Update on Shadow

[JayneN]

Hello and I'm happy to have stumbled upon this forum!

We have a 9 year old cairn terrier, Shadow and gonna give a parent brag he is the best behaved, loving and wonderful dog we have owned. He is our second cairn and as much as we loved the first, this little guy takes the cake for being a great pet! We adopted him from a family when he was 3 and he has never given us a day of trouble. Our kids are grown with their own lives, so Shadow is our 3rd son still living at home While we/he knows he is a dog, he is still a tad spoiled

2 days ago, after watching symptoms rather worsening, we took him to vet and he was diagnosed with diabetes. This is new to us as we have never had to treat a dog with real health issues before. The vet assured us it was nothing we have done wrong, it just happens just like we as humans get diseases.

I was overwhelmed with it all, but after he spent a night at the vets for monitering, getting back up to speed and starting his insulin, he came home last night and seems to have a bit of his spunk back.

Now we and he will learn to live with this, as the vet assured us his quality of life will be fine. He goes back in 2 wks for the day to test blood etc and get him where he needs to be. The expense has been somewhat of a worry, but we will figure that out as we have too. He is worth every dollar spent to keep him healthy.

Don't want to go overboard on a first post but will read this forum for tips and support on living with a diabetic dog. Who knew this would happen to our little fella, but we are doing the best we can to accept and move forward.

[Diane Roehm]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

Welcome, Glad you found us here. This site has helped me so much as it can be a little overwhelming at first but after awhile it gets better at least I have learned how to deal with it better. Hang in there.

[JayneN]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

Hello Diane and thanks for the warm welcome!

[jim maceri]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

Welcome, you have "stumbled" to the perfect place to help you get organized and understand this disease. It will be very helpful to give all of us as much information as you can about your pup. Age, Weight, type of food, frequency of eating, treats, exercise schedule, type of insulin and amount, do you plan to home test (we all recommend it).

You will get tons of support from everyone here, these folks are truly angels and I could not have coped if not for K-9diabetes! It's been 5 months for us since diagnosis and what was truly overwhelming in the beginning is now simply a part of our life.

Again, glad your here.

[JayneN]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

Good morning Jim and thanks for the welcome! I appreciate your remarks.

I posted info on the thread about our dog, but just to say again

Shadow/Cairn Terrier/9 yrs old/18 lbs/insulin 2x per day 6 units/Hills Science Prescription W/D wet and dry

We are still in the experimental stage with the vet...he goes back in 2 wks for reevaluation

[nibbles-mommy]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

what type of insulin is he on? if it's humulin-n you can get it at walmart for $24. a bottle and the syringes for around $13. for a 100.

are you considering home testing his blood glucose (bg) at home. that's the all day test the vet will be doing next week. it's called a curve and tests the bg every 2 hours beginnng at a.m. fasting and monitor every 2 hours after to determine the highest and lowest point during the day to base dosing on. you can do these curves at home and report them to your vet to save money.

[JayneN]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

what type of insulin is he on? if it's humulin-n you can get it at walmart for $24. a bottle and the syringes for around $13. for a 100.

are you considering home testing his blood glucose (bg) at home. that's the all day test the vet will be doing next week. it's called a curve and tests the bg every 2 hours beginnng at a.m. fasting and monitor every 2 hours after to determine the highest and lowest point during the day to base dosing on. you can do these curves at home and report them to your vet to save money.

Thank you, you saved me a call to Wal Mart for pricing I figured we could get it there cheaper then the vet. Being new, I'm going to let the vet do the curve and testing til he is where he needs to be...perhaps doing it ourselves will be our next step.

Quick question...the syringes we got from the vet are the VetRx ones...what you purchase from Wal Mart, are they a more generic/human type?

I appreciate your kind post!

[nibbles-mommy]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

i agree with the vet doing the first curves. i didn't start testing until 9 months in. if i knew how easy and important it was, i definetly would have started sooner.

[jesse girl]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

we have been using the wall mart brand from the beginning as far as syringes

the reliOn 3/10 (holds 30 units max and has half unit markings ) 30 gauge length 5/16 short needle which works very well on a small to medium dog

[CraigM]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

I see you are currently using VetRx brand syringes. Please confirm which VetRx syringes (U-100 or U-40) you are using. And confirm what insulin you are using.

