Hi everyone! New here. Found this place because my husband and I are stressed and at our wits end. We've not had a great experience with our vet, who isn't very helpful.
Last fall, we noticed Zoe, our 10 year old female black lab, was drinking a lot more than usual, peeing a lot, and losing weight. I'm a health writer, so I do A LOT of research and reading through studies for work, so naturally, I googled to find out what her symptoms could mean while we waited for a vet appointment. I concluded that it was likely diabetes mellitus.
When we went to the vet, the vet was baffled by her symptoms and sent her blood for testing. She then called us in the late evening in a panicked voice telling us to go to the emergency vet immediately, that she was completely unsure what was wrong. At that moment, I thought it meant we would lose her.
The emergency vet said her sugar was very high but just sent us home with an insulin prescription and told us to see our regular vet for more info and help with regulating our newly diagnosed dog's diabetes mellitus.
We started with giving her 2 units twice daily and had some trouble regulating because she seemed very sensitive to the insulin. We had to monitor her carefully because there were a few times when she had a hypoglycemic event (scary!!). So for several months now--I guess it'll be close to 6 now--we've been testing her blood with the glucose meter before giving her an injection. We're paranoid! We've gotten into a routine with giving her 3 units twice daily. So we're pretty familiar with her numbers. For months, we had her in a decent spot. She was never ultra-high like before, she gained a bit of weight back so she was back to normal, she stopped drinking copious amounts of water.
Then at the beginning of this month (April), one day, out of nowhere, her sugar was sky high. We chalked it up to user error and didn't think much about it. Then, the next day, same thing. I was starting to worry and did some research. I wondered if this was maybe the somogyi effect. So we lowered her dose for a few days. Still high. We then called our vet who told us they didn't have an appointment for 2 weeks. We were worried about the effects of the high sugar so they told us to go to the emergency vet. Emergency vet told us that we really should be seeing our regular vet for this sort of thing. And told us the potential reasons this could be happening and that somogyi was unlikely. They recommended we follow up with our regular vet instead of going through tests there. I also did more research and found out that because our dog is intact and not spayed it might be that her being in heat is causing hormones to affect insulin absorption. Our vet was well aware that our dog was not spayed and NEVER mentioned this to us. If we had known, we would have gotten her spayed right away when she was not in heat and we had the diabetes regulated.
So we maybe an appointment 2 weeks later with our vet. They told us it could be a number of things, including the fact that she was in heat. They said she looked very healthy otherwise and put us on the waiting list for a spay. They also told us to increase the dose of insulin to 5 units. It's now several weeks later and her sugar is still high. She's no longer bleeding but I'm not sure how long heat lasts and whether it's possible that it's still affecting insulin absorption. I'm frustrated, worried, and I feel confused that one day we were getting along just fine and now the insulin seems to have completely lost its effect. Is it the heat cycle? Is it something else?
We are planning to make another appointment to get a urine anlaysis done to see if maybe she has a UTI but she's not peeing a lot more than usual or having accidents despite being more thirsty
I realize that these are all things we would ask the vet, but we haven't had the best time over there. When we started giving insulin, they recommended at dose that was way too high and made her hypo. They also told us to change her food at the same time--which seems odd, isn't it better to change one thing at a time and see how that affects things?
I just want to find out if anyone else has experienced something similar. She's my best friend and I'm losing sleep over this. I also feel like the vet is not giving us any guidance. She throws out possibilities without telling us what is more likely. We'd like to change vets but there aren't a lot of options around here and the emergency vet doesn't take new patients. So we're bumbling along and trying to stay sane. I work from home, so I'm watching her every second and we are really really diligent with feeding and injections. I'm big on routines, so it was pretty easy to work in all of this into mine. I still wonder if user error is possible. I do the injections like the vet showed us, I try to change the spot to prevent scar tissue from forming. We store the insulin in the fridge, but now we're second guessing whether that's a bad idea?
Anyhow. Sorry for my rambling. I thank anyone who takes the time to read. Sending out good vibes and love to all of you dealing with pet diseases like diabetes. It's not easy! But I'm glad there's support like there is here.
