Daisy's Story

[jesse girl]

Re: Daisy's Story

its possible daisy was still producing her own natural insulin ( honeymooning ) and that may give one possible reason she bounced around so much . that honeymoon may have ended

during jesses difficult time we did use r insulin every 6 hours if needed just to keep her a bit comfortable and to buy her some time to figure things out . now we put regulation on hold at that time

the problem is we can test for blood sugar but we cant tell where that sugar comes from

it was very difficult for jesse for a long time for an extended time we were just reactionary but we came up with a routine that finally worked but we were running out of options . i think jesse was one of those worse case scenarios . i dont think daisy is in that boat but understand how you feel

[Raysaint]

Re: Daisy's Story

Quite possible the Glycobalance is higher in carbs than previous food. Many prescription type foods are.
The timing of the new food and the extreme drinking/peeing may indicate a relationship. Seems that if her numbers are that high, you might be safe increasing a full unit.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

I just got off the phone with Daisy's vet at 8p. Daisy was panting and lethargic. She told me to give her 3 more units and test her at 10. If she drops too far, give her a little food. I did give her 1/4 unit of R at 6 and at 8 she was at 448 and stopped panting. That's a lot better than 750+. I just couldn't stand by and watch her be miserable when I have the means to make her feel better.

She told me worst case scenario, pancreatic cancer/tumor or she is making antibodies against the insulin but also said she wasn't real worried yet and we'd try and get this figured out.

My memory came back from January and when she was on the RC Glycol, she panted and I couldn't get her numbers down. That's when I started making her dog food and her numbers starting dropping and her curves were looking good. That's also when we switched from Vetsulin to Novolin N.

I was wondering about the honeymooning (I had read Chris's story) and was thinking maybe I needed to start raising her insulin. I really questioned whether or not she was honeymooning because she would drop so low at times out of the blue. I would wonder if her pancreas was putting out a little insulin here and there, explaining the sudden drop. And explaining the 600's out of the blue as well.

Now that she's off the charts maybe the vet is looking in that direction. Yesterday she told me to start her off at 3 units with the new food and regulate from there. Then tonight, she told me that if she's high in the morning, give her 6 units. If she comes down even a little bit, then we're in business.

I'm just praying her numbers are below 600 in the morning.

I read through Gus's story again and what Momofgus went through to get him regulated. It took a lot of time and patience, a lot of sweat and tears.

Jessegirl, thanks, I'm really scared right now but looking at how remarkably you've managed Jesse with all her challenges, I feel as though we'll get through this somehow.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

Quite possible the Glycobalance is higher in carbs than previous food. Many prescription type foods are.
The timing of the new food and the extreme drinking/peeing may indicate a relationship. Seems that if her numbers are that high, you might be safe increasing a full unit.

Yes, I really think you're right. The vet wants me to increase a full 3 units in the morning if she's high again. I'll be home all day and with the numbers she's putting out, I can keep a good eye on her.

This has been one scary couple of days. I think my heart rate has been at 120 since Thursday.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

She's steady going down now, she's at 344. The R has worn off so she's responding to the N.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

Daisy is 468 at 5:30a so she did respond well to the 6 units. She didn't get up to drink so much, she got up at 4a to eat grass for some reason. Her breathing is no longer labored and she's jumping up on the bed.

Being at only 4.9 units and looking back at her insulin log, I am now convinced that Jessegirl is right.

Right now, Daisy appears to be one those odd dogs that was on a honeymoon period with her diabetes. After looking at her numbers, I do believe her pancreas was making insulin at times. This usually happens when a dog is diagnosed early and usually ends at around the 6 month period of insulin therapy. She is right on target, as her insulin therapy started January 20 of this year.

