Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

[Debbie & Apollo]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Hi Dawn
sorry to hear that Brandy is having a rough time.

just wanted to say when Apollo had his UTI, from the bladder stones, his BP was also on the high side. And yes the Bg readings were wacky -- I tried to correct .... at the time I was actually doing more harm then good, I think -- sorry to say I had to learn the hard way --- at poor Apollos expense --you guys helped straighten me out

I try to be very consistent on testing his urine (at least once week) as those UTI came at us out of the blue! I have also added ear checks to that list of must check!

hope things are looking better

Debbie and Apollo

[ladysmom06]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Hi Dawn,

Sorry to hear that Brandy is having some problems. Hoping you can get it all resolved soon. Hugs to the two of you.

Luv,
Lynne and Lady

[Brandy mom]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Brandy has a Ecoli infection. She is taking Cephalexin 500mg three times a day for 10 days. So far no stomach upset she is enjoying the extra small meal she get with the medication. She gave me the strangest look this morning at 1am when I woke her up to eat a salad with a few peices of chicken. Mom you must be nuts.LOL Her fasting BG was down a little even with the extra meal. Still in the 300. 305 to be exact but and improvement from 380 the day before.

So after she finishes the Cephalexin a new blood pressure and culture will be done. One more adventure to add to Brandy many adventures.

I final added a picture. I just figured it out.LOL Next mom adventure is signiture.

Dawn and the girls

[Denise]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Who was it that had a dog that they couldn't get rid of the e coli? I can't remember but it was a nightmare!

I hope you don't go there!!!!

Wonder where they pick that up or is it something that is in the body and gets out of control? I haven't read much about it.

Is she feeling alright?

[BestBuddy]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Hi,
Buddy has one of those never ending e-coli problems. The testing showed that amoxycillin would kill it but after each course as soon as I stopped it would reappear. We did a course of 10 days, then 30, then 90 and finally the IMS came to the conclusion that Buddy was going to have to take the amoxycillin for life. He is on a low dose and the e-coli is controlled if not gone and no bad side effect from either the infection or the antibiotics.
Jenny & Buddy

[k9diabetes]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Just catching up on everything and wondering how Brandy is doing. Hope the antibiotic is clearing things up.

Have they rechecked her blood pressure?

Natalie

[Brandy mom]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Just had her blood pressure check and culture done yesterday. It has come way down. I saw her chart it was 220/110 and yesterday day it was 155/85. I think it would of be lower. This week is Harley fest 105 anniversary. So we have millions of bikes all over the place. I have a friend who drives a Harley and when she visits the girls she brings them a treat. So every bike Brandy saw she thought it was Aunt Kate. She almost pulled my arm out of the socket trying to get to all the bikes.

Brandy had one of the famous lows Monday. Her Bg was in the 30's and 50's. I tried everything for two hours to get it up. Just when we were getting ready to leave for the emergency vet it was in the upper 70's and keep getting higher. Morning fasting was in the upper 400's. So I guess I over did the honey and treats.

Tuesday I cut the insulin from 26 units to 20 units. Now her number are in the upper 100's to low 200's. The only thing I can think of is the infection is gone and she needed less insulin. I know number in the 200's isn't perfect but it the best I can regulate Brandy at. If I try to get it any lower she will drop to low. So I have just accepted it.

I did add a avator. It took me long enough to figure it out. LOL Next will be the signature.

Dawn and the girls

[Debbie & Apollo]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Good news! yeah!

we have a big bike ralley going on here too
I will second about when the infection goes away the insulin dose changes.

Hope Brandy finds Aunt Kate soon!

LOL
Debbie and Apollo

[We Hope]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Everyone with diabetes spends a good deal of time planning ahead--food choices and for those who use fast/rapid-acting insulin, planning the right number of units of that to cover the meals they will eat.

Something else that people with diabetes are urged to do in advance is to formulate their own "sick day" plan for dealing with their diabetes at times when they have another illness.

http://www.diabetes.org/gestational-diabetes/sick.jsp

"Being sick can make your blood glucose (sugar) level go up very high. It can also cause serious conditions that can put you in a coma. The best way to prevent a minor illness from becoming a major problem is to work out a plan of action for sick days ahead of time.

"What Happens When You're Sick

"When you're sick, you're under stress. To deal with this stress, your body releases hormones that help it fight disease. But these hormones have side effects. They raise blood sugar levels and interfere with the blood sugar-lowering effects of insulin.

"As a result, when you are sick, it is harder to keep your blood sugar in your target range.

"If you have type 1 diabetes, you may have to take extra insulin to bring down the higher blood sugar levels."

Most often, infections raise bg's, but very serious ones are capable of lowering them to hypoglycemia levels.

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/hypogly...ogs/page1.aspx

"serious systemic bacterial infection, or sepsis"

So both of you are right re: the infections caused Brandy and Apollo to have higher than normal bg's from them.

Kathy

[k9diabetes]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

I'm very happy to hear that Brandy's blood pressure has already dropped substantially.

High blood pressure could certainly be stressful too so that may have played into the low blood sugar.

