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The low carb system doesn't relate directly to diabetes in dogs because of the way dogs tend to absorb these insulins. They often put them to work faster and can get a much sharper drop from an intermediate insulin like NPH than a person would.
So unlike Type 1 diabetic people, who usually use a long-acting "basal" insulin for their nonfood needs and a fast acting insulin to cover their meal time carbs, dogs often get the effect of both from NPH. That's what you see when you give a dog a meal and an injection of insulin and the blood sugar drops sharply in the first hour or two.
The food you gave is still being digested, and protein takes longer to digest than carbs.
Meanwhile, the insulin is already into the bloodstream and working to drop the blood sugar.
So when a dog has that kind of pattern, the simplest solution is typically to replace some of the protein with a rapidly digested carbohydrate like white rice. The rice can get digested fast and provides the surging insulin with sugar during that first couple of hours.
Some folks who have a schedule that will accommodate it have also delayed the insulin injection to give the food more of a head start.
A diabetic person would typically calculate a dose of their fasting acting insulin based on the meal they are going to have - more carbs equals more fast acting insulin.
We essentially try to do the same thing only from the opposite direction.
Instead of taking the meal as a guide, we take the amount of insulin we're giving, some of which is behaving like fast acting insulin, and adjust the diet to match it.
Natalie
Natalie
So unlike Type 1 diabetic people, who usually use a long-acting "basal" insulin for their nonfood needs and a fast acting insulin to cover their meal time carbs, dogs often get the effect of both from NPH. That's what you see when you give a dog a meal and an injection of insulin and the blood sugar drops sharply in the first hour or two.
The food you gave is still being digested, and protein takes longer to digest than carbs.
Meanwhile, the insulin is already into the bloodstream and working to drop the blood sugar.
So when a dog has that kind of pattern, the simplest solution is typically to replace some of the protein with a rapidly digested carbohydrate like white rice. The rice can get digested fast and provides the surging insulin with sugar during that first couple of hours.
Some folks who have a schedule that will accommodate it have also delayed the insulin injection to give the food more of a head start.
A diabetic person would typically calculate a dose of their fasting acting insulin based on the meal they are going to have - more carbs equals more fast acting insulin.
We essentially try to do the same thing only from the opposite direction.
Instead of taking the meal as a guide, we take the amount of insulin we're giving, some of which is behaving like fast acting insulin, and adjust the diet to match it.
Natalie
Natalie