This makes sense, as in May for no reason her numbers went extremely low. I dropped her insulin 1 full unit down to 3.9 for about 3 weeks. I've always been very hesitant to increase her more than .2 units at a time because she would fall so low that I wouldn't know what her response would be. Then all of a sudden she would be in the 300-400's for a day, then back to a normal range the next day. In July the numbers became more erratic and I attributed that to a UTI. I got concerned when her numbers didn't go down after antibiotic therapy. August 1 the 400-600 range started, then Thursday she started the "HI" range of over 750.

I am hoping and praying this is the case because now I can start regulation.

Well, I know why she was eating grass. She just threw up.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

Daisy got very sick and started throwing up at at around 620a until around 730. Needless to say she didn't eat her breakfast so I gave her 2u and checked her and she was at 356 at 8a. She stayed in bed until just now and got up and ate all her breakfast. I called the vet and she told me to give her 4u. She's still drinking a lot of water but at least she ate, so I'm thankful for that.

[MikeMurphy]

Re: Daisy's Story

Daisy got very sick and started throwing up at at around 620a until around 730. Needless to say she didn't eat her breakfast so I gave her 2u and checked her and she was at 356 at 8a. She stayed in bed until just now and got up and ate all her breakfast. I called the vet and she told me to give her 4u. She's still drinking a lot of water but at least she ate, so I'm thankful for that.

Every now and then Lily will eat grass and vomit. I'm always afraid of pancreatitis. If she does start eating grass, I give her a Pepcid AC and so far it works every time.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

I didn't know what was going on. I was hoping it wasn't pancreatitis on top of everything else. She's feeling better but her BG was 317 at 2, but that's better than 750+. I do have some Pepcid AC on hand, I remember you said something about Lily using it when she was sick to her stomach. Thanks Mike.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Daisy's Story

These kinds of changes in insulin need are something I've seen a number of mini Schnauzers do. I am not sure why they do it - perhaps related to their tendency to have high triglycerides.

The pattern I've seen is a dog cruising along on one dose for months and then suddenly it's too much or too little.

The dose is adjusted and they go on a while again and then it changes.

No particular pattern or obvious external reason for it.

So you may find that this is just what Daisy does.

Oddly, the other breed where I have seen a lot of this is Rottweilers - two very different dogs obviously! But they too seem to periodically need a quite different dose of insulin and abruptly suffer from very high blood sugar or very low blood sugar until the dose is adjusted.

Natalie

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

Thank you Natalie, this seems to be the case with Daisy. She's feeling better but she's not there yet, but we'll get there. She's stayed below 450 for about 20 hours so I'm looking at that as a good sign.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

Daisy's blood sugar at 6a was 458 and I gave her 5.5 units with her breakfast. Got home from work and there she is at the door with her tail (it really looks more like a hairy meatball) just wagging and she's spinning around. Her eyes looked good and she just didn't look sick like she did the past couple days. I tested her at 430p and she was at 235.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

I feel like we take one step forward and two steps back. Yesterday, she had 1/4 cup of RC glycol and 1 cup stewbie. I got home from work and she was 198. I added a little more kibble this morning and she was 598 at fasting. I gave her 1/4 u R along with 5.3u N and dropped back on the kibble and see how she is in the morning.

I'll try this for a couple days and see how it goes.

[jesse girl]

Re: Daisy's Story

yes it can be extremely frustrating but we must remember we are trying to control a natural fine tuned system with a couple insulin shots

its quite amazing how i was led to jesse unique routine . it was a process and pulled in a direction that no diabetic has gone i would presume but to me it made sense . it was a lonely path because there was no other example to go by

i know for jesse she struggled with kibble always bounced really high but many other dogs do just fine on it

i wish it could be easier for you 2 but i can tell you jesses challenging process helped me to be prepared when things go off the tracks and they will eventually thats the nature of life

jesses bag of tricks is quite substantial

[Daisydog10]

Re: Daisy's Story

its quite amazing how i was led to jesse unique routine . it was a process and pulled in a direction that no diabetic has gone i would presume but to me it made sense . it was a lonely path because there was no other example to go by

I'm really starting to understand why you had to think out of the box with Jesse and went in the direction you did to make it work.