BUDDY

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

Thanks Shellie,

You're exactly right. After reading all the excellent advice, the revelation is that less food can really be more beneficial to Buddy's health and actually keep him from feeling hungry all day.

[CraigM]

Re: BUDDY

Thanks Shellie,

You're exactly right. After reading all the excellent advice, the revelation is that less food can really be more beneficial to Buddy's health and actually keep him from feeling hungry all day.

Probably more like food at better times when there will be active insulin to work with. You still need to feed enough to maintain weight, or increase weight if that is needed. I THINK a minor disadvantage some see with feeding WD is that it takes a lot more per meal. The ADVANTAGE to WD is the poop! When Annie was using Royal Canin Diabetic Formula (similar to WD), I had no problems locating her poop in the yard!

Craig

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

Craig,

Exactly, when I see the BG at 600 at 3:00, I know better than to give any treats now at that time.

I hope Annie gets over her eye infection quickly.

[Shellie]

Re: BUDDY

Now that you are testing...we generally don't recommend fructosamine tests. What that test measures is an average of all bg's over a period of time. So it will take the lowest which could be a 40 and add it to the highest like a 400 and come out to a very nice average! It would LOOK as if you were keeping your pup in a good range but as you could see from the REAL numbers...you're not. What is best is the curve you can do at home. However, you may get resistance from your vet as they seem to really like the fructo test. But save your money and do curves at home. Hugs!

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

Thanks Shellie. I appreciate the explanation.

We just did Buddy's latest BG curve and it is a little better:

7am: 359 before food and shot
9:30 am 154
11:30 am 179
2:00 pm 344
4:00 pm 284
7:00 pm 419 before food and shot

His prior curve a week ago was:

7am: 444
11:15 am 152
1:30 252
3:30 650

I would like to increase the insulin (Novolin N) but I think too risky as it might drop his BG down to 100 or lower.

I have quit all treats except green beans.

We currently give two shots of Novolin N 6 units at 7 am and 7 pm.

I am disappointed the Novolin N effectiveness wears off before 2pm and I am tempted to give perhaps a 1 unit shot of Novolin N at 1:30 (in addition to the am and pm shots of 6 units)to see if this will keep the BG down.

[Cebe]

Re: BUDDY

Perhaps just a higher evening dose would help. 6.5 at night?

[jesse girl]

Re: BUDDY

you do have some big fluctuations in blood sugar which does make regulation dificult

200 point drop or more in the fist hour of insulin starting to work maybe difficult for the body to handle and it may respond to that by dumping sugar into the body as a protective measure

what you would like to do is slow that drop its possible you may have to reduce the dose and see if the higher numbers come down and the lower numbers come up to where the curve is flatter it maybe elevated a bit

you could also add a food that can be digested much faster at the beginning thats why some of these diabetic foods do do well because they have that type of food that gets turned into glucose quickly

now buddy may not need that type of food exclusively many do supplement with types they feel are more nutritious and mix them together

so what you would like is to slow that early drop my jesse was like that and she could not move forward until we solved that

[Shellie]

Re: BUDDY

I'd agree...the insulin is working faster than the food. You could also try feeding then half an hour later, give the shot. Give the food time to get processing then the insulin in. There are a few ways to try.

It does seem a lot of dogs run out in the late day with their insulin. Giving more isn't necessarily going to take care of that late day rise. It might just make the lows lower...perhaps too low.

I'm about to talk to my own vet about the possibility of adding a fast acting right as the insulin seems to run out so will let you know how that goes.

Right now tho...perhaps a bit higher dose in the pm and either a faster acting food or a delay in shot time for the am.

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

Thanks Cebe, Jessie Girl and Shellie!

Sounds like excellent advice.

I am using Hill's WD Prescription food.

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

By the way, the advice I saw on this site about using the Accu-Chek SoftClix Plus lancing device for taking blood samples has been very helpful. I just started using it and have found it far superior to the AlphaTrak 2 lancing device (Not the test strips -- just the lancing device only) I take samples from Buddy's carpals still and I used to take 4 tries with the AlphaTrak clicker set on high and still not get a sample. With the Accu-Chek Plus I set it on 4 1/2 and get a painfree sample nearly everytime.

[Patty]

Re: BUDDY

So glad the Softclix are helping. I really loved them.

That 200 point drop in 2 hours makes it hard to raise insulin over time. I wonder if taking some of the w/d out and adding something carby instead would help prevent the drop.

Another option could be switching foods. A lot of people like the Blue Buffalo healthy weight food.

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

Thanks Patty --

Re: Accu-Chek SoftClix – the neat thing about using that device is that Buddy doesn’t usually seem to notice the lancing.


I still use the carpal - the area in the front legs above the paws a few inches for Buddy -- a miniature schnauzer of 22 pounds. In fact, every time I use it, I think that nothing happened. There is no blood. I then squeeze around where the lance inserted and almost always I can get a perfect sample of blood to appear.

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

Patty,

I have been using 1 1/2 cups of the Hill's WD Prescription twice per day. This morning at 6:30 I fed Buddy and waited a half hour to give the insulin -- which I cut back to 5.5 units of Novolin N (from 6 units) today as well.

Buddy has lost 8 pounds in 3 months (from 30 to 22 pounds) and I am not certain that Buddy is still not losing weight.

That is one of my top priorities -- stopping Buddy's weight loss - he is feeling more "skeletal" each week it seems. He still has lots of energy.

I am thinking about giving 1 cup of Hill's WD prescription with 1/2 a cup of Blue Buffalo healthy weight food both morning and eves. I am also planning on reducing the quantity of food slowly to 1 1/4 cup twice a day and then eventually cut that back to 1 cup twice a day as perhaps we are giving Buddy too much food and that is causing the weight loss because the food is out of balance with the insulin - Hill's recommends about 2 to 2 1/2 toal for Buddy's weight. I will probably have to experiment with the food combination. We have been ging 96% lean hamburger boiled with Buddy's morning and eve meals -- as a reward for taking the shots. Thanks for your information.

[buddy]

Re: BUDDY

I wanted to clarify that we are dropping the Novolin N dose from 6 to 5.5 only in the morning. In the eve, I may raise it to 6.5 -- as some helpful forum posters have suggested I consider.

I am abit concerned about raising it in eve because I can't test overnight to determine what is happening. Buddy does usually get a short walk after his eve meal and insulin shot -- so maybe his BG is doing the same at 10pm and midnight 11pm as it is at 10am and noon ( i.e. dropping to 120 to 150s). I will have to take a few BG tests at that time to see what is happening.

[Patty]

Re: BUDDY

I think testing during that time at night is a good idea. Will be interesting to see how the food mix works out.