Pugsley became an angel...

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

Hi. Almost there! We have managed to get 6 readings from him at 2h intervals - 7am, 9am, 11a, 1pm, 3pm & 5pm. My wife wasn't able to get a 7pm blood sample as he was so fed up of having his ears pricked by then, he bit her!

In any case, it wouldn't have helped any as all of the readings are between 460 and 560. It reached the lowest, 460, around 6h after his morning insulin jab then slowly crept back up.

I'm taking the readings and a urine sample to the vet first thing in the morning (8am here, 2am US Central Time) and I'll be waiting on their call then to tell me what his evening insulin dose should be and hopefully we'll be heading in the right direction and he'll start to feel a bit better. I have noticed a slight decline in him over the past few days or so, so I am pretty desperate to get this turned around as soon as possible. He's a little weak... things like scratching his ears with his back leg - he struggles to manage more than a few weak scratches before giving up whereas before he would sound like a drum beating. I'm terrified of losing him. He's my best friend and comforted me so many times when life has been less than kind to me. If I could only bottle the feeling I get when I'm laying in bed and he comes alongside me for a cuddle.... bliss. I'm never more at peace than those moments.

Thank you so much for responding to me here - I'm very grateful. It's just a relief to have someone to chat about it to. Pugsley is our first ever dog and we never had children so he's kind of become our only child. I'll update you when I hear back from the vet. Thankyou again.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

i remebered theres a 6 hour difference from canada to the uk when i watched the wimbelton tennis

great you two got the curve done

looks like Pugleys should feel better soon.

upping insulin by .5 will or shouldl ower the bg by 50 points which isnt enough.

raising by 1 unit is 100 less which might be enough to make hm feel better.

my dog was 21 lbs and on 5 1/2 units of the more concentrated nph insulin.
caninsulin i used also and Riles needed 1 unit more.

your vet will.probably raise it by 1 to 4 units.

i would wait 3 to 5 days take more readings and adjust again to the lowest number.

post what the vet says okay

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

goodmorning

i think its 7:30 your time. just thinking of Pugsley. how is he doing? did you see the vet?

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

Hi. Sorry I've been offline for a few days. I've been struggling with various things. The vet increased his insulin to 5 units twice a day and although I haven't checked his bloods, he seems a lot better on that. The drinking has reduced a lot, but not quite back to normal yet. We have other problems now though - he's developed a corneal ulcer on his blind eye and has a bad infection in both, so he's going to the vet again in an hour. His ears are smelling terrible and producing waxy discharge. I'll see what she can do to help.

[jesse girl]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

Yeah the high sugar can cause a growth in yeast and bacteria

I think if your dog has diabetic cataracts they need to take drops to keep the eyes from ulcerating and things like that which you are seeing . Sometimes talking to a specialist in matters like this can be helpful.

Good news the dose increase seems to be reducing diabetic symptoms. That is also important with testing blood sugar in managing the disease . Especially in the early stages.

The eye problems and the medication that goes along with it may affect blood sugar up or down so something to be aware of .

It can get a bit rough in the beginning . You two will get through this together

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

All hell broke loose yesterday. I took him to the vet who said his ulcer was really bad and the eye was in danger of popping. She discussed euthanasia but I'm not giving up on him that easily. She said it was an emergency so referred me to a specialist eye surgeon, 90 miles away. She injected him with morphine and I set off. Luckily he slept most of the way. The eye surgeon said the ulcer was perforated and in any other dog, she would have removed the eye there and then but because of his adverse history with general anaesthetic, she thought there was a high risk of death if she put him under, so we have an aggressive treatment regime to follow, 4 different eye drops, 6 times a day, antibiotics etc. We are finding it impossible to get the drops in him though. He fights so much. Before my wife left for work this morning, we manage to get all 4 drops in, but not without a fight and he bit both of us.

I have no idea how I'm going to cope on my own.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

really sorry your going through a rough time with Pugsley.

with the diabetes very hard to control and more insulin needed because of the infection i would of opted to take the risk and remove the eye.

there is an easy way to give dogs medication, needles etc. they cant bite

heres some links to Hammocks slings, you can make your own. sit him on a table then lift him up into the sling with 5 holes in it. take blood sample, inject insulin, put in eye drops
all done.

https://thesimplecraft.com/diy-dog-grooming-hammock/

https://www.amazon.com/dog-grooming-...grooming+sling

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/92183123606742326/

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

You think that having him in a sling will make it easier to get eye drops in? He will still be free to move his head away from the dropper - he fights like a cat at the moment - you really think a sling will stop him doing that? I'll try anything!

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

Rob3ddd got a hammock

read his post

pugsley would bemore relaxed in a hammock i think. youd havemore control

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

We're taking him back to the eye hospital tomorrow for an assessment. If his eye hasn't progressed as they hope they will have to remove it under general anaesthetic. They've already warned me that he's very high risk from the anaesthetic plus if there is anything of his thrombocytopenia left, the eye socket could bleed and not stop and they don't carry blood as they are just an eye hospital.

I've already convinced myself I'm going to lose him and I'm in bits. He's everything to me and more.

[jesse girl]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

Its not uncommon to see this problem with diabetic dogs .I wish your decision would be easier for you .

My jesse was on deaths bed over 11 years ago with complications from uncontrolled diabetes and miraculously she pulled through and proved me wrong on many occasion that her time was up in the 11 years she was diabetic

There is always hope . The vet needs a good plan and have them discuss that with you before any surgery

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

He's been drinking a lot lately again and my wife has just done a blood test - 30.8 (560mg/dl) - and that is 4h30 after eating and 5 units of insulin. She's phoning the vets now. We messed up last night and couldn't remember if he'd been fed and injected, so in the end we fed him and on the advice of the emergency out-of-hours vet, didn't give him any insulin in case he'd already had one shot earlier.

[jesse girl]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

That has happened to all of us from time to time .You just give the normal dose at the next shot time . Not much you can do but give plenty of access to water . The numbers should go back down once insulin is reintroduced .

[Aneng]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

We are finding this impossibly stressful. It wouldn't be too bad if he was the kind of old dog that slept all the time but he's fairly active and it's hell trying to follow him everywhere as his eyesight has gone completely now. He bumps into everything, he has to have his cone on most of the time. I'm at work in the day and my wife works from home. She's finding it impossible to work and watch over him. She's getting really depressed over it and we are arguing. I don't know how much longer we can keep on doing this. It's not so much the diabetes - I know we haven't got his bloods under control yet - it's the blindness. We are both desperate to offload him onto the other one at the first opportunity - which sounds awful as we genuinely adore him - but the stress levels are very high. At this rate I'm genuinely not certain which of the three of us is going to die first. I've had a heart attack in the past and my wife is diabetic herself with high blood pressure.

[jesse girl]

Re: Newly diabetic pug - HELP!

My Jesse developed canine cognitive dysfunction(doggie dementia) in her latter years. The diabetes was hard that first year but after that it was a breeze .CCD was very difficult . It is a progressive disease and gets more and more chalang9ing to deal with . Now I am semi retired and have not worked for over a year so keeping an eye on her was doable and I was happy to do it as she has done so much for me . Its the least I could do .

I figured ways to work with the new challenges to make it a bit easier for Jesse and me but I was limited in terms of time leaving her alone but she had no problem giving me 4 hours

Now with her gone since the beginning of the summer I am traveling extensively which I have not done since she became diabetic some 11 years ago but I would give all that up to have her back in my life even as she was .

As My mom always said who I lost early in the year no one ever promised you a rose garden . You do the best you can with what you got . Figure ways to make things a bit better and live life within that moment.