Last fall, we noticed Zoe, our 10 year old female black lab, was drinking a lot more than usual, peeing a lot, and losing weight. I'm a health writer, so I do A LOT of research and reading through studies for work, so naturally, I googled to find out what her symptoms could mean while we waited for a vet appointment. I concluded that it was likely diabetes mellitus.
When we went to the vet, the vet was baffled by her symptoms and sent her blood for testing. She then called us in the late evening in a panicked voice telling us to go to the emergency vet immediately, that she was completely unsure what was wrong. At that moment, I thought it meant we would lose her.
The emergency vet said her sugar was very high but just sent us home with an insulin prescription and told us to see our regular vet for more info and help with regulating our newly diagnosed dog's diabetes mellitus.
We started with giving her 2 units twice daily and had some trouble regulating because she seemed very sensitive to the insulin. We had to monitor her carefully because there were a few times when she had a hypoglycemic event (scary!!). So for several months now--I guess it'll be close to 6 now--we've been testing her blood with the glucose meter before giving her an injection. We're paranoid! We've gotten into a routine with giving her 3 units twice daily. So we're pretty familiar with her numbers. For months, we had her in a decent spot. She was never ultra-high like before, she gained a bit of weight back so she was back to normal, she stopped drinking copious amounts of water.
Then at the beginning of this month (April), one day, out of nowhere, her sugar was sky high. We chalked it up to user error and didn't think much about it. Then, the next day, same thing. I was starting to worry and did some research. I wondered if this was maybe the somogyi effect. So we lowered her dose for a few days. Still high. We then called our vet who told us they didn't have an appointment for 2 weeks. We were worried about the effects of the high sugar so they told us to go to the emergency vet. Emergency vet told us that we really should be seeing our regular vet for this sort of thing. And told us the potential reasons this could be happening and that somogyi was unlikely. They recommended we follow up with our regular vet instead of going through tests there. I also did more research and found out that because our dog is intact and not spayed it might be that her being in heat is causing hormones to affect insulin absorption. Our vet was well aware that our dog was not spayed and NEVER mentioned this to us. If we had known, we would have gotten her spayed right away when she was not in heat and we had the diabetes regulated.
So we maybe an appointment 2 weeks later with our vet. They told us it could be a number of things, including the fact that she was in heat. They said she looked very healthy otherwise and put us on the waiting list for a spay. They also told us to increase the dose of insulin to 5 units. It's now several weeks later and her sugar is still high. She's no longer bleeding but I'm not sure how long heat lasts and whether it's possible that it's still affecting insulin absorption. I'm frustrated, worried, and I feel confused that one day we were getting along just fine and now the insulin seems to have completely lost its effect. Is it the heat cycle? Is it something else?
We are planning to make another appointment to get a urine anlaysis done to see if maybe she has a UTI but she's not peeing a lot more than usual or having accidents despite being more thirsty
I realize that these are all things we would ask the vet, but we haven't had the best time over there. When we started giving insulin, they recommended at dose that was way too high and made her hypo. They also told us to change her food at the same time--which seems odd, isn't it better to change one thing at a time and see how that affects things?
I just want to find out if anyone else has experienced something similar. She's my best friend and I'm losing sleep over this. I also feel like the vet is not giving us any guidance. She throws out possibilities without telling us what is more likely. We'd like to change vets but there aren't a lot of options around here and the emergency vet doesn't take new patients. So we're bumbling along and trying to stay sane. I work from home, so I'm watching her every second and we are really really diligent with feeding and injections. I'm big on routines, so it was pretty easy to work in all of this into mine. I still wonder if user error is possible. I do the injections like the vet showed us, I try to change the spot to prevent scar tissue from forming. We store the insulin in the fridge, but now we're second guessing whether that's a bad idea?
Anyhow. Sorry for my rambling. I thank anyone who takes the time to read. Sending out good vibes and love to all of you dealing with pet diseases like diabetes. It's not easy! But I'm glad there's support like there is here.
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