Hi everyone, we have a 7 year old Musky, he is really a maltese but acts like his bigger husky brothers, he is now 15.7lbs, on 2units of Novalin N, feeding two times a day wet can food (Wilderness, taste of the wild) and doc sent us home with Royal Canin (ingredients not highest quality). My wife and I have had to get caught up and educate ourselves very quickly on diabetes and I've been up the last 2 days and nights reading up on it as much as I can.
I would like the boards advice and tips. It is a long read by any info and help is appreciated.
This is the 3rd night he is been with us since my wife picked him up from my his doctor. He went in Wednesday, they drew blood and urine samples, got him on an IV b/c of the high blood sugar and keytone in the results which also showed possibly pancreas failure. She brought him home with what I assumed was a safe blood sugar level but I don't know b/c we didn't have a meter and they didn't send my wife home with one (not happy about that).
I ordered the AlphaTrak 2 kit from Amazon overnight which arrived this morning, I also have some Freestyle lite strips on the way while we use the alphatrak strips now which i tested with control solution and got his readings today. While waiting for the alphatrak I borrowed my in laws meter and took it to the vet with us yesterday for a follow up b/c they were closed on Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure we have some way to test his sugar while we wait for amazon so when we were there I had them test his sugar and from the same spot tested the human meter knowing the results would be less i got the number and calculated the delta for a reference.
Here are the results at the vet at 11:30am with their meter 395mg/dL and our temp meter 339 which is what i expected with the research i had done it would be lower so the delta was ~56points. So we took him home, gave him food and insulin 2units of Novalin N at 2:25pm, about 2hrs later at 4:14pm we tested his sugar and it was 243mg/dL after adjustment. Than another 2hrs later which is 4hr after insulin shot where the blood sugar should be the lowest on a curve (based on what i read) at 6:22pm it was 238 which is not bad. So we did not give him another injection which we were supposed to but his bolus injection was enough for the night. I realize we need to do one for basal and bolus but I didn't feel comfortable giving him the injection b/c we didn't have the meter until we got to his vet which is near the in laws house an hour away.
This morning was a bit of a dysfunction since we could not get a blood sample large enough for the blasted human strips and temp meter. We spent at least an hour giving him breaks trying to get a reading. Luckily the alphatrak2 arrived by 11am and we got a reading at 11:14am at 336mg/dL, gave him food and insulin at 11:25am, he slept most of the day, at 3:57pm we tested him and he was 367mg/dL, feed him at 5:20pm and gave him insulin at 7:50pm which again he went into bad shakes (more on that below), at 8:30pm his sugar was at 429mg/DL and now were waiting till 11pm-12am to test his sugar again.
Tomorrow(Sunday) we plan on starting off around 8-9am to get his sugar and start to create a curve to really see what is happening pending we can get better with the lancing results and hopefully have a good curve to see how the insulin is affecting him per Unit to see if it needs to be increased.
1. This morning our meter arrived and I could not be thrilled the biggest challenge has been finding a consistent spot to use the lancing tool since his ears are not providing blood consistently as we had hoped. We use a warm towel to help promote blood circulation and I've changed the depth from 1-4 trying to find the correct setting for his thin ears but sometimes we just don't get enough blood. The human meter requires a lot more than the butterlfly strips from alphatrak/freestyle lite. We tried near the tail on the side as well as his pad but nothing worked as well as his lip, the only issue is after we got blood twice from that area he now knows and as soon as we pinch him he jerks and wants nothing of it so our biggest challenge has getting blood. My wife gives him the insulin shots and she is a pro at it no problems with her technique and he does not mind it at all. Bless her b/c i wouldn't be able to do that to the poor guy. We need to get better at drawing the blood to reduce the stress on the dog and ourselves so any tips is appreciated.
2. One other issue we are concerned with is he is having hypoglycemia type reaction to the insulin with shaking right after the insulin injection. He has his mouth open but not breathing abnormally in any manner and wants to go outside right way where it is in the high 50'sF in an unusual cold week here in Cali. He is not hypoglycemic b/c his blood sugar is high prior to the insulin so from what I have read his symptoms which are similar to hypoglycemic reaction are due to aggressive insulin treatments or the body getting used to insulin (takes a 4 days or longer depending on the dog) or insulin rejection which might be too soon to rule. After about 30 mins of this type of episode he comes back in the house and starts to behave like his normal self. It is hard enough to write about this but seeing him in that condition just breaks our heart and my wife ends up crying every time. I told her we are going to take him to the Huskies vet Monday to get another opinion on the insulin and if what we are doing is fine so far and what we need to change.
The source of my information has been from http://www.k9diabetes.com/ and http://www.2ndchance.info/diabetesdog.htm to name a few along with other sites.
