Glargine for dogs risks

[mihai_pruna]

Seems Novolin doesn't work well anymore in lowering blood sugar and the vet recommended Glargine.
Does anyone here use it for their dog? Can you please let me know of side effects, risk of infection, risk of hypoglycemia (my dog might have to spend up to 4 hours alone sometimes), how effective it is?
Please also include your dog's weight.
thank you

[CraigM]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

Welcome to the forum.
The majority on the Forum are using Novolin-N / Humulin-N with success. Can you tell us about YOUR situation as to why you think Novolin-N isn't working? Tells us all about your pup, we like to get to know the members.

BTW, Annie (18ish pounds) has been on Novolin-N / Humulin-N for over five years.

Craig

[mihai_pruna]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

Welcome to the forum.
Can you tell us about YOUR situation as to why you think Novolin-N isn't working?

Craig

I have a Pomeranian, he is 11.8 pounds and 11 years old. He has been diagnosed with Diabetes for two years. Gets insulin twice a day, 7AM/6PM and food 3 times a day, twice with insulin and once at noon.
The food is a mix of green beans, brocolli,carrots, lean turkey breast, fat free cottage cheese and brown rice.

I am not able to get him to si still to check his blood sugar at home therefore he gets it done at the vet. The time is around 2PM . Last September he was at 257, now he is at 474. Insulin was increased to 4/3.5 units but that resulted in 474. Of course, many factors could be in play such as less physical activity during winter, proportions in his food ingredients, etc.
Clinically he appears ok, doesn't drink excessively, has good appetite, and weight has generally remained constant.

I am not sure I want to go with Glargine yet since Humullin and the Novolin has worked well for almost two years.

[mihai_pruna]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

forgot to mention he is standard size, not toy, so at 11-12 pounds he is quite skinny.

[CraigM]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

We know some folks have trouble home testing blood sugar, but most pups / parents finally find a way. Have you tried?

As you probably know, a single reading really doesn't tell that much. A pup might have more than a 150+ point range from high to low. You're right, there are many things that can affect their blood glucose. Sometimes they seem to have a high, or low, reading for no good reason: keeps us on our toes!

I think I've read that Glargine (Lantus) has done better in cats than in dogs.

Craig

[amydunn19]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

I would want the vet to do a curve before changing anything. That reading of 474 could have been an off day. It happens sometimes and tbat is why things shouldn't be changed based on one reading.

I think he has seen good numbers on novolin/humulin so the food and insulin may just be out of balance. Have you thought about tweaking his food? I would start there.

Glargine hasn't been a great choice for dogs - Dr. Peterson had a blog post about it and he said you really have to use a fast acting insulin with it.

Vetsulin is another choice that should probably be looked at before glargine.

[mihai_pruna]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

They also did the fructosamine, and that showed up high.

he is not a chill dog and was not able to test at home. He is an adoption and is not very touch friendly in stressful situations.

previously we have done glucose curves and because of the stress of being at the vet, I guess, he ended up being prescribed too high a dosage and ended up with a few episodes of hypoglycemia.

Does anyone administer Novolin 3 times a day in order to keep a more even distribution?

[amydunn19]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

The fructosamine test doesn't really tell anything about how they are using food and insulin on a daily basis and most people here don't think much of that test - a waste of money.

Without testing, it is hard to say what to do next. Since he gets stressed at the vets, I would maybe give testing another try. Otherwise, any suggestions we make are just a guess because you don't really know where his numbers are. Do you have any old curves from when he was overdosed so we can get an idea of what dose was too much?

I have heard of people who give more than two shots but again without knowing the numbers, it would be hard to say. There probably would be some overlap.

[Bonkers]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

How did you end up deciding on feeding 3x/day?
As others have said, you can't know a lot without doing some form of "curve" Without that, you really don't know the duration of the insulin, and you don't know when the high and low points are.
As a general rule, "stacking" long acting insulin is a bad idea (stacking = injecting at a frequency where the injections significantly overlap)
Had you considered changing the feeding to 2x/day, which would match more closely with the 2 insulin injections?

(caution -- I'm still a newbie on dog diabetes. Trying to overlap my human diabetes/insulin knowledge with what I'm learning about dog-D from the wonderful people on this forum!!)

[jesse girl]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

we give jesse 3 shots a day . this was done because the numbers in a curve suggested it

its tough if they are stressed at the vet while doing a curve because the stress can dramatically change what the curve could look like from normal .

the fructosamine test may give some info cant base dosage off it . the problem with diabetic dogs seem to fluctuate quite a bit from low to high so you dont know how low a pup has gone

so your in that place of just using physical symptoms maybe incorporate urine strips . you do know that a dose was to high due to a hypo event so you dont want to go to that level

so its not impossible to do this have to be more in tune to your pup habits changes in behavior that kind of thing .

i would not give up on the idea of home testing just doing practice tests can be helpful . say you were using the lip . just rolling it up rubbing your finger across it above the canine tooth. give a small treat and start with that . hey if it took 6 months of practice tests and it worked that would be great . now you could do the same with other areas gentle touch calm demeanor and treats can change behavior .

[mihai_pruna]

Re: Glargine for dogs risks

How did you end up deciding on feeding 3x/day?

he seemed to be getting pretty hungry around noon time.