Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

[oahu]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

We use a Relion Micro Meter and for a long time thought it read low, so we added about +40 to the reading. Recently, the opportunity to check our meter with the vet's meter came up, and it turns out the meter is VERY accurate, at least for low (i.e. < 100) readings. Our dog doesn't seem to exhibit any symptoms when he has low glucose, so it was scary to find out that he really HAD been low a few times when we thought it was just the meter. Lesson learned. We now trust the meter's reading. Every dog is different, I'm sure, so it may not be accurate for everyone, but do use caution before assuming it reads low.

[CraigM]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Oahu,
The question I have is what exact meter is used at your vet office? Was your meter compared to lab equipment, or another hand held meter?

[oahu]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Hmm...I don't know the name of the meter the vet uses, but it's handheld.

[pat3332]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Hello,

I'm new here and wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all of the information I've gotten from all of you. My dog was recently diagnosed with diabetes and we've been working on regulating him for about 2 months.

Edit: Sorry, this was from my first post and I somehow managed to post it before it was finished. At least it's a lot shorter than the finished one. Feel free to delete it.

Pat

[k9diabetes]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

I'm glad you posted about this.

The general theory I've seen in regards to handheld meters is that they are always - with humans and with dogs and cats - most accurate at normal ranges of blood sugar and most unreliable at very high ranges of blood sugar.

With low readings it's worth going on the assumption that the meter is 100% accurate.

Fortunately, we never had to test our meter against a lab value at such low levels. But we did some meter to meter comparisons between the OneTouch and AlphaTrak and found an average difference of 35-40 points in the 100s upward but only about 20 points for levels below 100.

Natalie

[k9diabetes]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

I wonder if they used an AlphaTrak.

[pat3332]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Some information about my AlphaTrak if anyone is interested. Hope it's OK if I post this here.
I got an AlphaTrak from my vet and on 10-27, we did some testing. First I tested Bailey at the elbow callous, then the vet drew venous blood and ran it in his blood machine and while waiting, used the same sample for his AlphaTrak and mine. These are the results:

From elbow callous........................................... ...169
Blood machine With Venous Sample.........................172
His AlphaTrak With Same Venous Sample..................158
My AlphaTrak With Same Venous Sample..................158

The AlphaTrak appears to be pretty accurate. The vet was happy with the comparison and said that he feels a lot more comfortable about the results I'm calling him with and he won't need to have me come in to the office as often to check Bailey's glucose level. That may save me enough to pay for it. The AlphaTrak was more expensive and I realize the accuracy may vary depending on how high or low the glucose level is but the accuracy we got at this level satisfies my somewhat O/C nature.

I thought the two AlphaTrak readings being identical was a little odd since I can't get the same readings twice if I do two tests at the same time from the same site.

I saw another thread about using the FreeStyle Lite strips in the AlphaTrak. I first had the FreeStyle and when compared against the AlphaTrak, the readings from my FreeStyle are always close to half of what the AlphaTrak shows at higher readings. They numbers do seem to get closer as the levels get lower. I have tried the FreeStyle strips in the AlphaTrak and the FreeStyle strips do work in the AlphaTrak, but the results vary somewhat at high and low levels. At higher glucose levels, the numbers with the FreeStyle strips were 15-20 lower than the AlphaTrak. At low levels (75 and below), they were 15-20 higher than the AlphaTrak. I haven't had a chance to compare them at a stable, mid-range reading yet since stable doesn't seem to be something Bailey is interested in achieving.

I'm still new at this so I don't know if a difference of 15-20 in the numbers is that significant or not. I've had my AlphaTrak vary that much when doing two checks at the same time from the same site, so I doubt that it matters that much. It's just my feeling that it may be a little more meaningful in the lower ranges than the higher, but again, I don't really know.

Another difference is that with the AlphaTrak strips, you insert the strip and have to push the "M" button to turn it on. With the FreeStyle Lite strips, when I insert the strip, the AlphaTrak turns on automatically like the FreeStyle does. Unfortunately, the AlphaTrak test strips do not work in my FreeStyle Lite at all, so I can't make that comparison.

Insulin: I saw in another thread that Wal-Mart had changed from Novolin to Lilly's Humulin for their ReliOn store brand of insulin. Since that thread is closed, I thought I'd post this here.

