Re: My Monster Vinny
 

Nice to get a happy update! We need more of those!! :)

Natalie

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

So I've been trying to post about Vinny for a few days, but I keep getting distracted by everyone else's posts!:o I just like hearing everyone's news..although I guess it hasn't all been good lately. :(

I've ran a couple of curves on Vinny and they've been in the mid 200's to mid 300's. So I upped his dose to 21 to see if that would help. Not so much. I can seem to break through to the 100's until this past Sunday when the curve went from 160's to 325! :eek: Whatever. I'm going to run another curve before doing anything else.

I also found his original bloodwork and realized there were a few numbers I would question now, but didn't think to then. So, when the vet called today about the Alphatrak, I said I wanted to have them to another work up. Do you think I'm overly cautious here? How often should this be done?

Otherwise Vinny is really doing great with the new food and I know he's put back on a little weight. He really seems to have. Lot of energy. Now if I could only teach him about daylight savings time...he'll probably get the hang of it about the time we 'spring forward'! :rolleyes:

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

I don't know if there is such a thing as overly cautious. You have studied this disease and more knowledge about where he is can only be helpful. In the beginning, you don't always know what to look for. I would say going forward if he has no problems then once a year blood work is fine. But, if you get a whiff of trouble, rule it out by having the proper tests. I think your level of comfort with his condition is more important.

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

If you can manage the cost, more information is always better to my mind as long as it's something noninvasive.

Natalie

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

I know I'm new to all this, but I know I'd rather be over cautious than not asking at all and especially if it gives you better peace of mind. You know Vinny best (and I love how you refer to him as your monster)!

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

We didn't ask for a copy of Decker's first CBC. Only saw it when he had another one two months later and I'd worked up the courage to ask for a copy of both. Anyway, we'd been told based on his Dec. one that he was a healthy diabetic dog. Upon looking at the values, he had elevated liver values, off the charts high chol, high GGT, low amyl, etc...

His Feb. CBC had off the charts high chol value and low white blood cell count (if one is looking, it is very characteristic blood work of a hypothyroid dog). He was still deemed to be a healthy diabetic dog at that time.

Decker went on to have three more rounds of blood work, for a total of five, in a 12 month window of time. Yup, I'm a believer that it never hurts to double check things. Doesn't hurt to keep an open mind either - LOL!

Love Vinny's new avatar! Our little Toby pup reminds me a lot of Vinny in the face.

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

Thanks Holli! I love it when you catch them sticking their tongues out at you! ;)

Vinny would say that Toby must be a very handsome fella! :cool:

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

I am completely confused. :confused: I was looking at Vinny's paperwork that John got when Vinny was first diagnosed and he was given a fact sheet on "Diabetes Insipidus", which is drinking diabetes...not sugar diabetes. This is not even treated with insulin, but Vinny is. When I look at his blood panel, here are the numbers that stand out to me...Vinny's numbers in bold.

Auto Platelet 77 < 148-484
Glucose 437 > 74-143
Total Protein 8.3 > 5.2-8.2
Albumin 4.2 > 2.3-4.0
ALT 111 > 10-110
Billirubin Total 2.0 > 0.0-0.9

I'm not sure what the rest of these mean except the glucose tells me that it's diabetes mellitus not insipidus. Can anyone tell me what the others mean? I'm supposed to take Vinny in at 11:30 and I was trying to figure out what I needed to ask.

Thanks in advance!!
Mel

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

Don't have any answers but there is a link from the main page - scroll down to find links to reading lab test results. There are several links under there.

http://k9diabetes.com/complinks.html

Hopefully someone else who might be able to answer directly will respond but thought I'd share that for now.

Re: My Monster Vinny
 

Thanks Holli. I took a look at the link while waiting for Vinny's blood test to come back. The biggest number that I was concerned about was his platelets before. This time everything was more normal, including his platelets. With the exception of his glucose...it was at 454!! :eek:

I couldn't believe it was that high. Then I remembered the shot this morning felt odd, like there wasn't resistance. I checked my new AlphaTrak2 against the lab work and it said 428, while I was still in the office. I just checked again since we've been home for an hour and it was 424. I think I messed up the shot or the insulin is bad. So I threw the rest of the bottle away, there wasn't much left anyway. John will have to check Vinny later since Gabbi and I are going to see my sis for the night! The vet asked me to do a curve on Sunday and let them know in Monday.

That's about it. Oh except he hasn't gained an ounce, even though I thought he had. :( so I think after Sunday I'll increase his food a bit and see if we can make that work.