Hello everyone! Some back story before my question:
My dog Sasha (lab, 74ish pounds, 11.5 years old) was diagnosed with diabetes last month after a collapse scare at home. She had been very lethargic suddenly and coughing a lot, and at 11pm one night, she got really wobbly and collapsed into her water bowl, so we rushed her to the animal ER. They found diabetes, high blood pressure, and 2 masses in her lungs. She had also recently been diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis. (whew!)
In any case, she was started on Vetsulin at the hospital (24 units 2x a day, as her glucose wasn't responding to less, and we took her home after a few days. We took her in for a curve at our regular vet a week later, and she was only at 100 about 20 minutes after eating, so while they kept her all day and did the curve, they gave NO insulin, and recommended we drop to 20 units 2x a day.
The next day Sasha had a CT scan for her lungs, which required fasting, and they said to give half her usual dose, so 10 units. (I now realize that was too much for her fasted, but trusted them.) Unsurprisingly, she was at 58 prior to her scan, so they gave her some fluids and sorted her prior to anesthetic, then recommended going even further down to 15 units. This seemed like WAY too low to me, so I met both vets in the middle and settled on 17 units. It should be noted that her cough went away as her blood sugars regulated. No idea why.
We took Sasha back to the vet a week later for another curve at 17 units, and though she never dropped below 160, her high was in the mid 300s. They elected to stay at 17 units 2x per day.
This past week we got our own home meter so we can monitor ourselves, and I ran my own curve Sunday because I noticed she had been drinking a lot more and her cough was returning, which I've quickly noticed means her sugars are high. Here are the odd results of the curve:
7am (fasting and pre-insulin): 277
9am: 451
11am: 394
1pm: 452
3pm: 349
5pm: 363
7pm (right before feeding and insulin): 396
9pm: 374
This is really puzzling to me, as she never really curved at all, nor dropped below 349 except for the early morning fasted reading. I've done spot check 2x daily since Sunday when I ran this, and her glucose is steadily rising...this morning her fasted/pre-insulin was 518, which is what it was when she collapsed at the beginning of this adventure. The vet has advised me to go up to 19 units per day, but I'm starting to suspect a bad bottle of insulin and am picking up a new one on my way home today. These higher readings seem to coincide with starting a new bottle that we had shipped to us instead of picking it up.
Does anyone have any other thoughts on what could be going on? Thanks in advance!!
My dog Sasha (lab, 74ish pounds, 11.5 years old) was diagnosed with diabetes last month after a collapse scare at home. She had been very lethargic suddenly and coughing a lot, and at 11pm one night, she got really wobbly and collapsed into her water bowl, so we rushed her to the animal ER. They found diabetes, high blood pressure, and 2 masses in her lungs. She had also recently been diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis. (whew!)
In any case, she was started on Vetsulin at the hospital (24 units 2x a day, as her glucose wasn't responding to less, and we took her home after a few days. We took her in for a curve at our regular vet a week later, and she was only at 100 about 20 minutes after eating, so while they kept her all day and did the curve, they gave NO insulin, and recommended we drop to 20 units 2x a day.
The next day Sasha had a CT scan for her lungs, which required fasting, and they said to give half her usual dose, so 10 units. (I now realize that was too much for her fasted, but trusted them.) Unsurprisingly, she was at 58 prior to her scan, so they gave her some fluids and sorted her prior to anesthetic, then recommended going even further down to 15 units. This seemed like WAY too low to me, so I met both vets in the middle and settled on 17 units. It should be noted that her cough went away as her blood sugars regulated. No idea why.
We took Sasha back to the vet a week later for another curve at 17 units, and though she never dropped below 160, her high was in the mid 300s. They elected to stay at 17 units 2x per day.
This past week we got our own home meter so we can monitor ourselves, and I ran my own curve Sunday because I noticed she had been drinking a lot more and her cough was returning, which I've quickly noticed means her sugars are high. Here are the odd results of the curve:
7am (fasting and pre-insulin): 277
9am: 451
11am: 394
1pm: 452
3pm: 349
5pm: 363
7pm (right before feeding and insulin): 396
9pm: 374
This is really puzzling to me, as she never really curved at all, nor dropped below 349 except for the early morning fasted reading. I've done spot check 2x daily since Sunday when I ran this, and her glucose is steadily rising...this morning her fasted/pre-insulin was 518, which is what it was when she collapsed at the beginning of this adventure. The vet has advised me to go up to 19 units per day, but I'm starting to suspect a bad bottle of insulin and am picking up a new one on my way home today. These higher readings seem to coincide with starting a new bottle that we had shipped to us instead of picking it up.
Does anyone have any other thoughts on what could be going on? Thanks in advance!!
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