hind leg weakness

[Daisydog10]

Re: How much spinach?

Daisy gets chopped spinach in every meal. Along with green beans, chana dal, split peas, turkey, chicken breast, pumpkin, etc. She seems to do fine on it. I use one pound of chopped spinach to about 4 lbs of food.

[Raysaint]

Dosage with no food?

for some reason (hopefully not a bad reason) he didn't eat this morning. I gave him 3 units of insulin, his normal dose is 8.5. This was at 7:30 a.m.
Went for a 30 minute walk at 8:00 a.m.
Tried his food again, no luck.
But now at 9:00 a.m. he seems a bit out of sorts.
Does this happen on occasion? I'm always worried about the pancreatitis.
His recent blood work and urinalysis was all good.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Dosage with no food?

What's his BG?

I hope it's not pancreatitis too.

[Raysaint]

Re: Dosage with no food?

his fasting this morning was 14.3 (255). He's been in the 195-250 range in the mornings. I was supposed to do a curve today as we expect he needs another half unit increase to bring him to the regulation we're shooting for.
No vomiting or anything this morning, seemed energetic on his walk. Might just be him, he's quirky sometimes. Hopefully he eats his supper.

[Judi]

Re: Dosage with no food?

glad he seems ok. I swear they know when you are planning a curve!

[amydunn19]

Re: Dosage with no food?

With Maggie, I could always kind of tell if it was pancreatitis coming on - any tenderness in the belly? She also would lick her lips a lot. It is supposed to be a sign of pain.

I don't know if you do boiled chicken with homemade broth. That was my go to if I even suspected it. She would always eat it and easy on the belly. You might try a little if you can.

Another thing that would happen with her and I think is common with small dogs - if she had no food on her stomach, she would be throwing up bile like stuff by afternoon. So, if you could get him interested in something small and easy, it might help.

I think you handled it perfectly insulin wise!

[Raysaint]

Re: Dosage with no food?

Doesn't seem to be any tenderness, no pain indications. I think I'll wait for supper and see if he eats, although I guess boiled chicken wouldn't raise his sugar.
No vomiting or anything yet.
The only other thing it might be, his can food was slightly different colour, and while it doesn't seem spoiled, maybe a slight off smell or taste is enough to turn him off; he's picky sometimes. I opened other cans and all were the same. Not spoiled, but different than previous cases.

[Raysaint]

Re: Dosage with no food?

Well, he ate his supper, I gave him his normal dose, so hopefully it was just a one-off this morning. He does have to be coaxed more in the morning to eat, so I guess this morning he wasn't going to give in. He was playing outside after supper seems to be himself.
Past pancreatitis I guess will always have me paranoid when things don't stay normal.

[amydunn19]

Re: Dosage with no food?

Good to hear. That paranoia is helpful to keeping pancreatitis at bay - you have to watch them so closely.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Dosage with no food?

Glad to hear he ate his dinner and all is well.

I'm starting to think paranoia is the norm. You just can't tell what's going on with them sometimes.

[Raysaint]

Need help, morning numbers suddenly bad

I was close to regulation, with 9 units at breakfast and 8.5 at supper. That might have been tweaked, pending the next curve.
Last 3-4 weeks he's not been eating all his breakfast, just varying amounts each morning, so I have to guess at a lower morning dose; hence, supper fasting numbers have been not bad but not consistent.
He eats all his supper and gets his 8.5 units. Last couple weeks he's had mostly good fasting morning numbers for the first time.
But now the last 3 mornings his fasting numbers have been way high, 18 (325), 22 (400), & 22. And it doesn't seem dependent on supper fasting number.
So I'm wondering if his body is reacting to his evening dose, because it is higher than his various morning doses now. Is he having a somogyi overnite? Does a body need that consistent dose amount, morning and night, to be able to process it properly? Can dogs live on 2 separate doses?

Gotta figure this out because I'm sure he's going to not get back to eating his full breakfast anymore.

[MikeMurphy]

Re: Need help, morning numbers suddenly bad

From what I can tell, many dogs on the forum are doing well with different am and pm insulin.

Maybe his being fussy with breakfast has something to do with the summer weather. It's been pretty muggy here in the Buffalo NY area. Maybe the same in Toronto?

I know it's a pain, but an evening curve would show what's going on at night and you also might need to adjust there.

[jesse girl]

Re: Need help, morning numbers suddenly bad

when i see a higher fasting with jesse my first choice is rebound

jesse goes through times of needing more and less insulin . i ended up giving her 2,3/4 units last night because she had a lower fasting at 95 . expecting her to be higher this morning she was 131 . normally she could get 4 to 5 units

i understand the argument for the rebound event as something that is rare or doesnt happen at all but i dont agree with that from what i see with jesse but thats my opinion . i think its a a response from the body with stored sugar and there could be many reasons for that including medical so i think the description is narrow and i think it should be expanded but that my opinion

the first thing i do is reduce the dose and see if that fasting number comes down if it does i will continue to tweak the dose .

now the inconsistent eating can have an affect on regulation and you may struggle a bit with regulation until that is figured . whether the appetite problems is a medical one especially if its a change from the normal routine or just kind a picky eater as you know my jesse only gets one meal so there are alternatives to the 2 meal routine

now things may just settle on there own my jesse can get off kilter for a couple weeks and then go back to normal . i think that maybe do to some medical problem that may have popped up and she got over it

you could always do an overnight curve . i have done some of them early in jesses diagnosis

[Judi]

Re: Need help, morning numbers suddenly bad

some dogs need more insulin at night because they aren't as active. I think you are doing great. remember, perfection isn't going to happen

[Raysaint]

Re: Need help, morning numbers suddenly bad

Being we had his night dose pretty much nailed down, I can't see him suddenly needing a higher dose. This all seems to coincide with the varied doses I'm giving him in the mornings.
Today, he started at 22 (400), ate about 25% of his breakfast, and I gave him 5 units, more than half his normal dose of 9 units that we had him up to. Check him at 2:00 p.m. he was 13.5 (240), so I could have given him more insulin.
However, my theory now is that I should give him a fixed reduced amount each morning, whether he eats 10% or 50% of his breakfast. Then his body can adjust to that and not get all confused. Then hopefully figure out the overnite thing again. Gonna try a slightly lower dose tonite.
We all know consistent doses are important, and I've been trying to gauge dosage by his morning fasting and how much he eats. Goes against all we know about managing this in dogs. Duh. Dawned on me today.
I was trying to correct all the time when he was first diagnosed, and made it worse. Now I'm doing the same, figuring the reduced morning appetite is temporary, when it's probably not. So a fixed lower morning dose, maybe 5 units, and then maybe a bit of carb treats later if he needs it. And this assumes I get his morning fasting back to normal.
Probably need a curve in each scenario, so I know what 5 units does if he eats 20% or 50%.