would be the next step, he said ultrasound or could be almost anything internally that we may not know about. We could be faced with some tough decisions

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

She is on Novolin

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

We do not know anyone who is diabetic, I thought about getting a One Touch at Walmart I think I'll do that tomorrow.

[doberman1]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

When the vet tested her urine a couple weeks ago there were no ketones present.

[CraigM]

Re: 10 year old doberman with diabetes

We do not know anyone who is diabetic, I thought about getting a One Touch at Walmart I think I'll do that tomorrow.

Just realize One Touch test strips are going to be more expensive at local stores (even Walmart). You might get the first supply locally, but then search online (Amazon or eBay) for much better prices.

Craig