It's just hard to imagine managing many of our dogs, including Brandy, without home testing... Talk about stress!! My blood sugar goes up just thinking about it.

Natalie

[Brandy mom]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: using R and N insulin

We have come up with a plan to use R and N insulin. Brandy has many other issue to go with regulation. First is exercise and excitement and stress. All of these will lower Brandy BG by many points. So I can and I have given treat to help this problem. Brandy can drop 50-100 points in 15 minutes. I could stop all exercise and play, but I decide a long time ago this didn't make Brandy happy. I want to give her the happiest life I can.

So that all said here is were we are now. Because of Brandy issue with dropping I keep her fasting between 200-250. Yes I would like her lower but with all the problems we have with hypo and rebounds. I do work outside of the home and can be gone for up to 10 hour a day. I can control what happens we I am not at home. She does have access to a doggie door all day. She can and will go outside a play. This works the best for us. One of problem we have is Brandy get a large rise from food fast. Her meals can raise her 100-125 points in one hour. The N insulin didn't start to kick in until 3-4 hours. So she would spend to much time in the 300. For some dogs this could be fine. Brandy just doesn't feel well when she is this high. So we needed something to help with the food rise and wouldn't cause to much of an overlap with the N insulin. So we have test R insulin and found it last a little over 4 hours. So we had to find a amount that would stop the rise and not drop the BG by to much. This has taken a lot of testing and adjustments. The next problem was to adjust the N insulin. Because now she wasn't getting a big rise from food. We need a amount to keep her BG steady with out dropping it to much. So more testing and insulin adjustments. Now we have found a amount that is working for us. It keeps her fasting 200-250 and she isn't getting much of a rise from food. Her lowest peak is between 130-150.

One other point is Brandy moring and evening fasting can be different. Many times the vet and I have thought rebounds. This isn't the problem at all. In the evening Brandy has more excitment with everyone comming home from work. She will also have more play time with someone home. So with BG testing we have come up with an different amounts of insulin.

I wanted to post this to tell you there are other way to regulate you dog. Sometimes we need to think outside the box. It has taken a lot of time to get to this point. So don't give up hope just try something different. I hope someone can learn from my experance. So as I said this is were we are now. Will it remain this way forever. As we all know with diabetes it can change anyday.

Wow I havn't posted in so long. And now I get all long winded. LO

Dawn and the girls

[We Hope]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

That's OK--you just saved it up!

What we all need to remember is that dogs, like people, weren't stamped out with cookie cutters; we're all different and so are they.

What happens is that we need to "customize" our approaches to dealing with canine diabetes, according to our individual dog. While people can tell you what works well for them, you may find that only some or maybe not any of it works well with your dog.

The dogs are unique in a lot of their reactions too--some, like Brandy, go low from excitement, while others will go high from it. Many have those post-meal spikes, but there are some who don't have much trouble with that at all.

If you spend a little time reading at a board for people with diabetes, you'll also see that what one person's great answer for his or her diabetes-related problem might not do wonders for all the people on the board. Some will get some benefit from it but others will not.

All of us need to be open to trying something reasonable when we run into a diabetes problem; many times seeing how someone else has handled the situation we're in gives us perhaps the answer, but it gets us to thinking about more ways we might be able to solve it if that isn't it.

If it doesn't work for us, that certainly doesn't make the person who spoke about it wrong--it is his or her answer and it's nobody's fault if it doesn't work that way for us. Our answers, if we have them or when we find them, probably are going to work well for some, but not for others too.

Basically, we can all learn from each other, so we need to keep talking about how we handle or handled different aspects.

If nobody talked about his or her answers to things like this, we'd have far less of them than we do and everyone would be a lot worse off for that!

Kathy

[eyelostit]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Niki is gets the large rise after food also, 100 pts before shot. So thats why I have been looking into other things to do.
Yep we gotta think outside the box at times.

[Ricksma]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

Dawn, I am lucky enough to be here with Ricky all day, so I don't have the issues with the low numbers that a lot of people do. But, if he does have a day when his fasting is, say, 50 points higher than normal for whatever reason, I have always used 1/2u of R to drop that number before he gets a big rise from his meal, hopefully keeping his time in high numbers at a minimum. I haven't adjusted the N very much, because I use such a small amount of R, and I decided to adjust the food instead. You are right Kathy, they aren't stamped out with cookie cutters...it might be easier that way, but a whole lot less fun..... Trudge on, folks, trudge on.

Love and hugs, Teresa and Ricky

[k9diabetes]

Re: Dawn's Brandy: Good News on Lumps

That sounds like a great setup for Brandy. I love that you took a slow, methodical approach to solving the problem!

Back when we were trying to sort out Chris' issues and wanted to try NPH three times a day, the vet was not in favor because her understanding of how NPH works *most of the time. But I KNEW from our home glucose tests and experiments that NPH was not lasting 12 hours. I had curved him repeatedly and watched the insulin fade too quickly. So she had the "general guidelines" but I had the "book of Chris" just like you have the "book of Brandy" to guide you!

Nice to see you again Dawn and I personally love to read sagas!

Natalie