I have been using the ReliOn Novolin and it was getting low, so I went to my Wal-Mart and asked them about the change to Humulin. They still had some of the Novolin, but I asked them if they were carrying the Humulin from Lilly for their ReliOn brand yet. They had it, but I had to request it specifically, so I guess they are trying to use up the Novolin first. If you want the Humulin, you may have to request it until their stock of Novolin runs out. The Humulin was not branded ReliOn, but was still in the regular Lilly Humulin packaging. The price was the same for both however, just under $25.00.

Pat

[SeattleCraig]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Dog's name, breed: Bob the Yorkie, 10 years old
Dog's weight: 8 lbs.
Diet: Hills A/D critical care and Pedialyte (pushing it right now with a baster-type thing, as he won't eat on his own.)
Insulin: Humulin
Number of units per injection and injections per day: 3 units, twice per day
Brand of BG meter if home testing: ReliOn Confirm right now, because I didn't know what I was doing.

Bob was just diagnosed last week. It's been a rough week. He got very sick, very fast, and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, diabetes, and possible renal failure all at once. After 4 intense days of subcutaneous fluid therapy at home, his BUN's, creatine, and phosphates have all returned to near perfect levels, and now I'm just working to get his diabetes well managed.

I have a lot of questions, but I'll just use the search function and read until I can gather my thoughts.

This is a wonderful resource.

[Caroline]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Dog's name, breed: Tilly, 12 year old Miniature Pinscher, just diagnosed
Dog's weight:13 lb.
Diet:Pedigree OM, .75 cups, twice daily, 30 min. before insulin
Insulin:
Humulin N starting dose of 2 units twice daily
Brand of BG meter if home testing:none yet-have ordered One Touch

Tilly was just diagnosed last week. I took her in after noticing that she was drinking and peeing way more than usual and knew this could be a sign of diabetes. She had a fasting glucose of 450 and the vet started her on 2 units of insulin. She is to go back for a day next week for the first curve test, after which her insulin amount will be adjusted. My purpose on this forum is to learn as much as possible about how to monitor and help control this disease so that Tilly can have the longest and healthiest life possible. Also, I am hoping to keep the vet bills as low as possible by learning to do this monitoring myself.

[jas3]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

just wondering if anyone has a dog out there that is having difficulty sleeping through the night after a diabetes diagnosis
our dog always slept thru the night without issue -now shes up 5 to 6 times whining and yipping- she doesnt even want to go out or need food or water -she just seems out of sorts
does anyone know of any safe sleep aids for dogs?
also on a side note has any tried any natural remedies to lower glucose successfully in addition to the insulin
lightnings sugars are still running in the 400-500s when i test her paw pad after being on 20 units on humulin n twice a day for 22 days now

[debbie]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

my dog buster use to be a great sleeper. He was diagnosed about almost 2 years ago. For the last couple of months he doesnt sleep thru the nite. He gets up like an alarm clock everynite about 2-3 and wants to go out. I dont know what it is. Once in a while he will let me sleep till 4:30 but that is rare. He also wants to eat at that time too.

[IzzyfromTexas]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

I was just complaining about our Izzy getting up at night in my "Thank you" thread. It was one of the signs that she displayed when she was first diagnosed, so when she started it again we were perplexed. After some investigating, her insulin had gone bad (whatever the term is for it losing it's effectiveness). When we got a new bottle and started using it her numbers went down and she is sleeping through the night again. (Knock on wood!) Also- try not giving her too much water before bed- maybe a couple of ice cubes so she won't ask to out. Izzie had started drinking a lot again and I'm sure that contributed to the hourly wake up barks.

[HarrysMom]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

My Harry seems to get up around 1AM - I measured his glucose, and this is when it runs high. He seems to be thirsty as he seeks out water even when he doesn't have to go potty. I would guess high blood sugar would do that.

Yunhee

[Susie B]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

My dog, Dooley, is a 12 year old beagle/poodle mix. He was diagnosed in July 2010 and is on Humulin N at 14 units twice a day. He's getting Royal Canin low fat dry and I mix the canned in his kong for a treat.

Just last evening I found out that his cataracts are mature which came on very sudden. I didn't know just how little he can see and I feel terrible about it.

Thanks for having this forum for people to find so much information about how to handle this situations.

Susie

[Kelle]

Re: Your dog's diet, insulin, and meter used

Dog's name, breed: Puddles (Female), Chihuahua

Weight: 6.2lbs

Diet: Hills W/D dry and canned food.

Insulin: Humulin N

Number of units per injection and injections per day: Currently at 2 units (up from 1 unit), twice a day, 8am/8pm (currently unregulated)

Brand of BG meter if home testing: AlphaTrak - I've only successfully got a reading for myself =P, Puddles just doesn't like to bleed.