Bogie - miniature schnauzer

[BogiesMom]

Just a ?? about low BG before feeding

(If if would occure)
Once he is switched over to Zeal, if his BG is below 150 before am or pm feeding, what do you suggest I give him to help raise it before I feed and give insulin? With the W/D I rarely ran into that situation but if I did I just gave him a few kibbles and waited 20 to 30 min and his numbers came up. But with the Zeal I am not sure what I would give to raise it... Maybe a diabetic friendly doggy biscuit?? Any suggestions?? I would just like to be prepared in the event this does happen. With the food change to Zeal I am hoping I will be able to lower his insulin but I won't know this for a few days and then it will take a few days to get it adjusted. In the mean time I would like to be prepared...
Thanks

[k9diabetes]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

When you want to raise blood sugar quickly, you usually need something quickly digestible and carby. Depending on how he digests biscuits, they can work. Sometimes you need something simpler like white bread, crackers, potatoes, rice.

Natalie

[Abby's Mom]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

Quick acting, you can give honey.... I have added millet, but white rice can be added to the zeal, as well. Abby dropped, and I use millet to keep her level.... Zeal changed her curve, along with the millet. Her lowest is at fasting, she had a fasting number of 127 this am.... She will increase to as much as 200 ... and then slowly come down to 120, or even 95 or 100.

I would watch for different trends, or change trends with complex carbs.

Barb

[amholmesy]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

Dawn. Bogie 's new avatar is so cool!! Hope the food change continues to go well.
Since I changed cjs food a few months ago his fasting numbers tend to be lower. Same as Barb's Abby . If he is very low - recently one evening he was 2.0 so I gave him a teaspoon of honey then his food and 2 extra carby dog biscuits and reduced his insulin. Next day he was fine. Don't know what caused it as everything was the same as usual. Sometimes it just happens .

Where would we be without testing! Good luck!

[BogiesMom]

Day 3 of 4

Thank you all for your suggestions...
Today is day 3 of 4 and Bogie was fed 3/4 Zeal and 1/4 Kibble. His fasting BG this am was 230 and I just did a spot check and his BG was 115 which is his lowest so far (If I remember correctly) that is.
Tomorrow he will be all Zeal... His numbers have already gone down so I am pretty sure we will be decreasing his insulin.
I’ll post his BG numbers tomorrow but so far he is acting great and his stools are really good.
In fact this morning he generally goes out side to do his business while I get the food reading but this morning he was waiting for the new food with great anticipation

[jesse girl]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

it does a heart good when your pup enjoys a meal and looks forward to it my jesse so enjoys dinner

sounds like the trend is going in a positive direction and seems like the food does very well for diabetics and probably overall health good product

i am a believer in a more raw and natural approach without all the preservatives with the quality you would like to keep them healthy

hope things continue to improve

[BogiesMom]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

I rechecked Bogies BG at 4:10 this evening and he was at 135. I feed him at 5pm, so I gave him 6 kibbles and a small piece of dehydrated chicken, I waited 45 min and rechecked his BG and he was up to 165. I was then able to feed and give him his insulin at 5pm.
Poor Bogie... I'm testing him so much these last few days and the next few days to come that he may start leaking water through his little lip sticks
I chose to lower his Levemir by .25 units tonight. He has been on 4.5 units so I thought I would see how he does with 4.25. Tomorrow he will be completely off of kibble, I am going to buy some millet to have on hand if I need it. He definitely acted so much better today... He had that extra spring in his step

[Abby's Mom]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

it does a heart good when your pup enjoys a meal and looks forward to it my jesse so enjoys dinner

sounds like the trend is going in a positive direction and seems like the food does very well for diabetics and probably overall health good product

i am a believer in a more raw and natural approach without all the preservatives with the quality you would like to keep them healthy

hope things continue to improve

I do too....

Glad that the food is working for him, AND he loves it.... that is what is important.

Barb

[BogiesMom]

Day 4 of 4 Goodbye W/D... HELLO ZEAL =)

Today Bogie is totally off of W/D and eats only Honest Kitchen Zeal . His fasting BG was 200 this morning @ 5am. Last night I decreased his insulin from 4.5 to 4.25. He loves his food has good energy and his stools are great plus his BG has lowered and I am hoping we can keep it in the mid to upper 100's. I will have a better picture of his numbers and in a few days I will run a curve.

Thank you Barb for telling me about HK

Bogie always had a steady curve with W/D but I never could get his numbers consistantly lower than upper 200's even with Levemir at 4.5 units.

I will be switching my other non diabetic schnauzer over to Zeal as soon as she finishes her Z/D... She has bad enviromental as well as food allergies (confirmed through blood testing) and get's monthy shots... So she will be transitining to Zeal too

I'll update my thread with his BG numbers in a day or so...

Thanks again

[Abby's Mom]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

Dawn.

I am glad Bogie is doing so well. I have noticed that Abby's allergies are nonexistence with Zeal, so hopefully it will work for non-diabetic Schnauzer as well.

Keep us posted.

Barb

[BogiesMom]

Hypo or low BG

I was going to run to the store so I decided to check Bogie even though he was acting and looking normal and I got a 86 on the AlphaTrak so I gave him a drop of syrup on a dog bisquit and an additional one... waited 30 min and rechecked and he is now up to 126.
Thank God for home testing I'm off to buy some millet and going to lower our Levemir to 4 units tonight.

[momofdecker]

Re: Bogie - miniature schnauzer

Cheering you and Bogie on!!! Keep the good news coming!

[BogiesMom]

Brown Rice or Pearled Barley

Question??
I went to buy some Millet for Bogie to add carbohydrate to his food but couldn't locate any. I want to be able to add something to his food this evening so I bought both brown rice and barley.
Which one would be the best carb to add to his food (Zeal) and about how much should I give. We had that small hypo episode earlier today and I would like to add something to help keep him level.
Thanks

Also,
Mods you can move this to my thread, I just wanted to get this answered before I feed him tonight.
Thanks again

[pixiegirl]

Re: Brown Rice or Pearled Barley

Well I know very little about all this, I'm still struggling with it myself but the glycemic level of pearl barley is very low about 22. Brown rice is about 50. The lower the number the lower the effect on blood sugar spikes. Low GI foods enter the blood stream more slowly. So I would think that the barley is better. I believe millet has a similar GI index to brown rice so the barley may be better over all.

The amount of carbs and the glycemic load is less with barley so I think it wins in all regards compared to brown rice and millet. How your dog will react to it is another story entirely. And my info on that would fit in a thimble and leave a lot of room left over.

Not sure if this helps and I have no idea how much one would give their dog to help flatten a curve.

Susan

[SandyL]

Re: Brown Rice or Pearled Barley

Tiggy used to drop very fast after her injection... Approx 100 points within 2 hrs. I tried brown rice, lentils, white rice. What finally worked for her was pasta. I started giving her 1 Tbs of cooked thin spagetti and it did the trick. I guess what I'm saying is start with either the brown rice OR the barley for a few days and wait and see. Think of the food modifications like a science experiment

Sandy