Looking for support for Harry

[k9diabetes]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

He does get a pretty big drop from his insulin. It's gradual but can be 300 points over 12 hours.

Technically, I wouldn't say his insulin is running out early. You estimate duration by whether the blood sugar goes back to where it started in 12 hours, which his does.

I think it's more that the strongest insulin action is in the middle of the day with no food to go with it. Can you give him a mid-day snack to level out his blood sugar?

It can be smaller meals and give the rest of the meal mid-day and at bed time. And you might need to drop the insulin just a tad until you see how the new meal sizes and timing work for his dose.

You want to flatten the curve even if it's all higher. As it is now, you can't give more insulin to bring the higher blood sugar down because the low blood sugar is often just right and you don't want it to go lower.

So first you flatten the curve - different food that's slower to digest or mid-day snacks.

And then, when the curve is flatter, you can increase the insulin dose if the numbers are too high.

Weather, etc. can affect how they process food and insulin so maybe this is his DC curve.

Natalie

January 23rd

730am pre insulin 609
*Fed and gave insulin
10am 600
12pm 422
2pm 380
4pm 425
6pm 500
730pm 487
* fed and gave insulin

January 24th

730am pre insulin 400
*fed and gave insulin
10am 420
12pm 260
2pm 217
4pm 306
6pm 522
730pm 550
*fed and gave insulin

January 25th

730am pre insulin 532
*fed and gave insulin
10am 505
12pm 329
2pm 273
4pm 227
630pm 197
730pm 229
*fed and gave insulin

January 26th

730am pre insulin 515
*fed and gave insulin
11am 289
1pm 147
3pm 157
4pm 186
730pm 423
*Fed and gave insulin

Sorry for the LONG post!!

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

Ok that makes sense to flatten the curve and then increase insulin if the numbers are still to high. When I see those high numbers, I tend to panic and immediately it makes me think he needs more insulin.

Any ideas for midday snacks? He doesn't tolerate kibble well. how big does that snack need to be, and what time of day would be the most beneficial? 12? 2?

[jesse girl]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

another option the dose maybe a tad to much

my jesses can fluctuate from time to time and the clue that there is a problem is unstable blood sugar

just a thought

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

another option the dose maybe a tad to much

my jesses can fluctuate from time to time and the clue that there is a problem is unstable blood sugar

just a thought

I've wondered if it could be a tad too much too. Maybe I need to do a 24 hour curve and see exactly what is happening at night. I just haven't done that yet because we all know how much fun getting up every two hours will be, lol

[jesse girl]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

what i do with jesse i will reduce the dose say by a unit if the numbers seem more stable and flatter then i will hold the dose at that level for a bit

if i see the numbers stabilize for a day or 2 and them become unstable again i will reduce the dose again

if numbers just stay high across the board for 2 or 3 days the reduction may not be needed

as natalie suggested what you are looking foris a flatter curve. excellent stable sugar is a 100 points or less for the entire day from low to high. 200 is ok but higher than that sugar is becoming unstable and for me i would like to solve that and return to more stable sugar

[amydunn19]

I give Maggie a mid day snack - she gets something like freeze dried meat(bison), boiled chicken, a frozen yogurt(yoghund apple cheddar or Bear and Rat Pumpkin) or a plain human greek yogurt with a tbsp of chicken or turkey baby food - Beechnut or organic usually has no onion added. You could give just the baby food. Hard boiled eggs are another option or string cheese.

I stay away from super carby things or any treat with liver. Any liver spikes Maggie sky high.

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

So this morning so far:

730am 567
*fed and gave insulin
930am 624!!!

Ugh I really hate that it's never an easy fix, and my brain starts thinking, should I change food? Insulin dose? Run to the vet? I mean he was pretty stable for a while and now I guess we are going through a readjustment phase. Help!! I feel like I need to throw everything out and start with a clean slate.

[CraigM]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

So this morning so far:

730am 567
*fed and gave insulin
930am 624!!!

Ugh I really hate that it's never an easy fix, and my brain starts thinking, should I change food? Insulin dose? Run to the vet? I mean he was pretty stable for a while and now I guess we are going through a readjustment phase. Help!! I feel like I need to throw everything out and start with a clean slate.

