The Wee Dude Alfie earned his wings 23rd June, 2015

[diggydog]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

OK so I went with the increasing his food option and I am keeping Alfie on his insulin. The vet was not much help in telling me how much more food to give him tho as she wanted me to stop his insulin so just suggested "some more"
I was feeding him 30g in the morning and evening plus 15g mid afternoon.

I have increased this to 40g morning and evening and 20g mid afternoon. Dont know if this is enough/ too much or about right. Alfie seems ok but without testing him I have no way of knowing. He has to go in for a weight check on thursday then back for a bg on monday which I think is too far way and he should be checked before that.

I am getting a wee monitor in the morning - going for the one touch ultra as my friend is diabetic and she uses that so she said she can get me the test strips for free which is a HUGE help in keeping down my costs.

I am ow wondering once I have it how often I need to check it against my vets reading to work out how much difference there is? I must say the thought of it scares the life out of me as I keep thinking its going to hurt him so much and I really dont want to hurt him in any way
I know its going to be a huge help to know what his bg is doing but I dont want him to get hurt and end up scared of me.

Feeling really overwhelmed by it all

[peggy0]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

It is overwhelming at times, but you are doing great and you'll feel more confident the more you test and see results of your efforts with his food and dosage. When you can you should take your monitor to the vet. Most here have found the ultra to read about 20 points lower than the actual reading within a normal BG range. Once your readings are up in the 300, 400s , the variance gets larger, but it really doesn't matter when you get to those numbers So if you can keep your dog below 300, its pretty close. Your food adjustment sounds fine. Margaret increased Lucys food and she gained a bit of weight. She can give you some good advice there. Stay with it, we are all here for you.

[diggydog]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Thanks Peggy,

So Alfie was back in the vet today as he peed in the house last nite. His latest readings and food weight are

Saturday - 6.45kg 2unitsx2 and food 75g total split over 3 bg too high to get a reading

Monday- 6.9kg 2units x 2 and food 75g bg 5.2 mmol or 94 mg

Thurs - 6.65kg 2units x 2 and food 100g split over 3 bg 16.2 mmol or 292mg


It so frustrating that his bg is all over the place, its completely different every day. The vet now wants to put Alfie back onto 3 units x2 but I said no as he had 2hypos on the 3units. I said I would increase him to 2.5 for a few days first to see how he gets on and if he is still over 10mmol or 180mg then I will think about increasing him to 3units.

I got my monitor tested today while I was at the vets and it reads 3 mmol or 54 mg out. They tested it 3 times and it was out by the same amount each time so I basically told the vet that as of tomorrow I will be home testing Alfie with my monitor. Again she said buy an AlphaTrak but if my monitor is out by the same amount each time then clearly its ok for me to use this? I was wondering if a different type of monitor would read closer to the AlphaTrak or does it not matter???????

I thought after nearly 2years of Alfie being diabetic we would be more regulated than we are. My head hurts with the stress I am feeling. I cant help but think maybe I am doing something wrong? I have electronic scales and his food is weighed every meal time and I know he is exercised almost exactly the same amount each day. Am I missing something

[diggydog]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Forgot to put the times in for his food and injections

Saturday fed @ 9am insulin at 9.30am and bg taken at 11am

Monday fed @ 9 am insulin at 9.30 and bg taken at 10.45

Thurs fed at 9.10am insulin at 9.40 and bg taken at 1pm

[peggy0]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Its hard to tell what is going on with just individual readings. A curve reallly tells you what is happening. I know with Margaret's Lucy, that the BG drops in the afternoon. She adjusted her feeding by adding a snack at 1p to keep the readings flat for the majority of the day. Then she raised the insulin a bit. If you post a curve, we can help you figure it out I know its frustrating, but you'll get there.

[diggydog]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Woo hoo

First time home testing today and thats my first blood glucose taken
Had no luck getting blood from his pad but got it from his lip. Kinda proud of us both!
I will post his results at the end of the day....

[Noodle]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Belated welcome to you and Alfie - what a cutie pie! Huge congratulations on your first successful BG test...fantastic!!

BG testing is going to be such a great tool to use in managing Alfie's diabetes. I'm glad you found a spot that works for both of you. I use the lip with Noodle too and it works great. Congrats again!

[Patty]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Congratulations on testing Allison!!

[CarolW]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Allison! You doed it! GREAT WORK!

I do think, for dogs who "allow it," (but dogs can usually be taught to allow it, even if reluctant at first) - the lip is the very easiest place to test, partly because it bleeds easily (sez who - I have to warm the lip first, by folding it down over a warm, wet paper towel, unless I use 21-gauge lancets, which make it a breeze, first prick, no warming, perfect sample every time!)

Well, I'm so tired I'm rambling again, but I'm totally thrilled with your success!

(I can't get 21-gauge lancets in Canada any more! - my vet is going to try to pick some up for me when she goes to the U.S. for a conference in a couple of weeks.)

CONGRATULATIONS! Now you can really keep your eye on Alfie, as needed!

Fri, 28 May 2010 08:38:30 (PDT) going for a nap!

[k9diabetes]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Way to go!!!! That is so exciting!!!

Natalie

[Margaret Boyle]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

WELL DONE ALLISON

I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT

Margaret

[diggydog]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Thanks for the support every1.
Margaret i cant thank you enough for talking to me last night. I might not have gone through with the testing but your encouragement really helped.
So far Alfie's results r seriously not good. I will post them in a few hours. We r on holiday for the weekend at a holiday cottage and the internet signal is not the best but i will try my best to get his curve posted!

[diggydog]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

Ok here goes.
8.40am 24.5/ 441 9am Alfie fed 40g
9.30am 2.5units insulin
10.50am 27.5/ 495
1pm 15.9 / 286
3pm 11.4 / 205
4.30pm afternoon snack of 20g
5pm 11.4 / 205.2
6pm - 7.20pm Alfie walked.
7.30pm 29 / 522
9pm dinner of 40g burns
9.30pm 29 /522+
2.5units insulin
10.30pm 30.8 / 554
Last week he had 2hypos on 3units of insulin but clearly 2.5 is not enough for him?

[k9diabetes]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

There are a couple of possibilities in your curve. One is that exercise is driving his blood sugar low since it is at a time when his blood sugar is the lowest and that he is then rebounding to those high dinner-time levels.

Another is that his afternoon snack is the cause of the high blood sugar later in the day because it isn't being digested right away so the glucose from it is showing up much later.

You could actually have both things going on.

If you could start by testing him just before and just after his walk, that would help sort out what is going on there.

It would not be unusual for a dog on such few units to need between 2.5 and 3.0. You can do a "hair" under the 3.0 mark, for example.

But I would try to further investigate ways of flattening out his curve, like changing his walk time or giving a high digestible snack before his walk, or eliminating his afternoon meal. Some experiments will allow you to figure out what would be best to try.

Natalie

[peggy0]

Re: Alfie's Story so far....

I would definately be moving his snack to about 2p. It should flatten the curve out and then you should be able to give a bit more insulin. The afternoon snack is spiking alfie and then bleeding over into the evening meal. The insulins having a hard time catch up Have you tried given the snack earlier? Margaret and I have worked on adjusting the Burns diet quite a bit. I would try the snack move first. Marg also took some of the burns out and added a protein, cottage cheese, in its place. That worked really well for little Lucy. You need to try things one bit at a time though and let it settle for 3 to 4 days.