[Judi]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

I spent a fortune letting the vets do the curves till Jenny was regulated because we struggled with home testing. Jenny is pretty calm at the vet since she assumes the entire world exists to tell her how wonderful she is.

Other people, who's dogs get nervous at the vet think the home curves present a more realistic picture.

hang in there, it gets easier! Judi

[CraigM]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

I see you are currently using VetRx brand syringes. Please confirm which VetRx syringes (U-100 or U-40) you are using. And confirm what insulin you are using.

Sorry for the short post a few minutes ago. I was on my iPhone, and can't type well on the small keyboard.

The reason I asked about the syringes is that VetRx makes both U-100 and U-40 syringes. It is very important to use the correct syringe for the insulin being used. Most are using Humulin-N insulin which is a U-100 insulin, and requires the U-100 syringe. Prior to about two years ago, a U-40 insulin called Vetsulin, was widely used in the U.S. and required a U-40 syringe. Using a U-40 syringe with Humulin-N could cause an overdosage, with terrible results.

I fear that a vet clinic, that might not see many diabetics, might make an error and provide the older (wrong) syringe. You are probably fine, guess I'm the kind that worries about things like this.

[buddingartist]

Re: New to Forum & Diabetes

Welcome to the forum to you and Shadow.

I also would agree with having the first few curves done at the vet. The learning curve is pretty steep in the beginning and it also took me quite a while to start home testing. Once I did, I was wishing I had been successful in doing it much sooner than I did.

My only caution would be to resist too high an increase which I have often seen happen when the curve is done at the vet's office and which has been my personal experience.

I am hoping the <experts< will pipe in on this. Shadow is 18 pounds and already gets 6 units twice a day. Too high/rapid an increase could easily overshoot the appropriate number of units that he would require and it is sometimes more prudent to go slow and in small increments.

Good luck with your fur baby

Louise

[jesse girl]

Re: New to Forum &amp; Diabetes

Louise makes some very important points

my jesse is a 26 pound beagle been diabetic for 2 years and is taking 6 units for a 24 hour period where your 18 pound baby is at 12 for a total day

dogs can be very individualistic but that does seem to be a large starting dose

do you understand the symptoms of low blood sugar and how to treat it you can go to youtube to see some visual displays at onset to a hypoglycemic event they also show seizures in dogs which may not be do to low blood sugar but it is similar . this is the most important thing to understand and treat immediately

alway carry liquid sugar with you and your dog wherever you go we like corn syrup or honey even on walks .exercise should be limited close to home and not to overdo it maybe 10 minutes till you can figure how your dog reacts

[MaryLea]

Re: New to Forum &amp; Diabetes

Hello and welcome to the forum! Our Ruffles was a cairn terrier mix and was the sweetest dog we've ever had. Shellie (member of the group) has a cairn terrier, too [Hank], and I'm sure she'll chime in.

We had our first two curves done at the vet also, but were home testing at the time anyway. Turned out to be a good thing, combined with being in this group. Ruffles was on 4u (twice a day) at first; then the vet said to double the dose the next week. We did, but then posted that info here. Responses were to watch her carefully as that seemed too big of a jump. She dropped from the 500s-600s to 200s in the first day or so, and the advice from here was to reduce her dose to 5u, twice a day, to avoid rebound and possible overdose. We did just that.

Long story short: her maintenance dose turned out to be 6.5u! We would have had some serious hypoglycemic events if we'd stayed at 8u. Needless to say, we also changed vets after confirming the dose instructions. They said she could possibly need as much as 1u per pound. We did some research: textbook says the highest dose needed for most dogs is 1u per kg! (twice a day)

Glad to have you here and to know that you will become your pet's best advocate. He deserves all you can afford to do for him, and I'm sure you agree. It's clear how much he means to you.

Mary

P.S. Ruffles was black and Shadow was a possible name for her. I was not her principle owner, so got "out voted." Was OK; she was still a great pet and companion.