**Craig specifically I have read multiple posts you have had about the freestyle lite strips in the AT2 meter so I'm going to follow your guide on that when they come in and test.
Thanks to all for reading my long post
Al
I would like the boards advice and tips. It is a long read by any info and help is appreciated.
This is the 3rd night he is been with us since my wife picked him up from my his doctor. He went in Wednesday, they drew blood and urine samples, got him on an IV b/c of the high blood sugar and keytone in the results which also showed possibly pancreas failure. She brought him home with what I assumed was a safe blood sugar level but I don't know b/c we didn't have a meter and they didn't send my wife home with one (not happy about that).
I ordered the AlphaTrak 2 kit from Amazon overnight which arrived this morning, I also have some Freestyle lite strips on the way while we use the alphatrak strips now which i tested with control solution and got his readings today. While waiting for the alphatrak I borrowed my in laws meter and took it to the vet with us yesterday for a follow up b/c they were closed on Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure we have some way to test his sugar while we wait for amazon so when we were there I had them test his sugar and from the same spot tested the human meter knowing the results would be less i got the number and calculated the delta for a reference.
Here are the results at the vet at 11:30am with their meter 395mg/dL and our temp meter 339 which is what i expected with the research i had done it would be lower so the delta was ~56points. So we took him home, gave him food and insulin 2units of Novalin N at 2:25pm, about 2hrs later at 4:14pm we tested his sugar and it was 243mg/dL after adjustment. Than another 2hrs later which is 4hr after insulin shot where the blood sugar should be the lowest on a curve (based on what i read) at 6:22pm it was 238 which is not bad. So we did not give him another injection which we were supposed to but his bolus injection was enough for the night. I realize we need to do one for basal and bolus but I didn't feel comfortable giving him the injection b/c we didn't have the meter until we got to his vet which is near the in laws house an hour away.
This morning was a bit of a dysfunction since we could not get a blood sample large enough for the blasted human strips and temp meter. We spent at least an hour giving him breaks trying to get a reading. Luckily the alphatrak2 arrived by 11am and we got a reading at 11:14am at 336mg/dL, gave him food and insulin at 11:25am, he slept most of the day, at 3:57pm we tested him and he was 367mg/dL, feed him at 5:20pm and gave him insulin at 7:50pm which again he went into bad shakes (more on that below), at 8:30pm his sugar was at 429mg/DL and now were waiting till 11pm-12am to test his sugar again.
Tomorrow(Sunday) we plan on starting off around 8-9am to get his sugar and start to create a curve to really see what is happening pending we can get better with the lancing results and hopefully have a good curve to see how the insulin is affecting him per Unit to see if it needs to be increased.
1. This morning our meter arrived and I could not be thrilled the biggest challenge has been finding a consistent spot to use the lancing tool since his ears are not providing blood consistently as we had hoped. We use a warm towel to help promote blood circulation and I've changed the depth from 1-4 trying to find the correct setting for his thin ears but sometimes we just don't get enough blood. The human meter requires a lot more than the butterlfly strips from alphatrak/freestyle lite. We tried near the tail on the side as well as his pad but nothing worked as well as his lip, the only issue is after we got blood twice from that area he now knows and as soon as we pinch him he jerks and wants nothing of it so our biggest challenge has getting blood. My wife gives him the insulin shots and she is a pro at it no problems with her technique and he does not mind it at all. Bless her b/c i wouldn't be able to do that to the poor guy. We need to get better at drawing the blood to reduce the stress on the dog and ourselves so any tips is appreciated.
2. One other issue we are concerned with is he is having hypoglycemia type reaction to the insulin with shaking right after the insulin injection. He has his mouth open but not breathing abnormally in any manner and wants to go outside right way where it is in the high 50'sF in an unusual cold week here in Cali. He is not hypoglycemic b/c his blood sugar is high prior to the insulin so from what I have read his symptoms which are similar to hypoglycemic reaction are due to aggressive insulin treatments or the body getting used to insulin (takes a 4 days or longer depending on the dog) or insulin rejection which might be too soon to rule. After about 30 mins of this type of episode he comes back in the house and starts to behave like his normal self. It is hard enough to write about this but seeing him in that condition just breaks our heart and my wife ends up crying every time. I told her we are going to take him to the Huskies vet Monday to get another opinion on the insulin and if what we are doing is fine so far and what we need to change.
The source of my information has been from http://www.k9diabetes.com/ and http://www.2ndchance.info/diabetesdog.htm to name a few along with other sites.
**Craig specifically I have read multiple posts you have had about the freestyle lite strips in the AT2 meter so I'm going to follow your guide on that when they come in and test.
Thanks to all for reading my long post
Al
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