New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

[mpinkblake]

Hello! My name is Michelle and our 7 year old Yorkie (Finn) was diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago. We have not gotten his treatment down to a science yet and would appreciate some helpful tips related to our area of struggle. A little background information about Finn; he has been prescribed Rx gastrointestinal dog food for the last few years due to chronic pancreatitis and colitis and the vet has kept him on this diet because of it's low fat. When we first brought Finn home about a month ago from his hospital stay to get regulated on insulin, he was on 3 CC's twice a day. He seemed to be doing fine on that dosage and then around Christmas he started drinking all of the time again and urinating constantly. The vet had him come in a few days later for a glucose curve, his sugar was still super high but his overall numbers had improved. The vet increased his dosage to 4 CC's twice a day, Finn does great with his injections and doesn't balk at it. Within the last week or so, his night time routine has been completely out of whack. He is getting up 5-6 times in the night (typically between 2am and 5am) to drink and urinate. Some nights, he gets up within 45 minutes of the last wake up call. There are some nights where he'll only get up once but those are few and far between. He does sleep in bed with us, we make sure the heat is turned down, he has a humidifier at the end of the bed and we pick up his water dish around 8pm to try and deter him from frequent drinking. Any tips on this nasty night time routine that he's gotten into would be greatly appreciated. He does return to the vet on Monday to test his blood.

[jesse girl]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

Hi and welcome to both of you

The single best thing you can do is test blood sugar at home and learn what is really going on with blood sugar

Usually once a dog is on insulin the thirst and urination decreases even if the numbers are still elevated but if your seeing numbers 400 plus for the 24 hour period the body is going to try to remove that sugar through urination .

It can be difficult to regulate a dog just testing blood sugar at the vet from time to time and if the dog has other challenges like chronic pancreatitis it makes it that more difficult . Flareups of the pancreas can affect blood sugar . This is why home testing is so important . Some vets still frown upon this but its has become generally accepted as an important tool in controlling blood sugar . I have used a discount human meter for Jesse for the last 10.5 years being diabetic . Now they do have a couple pet meters but its more pricey and for me The human meter has done the job . May not be perfect but gets the job done

l also have been giving my jesse a daily dose of milk thistle to help with digestive heath . Studies have said it is helpful with pancreatitis which may benefit your pup

The chronic pancreatitis maybe the biggest challenge keeping that under control . There maybe times you just have a flareup and blood sugar can give you a clue of that which you can catch at home . Learning to fast your dog during a flare up and giving smaller doses of insulin without food can be very helpful where the vet cant do that kind of wellness because they dont have the time. . What you want to do is keep your pup out of hospital and more hands on management at home will help to do that .

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

hi Michelle and Finn

goodluck at the vet on monday.
probably just a bump in the road

[mpinkblake]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

Thank you for the tips! I ordered a blood sugar monitor from Chewy last night! I agree that it will be helpful to monitor from home as well. Finn has slept through the night for 2 nights (knock on wood he continues to do so) but he's still urinating in his sleep. Like I mentioned before, he sleeps with us but he's very good about staying on the hospital bed pads that we put down for him.

[jesse girl]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

Now you will be able to determine if blood sugar is the reason for urination getting real time knowledge of what level blood sugar is at . There are are other reasons for excessive urination Like UTIs which is common with k9 diabetes

Glad your pup is sleeping . They do make doggie diapers as an option which more than likely would be temporarily once blood sugar is reduced or other possible reason for urination is figured out

You have now took the first step in managing your dogs diabetes which is a good thing

You can do practice tests even before you get the monitor . I use jesses inner lip above the canine tooth so rolling the lip over maybe wiping it with a napkin . You can also use something like an empty pen and use that to represent a lance device . The key is getting you and your pup comfortable with the procedure .

[Raysaint]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

Bloodwork will tell you if his kidney function is OK. Have your vet do bloodwork.
And a urinalysis with culture will show any UTI.

Knowing what's going on inside is part of diabetes management in my mind. There's many little changes that can happen internally.

[Tonkasmom]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

Hi, I too have a pooch that was recently diagnosed with diabetes. The last week we have been giving him Humulin 5IU in the morning after he eats and we're back to the vet on Thursday for spot BG. Has anyone here had their dog fitted with a blood glucose reader that uses an app to monitor the levels? I think this is the plan for Tonka. If so I'd love to hear any feedback.

[ReidWHopkins]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

Yes, my min pin Paxton has a Libre Freestyle, very informative. Should work fine to figure out dosage.

[Annemieke]

Re: New Diabetic Dog Mom Here!

We use the freestyle libre sensor also. In the beginning we used like 4 or 5 sensors to get him on the right amount of insulin and changed his diet. It was and is very usefull for us. You don't have to pick him every two hours, but see with the reader what's going on the whole day and night. Have to say, that it gives a good vieuw over the 24 hours what is going on, but have to say when the numbers go high on the reader, then its not as high as it says. When you take a bloodsample. When its in the right numbers its working fine. But you perfectionally can see the pattern. We put the sensor on ourselves. It will work for 14 days, but usually it comes of some days earlier because the hair growes. Succes with your dog