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Hi,
my name is Eva and I live in the Netherlands with my husband, husky Flea and three cats. Flea is 14 years old since 17th November, has had pancreatitis controlled by fresh pancreas in his meals and has been diagnosed with diabetes + UTI on 24th of december.
The vet first thought of cushing, but the test was negative. His sugar was a little elevated, but not a lot. Because of the delayed diagnosis, we started a little late on insuline (12-25). He lost a lot of weight (for him, he never put on a lot of weight). He now weighs 22 kg.
We started him on 7 units of caninsulin. We give him his complete raw food diet (there are several brands of quality raw food in the Netherlands) for pancreatic dogs + a mixture of vegetables, oats, turmeric and a capsule of serene + pumpkinseed oil (for his prostate, without it he will have blood in his urine). He gets the same meal twice a day, 6.30 in the morning and 6.30 in the evening. I can make him eat so we give him his insuline right after he has eaten.
He has improved a lot in the past 1,5 weeks! He has more energy, drinks less, urinates less, has put on a tiny little bit of weight, wants to play again and barks for food.
My husband is handy in giving the insuline (I scare sometimes when he yelps a little bit). I am handy in checking his blood glucose. I got a freestyle freedom lite BG-meter. We checked it yesterday at the vet against his meter (he has one for dogs) and against a blood analysis. I got 6,8 (123), the pet-meter got 231 (!!!) and that's why we did another test with the machine. It got 177.
I found an explanation about what the difference between a humane and pet meter is. Glucose is measured in whole blood (blood cells and plasma) but the numbers you get and work with are glucose in plasma alone. In human blood glucose is divided 42% - 58% blood cells - plasma. In dog blood, glucose is divided 12,5% - 87,5% blood cells - plasma. Sure this is not a fixed number, but it would explain the difference I got between the humane meter and the analysis machine. (not the difference with the pet meter, I think it is broke or needs to be recalibrated). With this in mind, to check where Fleas BG is approximately, I divide his number by 58 and multiply with 87,5.
I want to stick to the humane meter. I'd rather be on the safe side and prevent a hypo instead of thinking Flea is a safe range while his real blood glucose is a lot lower.
I already did some mini-curves. They go from around 160-180 fasting in the morning to 105-125 at his lowest. Fasting in the evening is somewhat higher. Usually 170-200. This is the reading on the humane meter, no calculations done.
Yesterday at the vet, he was really pleased with the improvement Flea made. He told us he did that very quickly. He has tested Flea's urine and unfortunately he still has a UTI. He has already had two rounds of antibiotics, so now the vet has taken some sterile urine from his bladder to check what kind of bacteria he has, so he can give the kind of antibiotic that will finish the UTI. I would like to start to supplement D-mannose as well. I read on the forum that there are some of you that give this supplement. I am curious to know how much (in mg) you give. Do you know how much is safe to give?
I am very happy to have found this forum. I already used some of the tips about how to make injections a little bit less painful (get the chill off the insuline, tenting and holding the right side up).
Eva & Flea
my name is Eva and I live in the Netherlands with my husband, husky Flea and three cats. Flea is 14 years old since 17th November, has had pancreatitis controlled by fresh pancreas in his meals and has been diagnosed with diabetes + UTI on 24th of december.
The vet first thought of cushing, but the test was negative. His sugar was a little elevated, but not a lot. Because of the delayed diagnosis, we started a little late on insuline (12-25). He lost a lot of weight (for him, he never put on a lot of weight). He now weighs 22 kg.
We started him on 7 units of caninsulin. We give him his complete raw food diet (there are several brands of quality raw food in the Netherlands) for pancreatic dogs + a mixture of vegetables, oats, turmeric and a capsule of serene + pumpkinseed oil (for his prostate, without it he will have blood in his urine). He gets the same meal twice a day, 6.30 in the morning and 6.30 in the evening. I can make him eat so we give him his insuline right after he has eaten.
He has improved a lot in the past 1,5 weeks! He has more energy, drinks less, urinates less, has put on a tiny little bit of weight, wants to play again and barks for food.
My husband is handy in giving the insuline (I scare sometimes when he yelps a little bit). I am handy in checking his blood glucose. I got a freestyle freedom lite BG-meter. We checked it yesterday at the vet against his meter (he has one for dogs) and against a blood analysis. I got 6,8 (123), the pet-meter got 231 (!!!) and that's why we did another test with the machine. It got 177.
I found an explanation about what the difference between a humane and pet meter is. Glucose is measured in whole blood (blood cells and plasma) but the numbers you get and work with are glucose in plasma alone. In human blood glucose is divided 42% - 58% blood cells - plasma. In dog blood, glucose is divided 12,5% - 87,5% blood cells - plasma. Sure this is not a fixed number, but it would explain the difference I got between the humane meter and the analysis machine. (not the difference with the pet meter, I think it is broke or needs to be recalibrated). With this in mind, to check where Fleas BG is approximately, I divide his number by 58 and multiply with 87,5.
I want to stick to the humane meter. I'd rather be on the safe side and prevent a hypo instead of thinking Flea is a safe range while his real blood glucose is a lot lower.
I already did some mini-curves. They go from around 160-180 fasting in the morning to 105-125 at his lowest. Fasting in the evening is somewhat higher. Usually 170-200. This is the reading on the humane meter, no calculations done.
Yesterday at the vet, he was really pleased with the improvement Flea made. He told us he did that very quickly. He has tested Flea's urine and unfortunately he still has a UTI. He has already had two rounds of antibiotics, so now the vet has taken some sterile urine from his bladder to check what kind of bacteria he has, so he can give the kind of antibiotic that will finish the UTI. I would like to start to supplement D-mannose as well. I read on the forum that there are some of you that give this supplement. I am curious to know how much (in mg) you give. Do you know how much is safe to give?
I am very happy to have found this forum. I already used some of the tips about how to make injections a little bit less painful (get the chill off the insuline, tenting and holding the right side up).
Eva & Flea
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