Lucy, our rescued cattle dog, is an angel... April 21, 2014

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

If doing a curve may not be possible until Lucy gets a bit more used to being tested, you could contact the vet with your urine test results and spot blood checks. I suspect she'd be fine with raising the insulin again based on what you have.

So far, it looks like Lucie's response to the Vetsulin is really good - seems like her numbers don't fluctuate a lot from highest to lowest blood sugar. That may change as she gets closer to normal blood sugar but so far it looks great!

Not sure if I already told you but we had a heck of a time the first two weeks I tried to test Chris. I used a meter then that required more blood than the OneTouch and timed out even faster and Chris would wiggle around... I wasted a TON of strips!

You're doing just right by trying it a few times and not pushing it if you don't get results. Wait and try again later. There's nothing to be gained from either one of you being frustrated. Lucie will learn and you will learn and pretty quickly you'll be a pro at it.

I used to laugh at how hard it was for me at first. In later years, I did side-by-side meter tests, filling three meters at a time from one drop of blood... of course, none of the meters took a lot of blood. But we definitely had come a long way from the beginning.

You can break it up into steps to save test strips. Start with consistently getting a blood drop and don't worry about actually trying to test it. You can add that part in once Lucie learns to hold still for the lancing.

I'm pretty excited to see that her blood sugar's down into the 300s. Shouldn't take much more to get her down into 200s and I think the vet would be willing to spay her at that point.

Way to go Rick! You've made huge progress with this in just a few days.

Natalie

[Glenda12]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

I was so please to find you post here Rick. I am also very happy that you and Lucie are doing so well on this adventure of sorts.

Most of all I am so happy that Natalie is here to guide you. She is an awesome lady and let me tell you....knows her stuff.

By the way, your girl is very beautiful.

[Fishslayer]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

GRRRR! Got Lucy to hold still, lanced, had what I thought was a good drop.

Not enough blood...

And it was the last stick.

Getting better, tho. So is Lucy.

Weighed her before her meal & she's at 31# by my scale. She's gaining weight! Can't really be sure how much but it is definitely going the right direction. We've suspected as much for awhile just by the feel & look of her ribs & spine.

Diastix today showed right about 1000 Ketones negative.


Is there a particular time in relation to her meal/injection that is best for BG testing?

Way to go Rick! You've made huge progress with this in just a few days.

Natalie

Well, I've had a LOT of help!

Rick

[eyelostit]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Its good to test before each meal that way you have an AM fast and a PM fast, thats good for starters. That tells us alot also.

Hang in there

[Fishslayer]

Lucy's BG curve 1/22

Started Lucy's BG curve this AM.

. 7:45 PM 296

. 6:08 PM 282

. 4:24 PM 334

. 2:07 PM 375

12:22 PM 402

10:03 AM 420

8:00 AM Injection 8 IU Vetsulin

7:45 AM Meal 1 cup Kahoots/1 1/2 cups Hill's W-D

7:38 AM 343

7:00 AM Keta Diastix (second pee) 1000 / Ketones Negative

[eyelostit]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Yeah!! You did a curve, Give yourself a pat on the back!!

Your Ketones negative are good, Nat or Kath should see your post shorty, I do not use Vetsulin with Niki, but I know it has 2 peaks and differs from what I use.

Congrats on the curve again

[Fishslayer]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

All done. Lucy was a real champ!

I'll be dropping it off at the vet's tomorrow.


Rick

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

That's a very nice curve!! Upside down, which is my favorite kind - lets you mostly monitor premeal blood sugars and know the BG doesn't go lower than that in between - definitely the easiest kind of regulation to monitor.

Plus it's pretty flat, which is great, and the insulin is lasting well.

It looks LOVELY!! I would stick with what you're feeding her as it's well matched to the insulin.

I need to get in touch with the rescue squad to see if anyone is arranging to buy Lucy some more food.

Check in with the vet and you should be all set to go up either to 9 units or she might want to be more conservative and go to 8.5.