Yes, the numbers are high, but there really isn't that much difference between 567 and 624. Many pups have an increase in blood glucose for the first couple of hours. Did you inject the regular amount, or did you reduce the dose as you were thinking about?

Craig

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

Yes, the numbers are high, but there really isn't that much difference between 567 and 624. Many pups have an increase in blood glucose for the first couple of hours. Did you inject the regular amount, or did you reduce the dose as you were thinking about?

Craig

I kept his insulin dose the same this morning, so I could give a midday snack and try to flatten his curve, if it worked but the numbers were too high, I was going to adjust the insulin.

It's just hard to see the reading in the 600's, especially when he's lying on his dog bed feeling yucky cause he's so high up there. It makes me want to give him immediate relief, but I can't.

[jesse girl]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

the couple of numbers in the morning does not tell you very much

was numbers high across the board overnight did they go low and bounced off that level ?

my jesse early on could go from 500 to 70 in a few hours and back up to 500 a few hours after that

the problem with this disease is we dont know where sugar comes from its a guess and if you guess wrong your approach maybe incorrect

only thing you can do is try some common actions that may help . you kind of have to ignore the higher numbers and continue with your experiment and it takes more than a couple hours a day or longer to get any conclusions on moving forward

i think you got maybe 5 possibilities . 1- new bottle of insulin 2 - medical issue 3 - dose is to much 4 - the dose is not enough 5 imbalance between food and insulin

my clues with jesse is very simple if her numbers become more unstable first on the list for me is the dose is to much . my jesse is very sensitive to a size of dose i cant give her more than 2.5 units at one time even if her numbers scream for more insulin . this is something i really just figured out

the pull to higher numbers is usually more insulin and for me if numbers get worse and more unstable with a dose adjustment upward i have to conclude that raising that dose is not good

its hard to figure . difficult to base an action off another diabetic dog and how they approach things . almost 6 years and still figuring things out

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

the couple of numbers in the morning does not tell you very much

was numbers high across the board overnight did they go low and bounced off that level ?

my jesse early on could go from 500 to 70 in a few hours and back up to 500 a few hours after that

the problem with this disease is we dont know where sugar comes from its a guess and if you guess wrong your approach maybe incorrect

only thing you can do is try some common actions that may help . you kind of have to ignore the higher numbers and continue with your experiment and it takes more than a couple hours a day or longer to get any conclusions on moving forward

i think you got maybe 5 possibilities . 1- new bottle of insulin 2 - medical issue 3 - dose is to much 4 - the dose is not enough 5 imbalance between food and insulin

my clues with jesse is very simple if her numbers become more unstable first on the list for me is the dose is to much . my jesse is very sensitive to a size of dose i cant give her more than 2.5 units at one time even if her numbers scream for more insulin . this is something i really just figured out

the pull to higher numbers is usually more insulin and for me if numbers get worse and more unstable with a dose adjustment upward i have to conclude that raising that dose is not good

its hard to figure . difficult to base an action off another diabetic dog and how they approach things . almost 6 years and still figuring things out

I can definitely rule out the new bottle of insulin. He also just had bloodwork and a urinalysis, which were clean, thank the good lord. That leaves food and dose. I'm thinking his dose may be too high, how do I go about dialing it down?

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

So I just checked him again and so far:

730am 567
930am 624
12pm 347

[jesse girl]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

you can cut a unit. see if things stabilize let the dose settle for 2 to 3 days if numbers look better hold for a week and maybe longer if there better for a day or 2 then back up reduce another unit and just kind of follow that pattern you would be working backwards

if numbers stay high across the board with not allot of movement and thats going to take 2 to 3 days to know that then the dose is probably not enough

now you can work in half units but i would rather move things a bit faster to rule out the dose being to much if need be you can tweak it back up with half unit increments to fine tune

its possible the dose can be just a half unit to much jesse has a problem with 3 units but it appears 2.5 is ok strange

hopefully the dose is a tad to much and harry can settle back down with a single reduction

the hardest thing for me was food i am not sure if i ever got that wright but jesse numbers are adequate

its a process of elimination and thats not perfect either with so many variable to the equation

[Cara Sandler]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

Oh, goodness, he is ADORABLE!!!!!!

[jenni23]

Re: Looking for support for Harry

Oh, goodness, he is ADORABLE!!!!!!

Lol, Thanks!