Yorkie Zeuss... Zeuss has passed

[Ness]

Hi everyone,

Our 14 yr old Yorkie, Zeus, was diagnosed last month with diabetes. He responded well to the prescribed Cansulin but was spiking quite a bit. We have worked hard to get his food and feeding times consistent and thought we were getting somewhere until the insulin stopped having an effect. Put it down to the insulin getting old (44 days after opening) or too much shaking before administration on our part. New bottle of insulin started getting better numbers until today. He dropped 20 BG units from HI to 11 in 2 hrs and after another 4 hrs was back up to HI.

We are beginning to wonder if we need a slow release insulin so I started researching and found on cansulin’s website that recommended dose age is 0.5 units per kilo once a day. Twice daily treatment: each of 2 doses should be 25% less than 1 daily dose. 1 unit per kilo dose (what we had been told to give by vet) is an old doseage recommendation. Zeus is around 5kilos. Therefore once per day dose should be 2.5 units. Twice per day doses should be 1.8 each - correct? Currently we are giving 2.5 units twice per day and I think we are experiencing the somagyi effect.

Any experience or thoughts on cansulin doseages will be gratefully received!

[jesse girl]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Hi and welcome

the new vial maybe more potent than the old one and you may have to reduce the dose a bit

[Ness]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Thanks Jesse girl. We’re going to try 2 units twice per day for a few days and monitor and see what happens. Just struggling with the frustration of trying to manage his BG level at he moment. Every time we think we have figured it out something changes!

[jesse girl]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Yeah little dogs can be a bit more challenging as far as dosing because sometimes the dose needs to be small and tiny adjustments can have a big impact

Hope the reduction helps to stabilize blood sugar . Big swings in sugar are problematic and need to be figured out

[Raysaint]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Being that you are just in the second month, yes you can expect things to change, maybe for a while. It took me a year of tweaks and changes in the dog to finally be seeing good numbers on a consistent basis.

I know with NPH insulin, a half unit per kilogram of weight is the starting dose, and is usually conservative. Generally the dose needs to be increased little by little.
So if it seems like the insulin isn't working, might need a slight increase. The body will keep adjusting and changing in the early months.

[Ness]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Update:
We gave 2units of cansulin last night so a reduction of 0.5U from prescription. 5 hrs later got a BG reading of 3.9. Never seen that low before and made us panic a little. Gave him a small amount of food and by this morning he was at 28 and not HI as he has been every other morning. Also found out my OH had not given him the 20g of dry food we normally give with his wet last night so this may have contributed to the low reading. This morning he got his standard food (wet and dry) and 2 units of cansulin. Fingers crossed for a smoother curve.

[jesse girl]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Wow

You may have to reduce the dose further . What i do is get a dose to where the numbers are more stable . They maybe higher across the board but stable(no big swings ) . At that point you start raising the dose and you maybe have to adjust in quarter unit increments but no more than a half unit

If you cant get out of the big swings in blood sugar through dosing you may have to look at a food change or adding a food that stabilizes sugar . If no success with that you may have to possibly look at a change in insulin

[Ness]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

It appears the dry food could be the culprit. Supper last night only wet food given. Breakfast this morning wet and dry and his numbers went down but not as low as last night and are nearly back to high again 8 hrs after feeding and insulin. Dry food is hills dental (which are doing wonders for his oral hygiene) but are lower in fibre than the dry w/d food. He won’t eat the dry w/d food so will probably have to consider increasing wet food amount and not giving any dry to see what effect that has.

[jesse girl]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Thats kind of what you have to be is a detective . Sometimes we get lucky and pick correctly when just starting out and for some it takes a while as with me and my jesse but she had additional challenges that made regulation a bit more difficult

[Daisydog10]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

It appears the dry food could be the culprit.

Daisy has a very strange digestive system. Dry food will digest slower than wet so I use a combination of both so the insulin can work with the food and flatten out her curve. I measure all her food in grams because even a few pieces of kibble will throw her numbers off. Sometimes just soaking all or part of the kibble works wonders.

[amydunn19]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

You can soak the dry food in water. You might look at some dental chews for any teeth issues. The vet usually has some very effective ones that don’t affect blood sugar. Also, try the Zymox line of dental gels, sprays and water additive are amazing. I used their products with Maggie and they made a huge difference. The line is formulated by the same people who produce Biotene for humans. So many older diabetic dogs have teeth problems related to dry mouth. The products boost the enzymes in their mouth.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Correct Cansulin dose

Sweet little Zeus, so sorry to hear of your passing. I imagine you were quite the dog being a Yorkie living up to that great big name!! Sending you a kiss skyward...

Natalie