Congratulations!!!!!! I'm sure the vet will be most impressed with your curve!

Natalie

[Fishslayer]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

It looks LOVELY!! I would stick with what you're feeding her as it's well matched to the insulin.

I need to get in touch with the rescue squad to see if anyone is arranging to buy Lucy some more food.

She still has a couple pounds of WD left. I'll just run down the hill tomorrow & pick up the Science Diet Lite. I get some $$$ off for my Petco card. I'll mix it half & half with the WD till the WD is gone. If someone can kick in some $$$ that'd be great.


Rick

[Fishslayer]

New Insulin dose...

How long does it usually take to see effects from an increased dose?

Last night I started Lucy's new dose, 9 IU Vetsulin increased from 8 IU.

This morning her BG was 397, right around where she had been before. Actually, a bit higher. I had been seeing higher BG in her evening test than her morning test.

Thanks,

Rick

[We Hope]

Re: New Insulin dose...

It can take 2-3 days or more for one to be able to see an effect from changing the insulin dose.

http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/...as_insulin.pdf

Page 10

"the size of the insulin depot makes it necessary to allow 2-5 days of adjustment before achieving a new equilibrium."

This is where some people get in trouble and they think because they don't see the effects right away, that they should increase even more and can set up either a hypo or a rebound situation, where the bg's go up and down like a yo-yo.

If you use a fast or rapid-acting insulin which has no means of suspension to it, you see much faster results on the bg's than when you use an intermediate (Vetsulin/NPH) or long-acting (Lantus, Ultralente, for some, Levemir) one.

What you are counting on is consistency to win out in this. We had a weak vial of the old Lilly pork insulin and had no other options but to go back to the older one, which was on the way out as it was around long enough to start losing potency. At that time, the pharmacy had to order pork insulin for you--you needed something to use in the meantime until the order came in.

The old ready to be tossed vial had more potency left in it than the brand new one did; it took 2-3 days working with the old vial until we were able to get Lucky's bg's back under control. We could not increase the dose because we didn't have any way to know just how much potency was left in that old vial.

There's no such thing as a "photocopy" of bg's when you have diabetes. People can't make today like yesterday or tomorrow like today, as there are many subtle differences at work all the time.

http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs...rnalCode=javma

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association-February 1, 2003
Evaluation of day-to-day variability of serial blood glucose concentration curves in diabetic dogs

"Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—There is large day-to-day variation in parameters of serial blood glucose concentration curves in diabetic dogs. Day-to-day variability of serial blood glucose concentration curves has important clinical implications, particularly in dogs with good glycemic control. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2003;222:317–321)"

People with good diabetes control have their days when they're doing everything right, but their bg's are coming out "wrong". When you see something you weren't expecting, you try to figure out the reason for it and make any necessary corrections.

Taking bg's is sort of like a "diabetes snapshot" of how the day went. What you're looking for when you go over these "snapshots" is if there's a trend there--going high or going low. If you see a trend, this is when you need to think about making some changes in what you're doing now.

HTH!

Kathy

[Fishslayer]

Re: New Insulin dose...

Thanks. I figured as much.

Lucy's trend has been low to mid 300's in the AM & high 300's in the PM. I figured it's because she gets exrcise during the day & also the odd treat for being a good girl.

The vet told me to take another curve in 5-7 days & see where we're at.

I'll also be taking Lucy by the vet's every couple of days to check her weight. I have more confidence in the vet's scale than my bathroom scale for repeatability.

Rick

[rhodesian46]

Re: New Insulin dose...

I always gave Pebbles 3-5 days to see a change in Bg's after increasing THen I did a curve in 7 days I am sure you will see a change in Bg's by Friday.

[eyelostit]

Re: New Insulin dose...

It is usually 3-5 days, we humans tend to get impatient cause we have to wait, but baby steps is the way to go.

[Fishslayer]

Re: New Insulin dose...

30.5# at the vet's today.

Her PM test this evening was 262.

Her energy level today was definitely up.

Rick