Mik is gone...

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Ah, thanks.

Poor little guy looks so sad...so do I

[We Hope]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Bob,

On your member page, you're able to start a photo album. If you have some other pictures of Mik and also some of Mak, you can upload them into one. Maybe we can find a happier picture for both your member page and your avitar.

[BaileyBear]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

He is such a cutie!

I'm sorry you're having such a tough time with them lately. One dog giving you problems is hard enough - 2 is rubber room time.

I know you've been trying just about everything to get them to eat well. Just another suggestion - have you tired parmesan cheese sprinkled in it? When Bailey's numbers were really high and he lost all interest in food, parmesan really helped. You just have to be careful to mix it in well or they may just lick it off the top.

I wish I had some trick for getting a pill in a dog. Bailey would eat a rock if I handed it to him...especially covered in cheese. He takes Thyroxine twice a day and loves getting his pill. If I say the word "pill" he runs to the kitchen. It's bizarre. I know he's excited about the cheese, but he just swallows it anyway, so I'm not sure why it's so exciting for him, lol.

Do you know if the heart medication is manufactured by more than one company? Maybe the version you have has a smell he finds particularly offensive and a different version would be easier to give him. I noticed that years ago with predisone. I have a really strong sense of smell and a refill I picked up was not the usual brand I had received in the past. It smelled so bad to me that I kept gagging when I tried to swallow it. Thankfully, they were able to switch me back to the brand they'd been giving me for years.

I hope the little guys are doing better this weekend. We're all rooting for you and the boys, Robert. Hang in there.

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Thanks, BaileyBear,
We used to joke that Mak would eat golf balls. No longer.

Oddly enough, neither had problems with steroids or lasix, or a dozen other pills. But this one must reek of odor.

I am fighting a bit of conflict, that I must decide, and that's not easy. As noted, Mak has lost all faith in me, and I think that's extension of losing his primary owner, my wife.

He was never the same after she passed, and it took months for me to instill some confidence in him. Mik was the same to a lessor degree.

Mak is ultra-sensitive. He would come to the kitchen and eat and then more or less disappear. Weeks/months of close contact and love had brought him to me, and he would actually repeat what he did for my wife, follow me into rooms and look for attention, wagging tail, begging for my petting hand.

It was wonderful.

But I had to force those meds down his throat, and I can actually witness his shock and surprise, like I turned on him.

Only dog lovers like people on this forum would understand.

He did not eat for three days, just hid behind chairs and watched the traitor.

Tonight, he ate about 1/2 of normal, which is a start. Vet said he was more worried on the short term for the lack of nutrition.

Tomorrow's another day.


many thanks to all

[k9diabetes]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

I apologize as I haven't had a chance to do more than skim your thread...

What med is he getting and how big is the pill?

What's working for my cat, who cannot be pilled, is salmon flavored cream cheese wrapped completely around the pill and then I drop that very lightly onto a shallow dish so it's not "stuck" to the dish at all and hold the dish up so he has to kind of pick up the ball of cream cheese in a wad. It's all stuck togther. Once in a while he manages to pick the pill out after he takes it up but usually he just swallows it.

Chris' pills were bigger and I used to push them down inside a cube of cheese.

There are also Pill Pocket treats... not sure if you have ever tried those.

They worked well for Chris, who was not a picky eater, like most dogs. But didn't work for the cat, Gus. I was about frantic until I came on the cream cheese.

Just a couple more ideas.

This was putting the pills in whole, not crushing them.

Natalie

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

I will try the cream chz. Bought $8 worth of pill pockets and neither dog will touch them. Failed the sniff test. I have got to find something that meets their mysterious, undefined sniffing criteria.

[peggy0]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Hebrew National low fat hot dogs they have no sugar. I stuff any pill for forbin in it.

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

I will try anything. Mik ate one little ball of crm chz, then no more. Mak has eaten maybe 1 cup of food in 4 days. I have 9 different foods and treats--wont touch any of them.

Mak, this am, ate maybe 1 tblsn of baby food and left.
Mik at a little more, maybe a 1/2 cup total of wet, dry, crm chz.

Very frustrating

[peggy0]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Maybe try a scrambled egg?

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

No change, no appetite on either dog. I thought the crm chz was a winner--Mik ate a couple of rolled balls, then lost interest.

Time for his shot, and same dilemma. I guess I'll stick with .75 IU.

No puddles that I can find to sample. Either holding it or hiding it.

[We Hope]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Bob,

I'd go to 0.50 IU--last night when you gave Mik 0.75IU, you had some eating going on. He'd eaten some, but not enough to "qualify" for the vet's thought of getting 1 IU.

If Mik's feeling better, he's probably not drinking and urinating so much.

I would stay with 0.50 IU when the eating's not good or if there isn't any. In that way, Mik gets some insulin for his body, but not enough to send him into a hypo because there isn't enough food to go with it.

Kathy

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Good idea. What little he did eat was hours ago. .5 it is.

[We Hope]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Bob,

Make a note somewhere that 0.50 IU is the dose Mik gets when he eats little to nothing. Agree with you that it's too risky to give more based on what he ate some time ago.

Kathy

[robertpri]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Bob,

Make a note somewhere that 0.50 IU is the dose Mik gets when he eats little to nothing. Agree with you that it's too risky to give more based on what he ate some time ago.

Kathy

Heh, as wife used to say, I am anal obsessive fanatic about keeping records.

[We Hope]

Re: Mik: 13 yr old Shih-Tzu: importance of scheduled meals & insulin?

Just don't be like my mother, who was well-known for putting things away so well, she couldn't find them easily. My father used to say that if he wanted her to find something she'd put away, he'd need to ask a month before he needed it to get it.