Dosage and Urination for Schnauzer??

[Kfckernel]

Name: Hershey
Breed: Minature Schnauzer
Birth date or age: 9
Weight: 20 lbs
Date diagnosed with diabetes: April 2019
Type of insulin and how often given : Vetsulin
Diet: Hills Prescription Diet w/d with occasional Diabetic treat
(Mornings: Can chicken plus dry food
Evening:dry food plus 1/2 can Hills prescription stew)

Method of monitoring: Vet
Other medical issues: Cateracts

Our Schnauzer was very active and happy but out of the blue starting bumping into things and peeing a lot. We took him to the vet who diagnosed him with diabetes and cateracts as a result of the condition. He eventually went completely blind within a couple of months so we took him to an eye doctor who replaced the cornea in one eye. (The other eye was not a candidate at the time).

He can see now and we have slowly got in the routine of feeding him every 12 hours and giving him the shot after. It seems he is feeling much better and has energy to play but he has started peeing in the house and getting up 2-3 times a night to go out and pee. We are very frustrated. The vet said to increase his insulin and it doesn't seem to make much difference. We started at around 5 units last April and recently moved up to 9 units.

I don't know what a normal dosage is or how this compares to other dogs his size. We got a glucose curve a few weeks ago and the vet said he reacted well but suspected he didn't need as much insulin and thought we may need to go back to 7 units. I don't know why the peeing would have started again. We gave his medicine for urinary tract infection for 2 weeks to see if this was the issue but it has not helped.

Any insight or advice would be appreciated. We are getting very tired steam cleaning our carpets on a weekly basis.

[Raysaint]

Re: Dosage and Urination for Schnauzer??

A normal starting dose is 0.5 units per kilogram (2.2 lbs.) So 5 units is on the high side of a good start dose.

Peeing is usually a sign of high sugar. You should be checking sugar at home, it's very easy. Vets will try to keep you coming back to them buy checking at home is essential in my opinion. Knowing how the insulin is affecting his sugar at different times or when things seem odd is so important.

Also bloodwork or urine analysis can show if there's any infections or organ issues.

[jesse girl]

Re: Dosage and Urination for Schnauzer??

I agree with raysaint . Without knowing your dogs blood sugar its just a guessing game . Raising insulin on symptoms can be dangerous . The extra urination could easily be a urinary track infection which is not uncommon in diabetic dogs . If you could post your vets curve that would be helpful

Dogs have many different levels of dosing .My jesse being 26 pounds gets 9 units total for the day . There was a dog on here half jesses weight and received 18 units for the day

Schnauzers have a tendency to have a higher doses but thats not written in stone and Its very difficult to generalize this disease for dogs

My jesses dose ended up being lower than a normal starting dose so you really cant take anything for granted . If you home tested you would know what sugar is doing and would not be guessing

[Daisydog10]

Re: Dosage and Urination for Schnauzer??

The best way to manage your dogs glucose is by home monitoring. We can never raise insulin on a high fasting number as it is very dangerous and could possibly be fatal if the glucose numbers run too low during the non fasting period.

Some vets do not want you to home monitor, but it's very important that you do. My vet insisted on it.

If you are not sure whether or not Hershey is getting too much or too little insulin, a home curve would be your best route. Many dogs get stressed out at the vet and the curve is not an actual representation of what is really going on.

Daisy is a mini and has been difficult to regulate, but by testing every 12 hours at fasting and regular curves, I can keep her at a safe level.

Daisy was started at 4 units of Vetsulin and I switched over to Novolin N several months after diagnosis. Since Novolin N is a stronger insulin per volume than Vetsulin, her starting dose on the Novolin N was 3.5 units. She's now up to 5.5 after 3 years.

I also keep urine strips on hand to check for UTI and ketones. Diabetic dogs usually do not clear a UTI as quickly as a non diabetic dog so a round of 21 days of antibiotics is not unusual for our pups to be on.

PetTest has a great meter for cheap and the One Touch Ultra or Mini are human meters that are great. Strips are very reasonable on Ebay.