Lucy, our rescued cattle dog, is an angel... April 21, 2014

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Aaaahhhhh, a 200 number! Yay!

Where did she start weight-wise at the vet, was it 28 pounds?

Have been meaning to tell you too... my husband was laughing about Lucy's prodigious poop abilities. THAT would be the WD! It's infamous for expanding the size of the deposits!!

Natalie

[Fishslayer]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

She started at 30#. Even if the weight's not there she is looking and acting healthier & happier than when we started.

354 this AM. The blood didn't really bead well so I tested again. Got 312.

How much will it affect the test if the blood gets a bit of saliva in it? I pat the lip dry before poking it.

Unfortunately I do believe she is losing her sight already. The vet will have a look when I take her in.

BTW, she was really full of pith & vinegar today!

Rick

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Saliva will water down the sample so would read less glucose than is actually present in the blood but a minute trace of saliva probably wouldn't make much of a difference. It's not an exact science anyway - glucose levels fluctuate constantly, even in people, so you mainly want to look at trends and the big picture.

This is a very common time after diagnosis for cataracts to occur. For us, it was THE most heartbreaking moment in Chris' five years with diabetes. But to him.... eh, no big deal. How does Lucy seem to be doing with it?

Natalie

[Fishslayer]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

I think she can still make out shapes but she has a tendency to walk into things. She does avoid some obstacles, which is puzzling.

We went for about a 2 mile walk this AM with Dingo. She generally just walks behind or beside him and thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act we have ramps at all the street corners so no curbs to contend with.

We weighed at the vet's this AM. She was 30.8#.

Her BG was 279 this AM. I will be doing another curve tomorrow.

You know, I am feeding her enough for an 80# dog. 5 cups total a day. You'd think she would put on some weight.

When we get her regulated & spayed I'm guessing we will do another balancing act bringing down her food & Vetsulin?

Good news! The wound on her leg is healed.

Rick

[eyelostit]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Looks like BG is coming down, glad the leg is healing.

Some dogs adapt very well to being blind, Niki is an example of that, she started to go blind slowly, I never caught it till she jumped up on the wrong thing outside.

Anyway I will have to post of picture of her outside tracks in the snow, i have a fenced in area and you can tell with all the deep snow here where she walks, there's no walking into the fence or where she may have bumped into something, its like they have a navigation system built in, maybe tommorrow if its NICE HERE I can get a good photo of it.

[Fishslayer]

Lucy's Curve 1-31-09

Did a BG curve for Lucy today.


7: 06 AM: BG premeal 294

7:45 AM: Meal: 1 cup Kahoots kibble + 3/4 cup Science Diet W-D + 3/4 cup Science Diet Lite

8:00 AM: Injection 9 IU Vetsulin

9:11 AM: 261
10:12 AM: 336
12:04 PM: 358
2:03 PM: 369

3:20 PM Keta Diastix 500-1000/Ketones Negative

4:07 PM: 277
6:06 PM: 283
7:11 PM: 306

I've been messing around with Excel a little bit.



I'll be taking this by the vet Monday.





This is her curve from 1-22-09




Rick

[rhodesian46]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Rick,
I bet your vet will increase Lucy.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Hey Rick,

The curve looks good. Because she's eating so much food, she may need a fairly large amount of insulin to go with it.

I'm not familiar with the Kahoots - is it low calories also?

Her not gaining much weight is probably due in part to the insulin dose being low so a lot of her food is just washing away as unused glucose in the blood.

But sometimes dogs have a hard time gaining weight on WD. If the Kahoots is low calorie also, it might be good to give her something more calorie rich for part of her diet.

It will change her curve but since the spay depends on her putting some weight on, might be worth aiming for a more calorie-rich diet to see if she can get some weight back on.

With Chris, who weight 60-65 pounds most of his life, five pounds made a big difference. How much does the vet want Lucy to gain?

Natalie

[We Hope]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Kahoots is a store brand-

http://www.kahootsanimalsupplies.com...ndex.html#food

Kahoots Premium

No link for us to see more about the food.

FWIW, one of the non-diabetes uses for W/D is to control weight--

http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/pro...O_n_orig_AUSRG

"For Weight Control and the Nutritional Management of Fiber Responsive Diseases

"Excess weight, diabetes and digestive troubles can cause problems for your dog. Feeding the right food can help your pet live a healthier lifestyle. Prescription Diet® w/d® Canine dog food, with its fiber rich formula, may be useful as a nutritional aid for dogs with fiber responsive diseases such as diabetes mellitus, colitis, diarrhea, constipation, and to help manage overweight dogs, including those with struvite urolithiasis. The nutritional formulation of Prescription Diet® w/d® may also be useful for pets with a variety of conditions.

"Metabolizable Energy¹ (Caloric Content)

Dry
2986 kcal/kg (243 kcal/per cup ² )

¹Measurement of Usable Energy in a food, which differs substantially from gross caloric content.
² An eight fluid oz. measuring cup of w/d™ Canine contains 2.9 oz. by weight."

Kathy

[Fishslayer]

Lucy Curve

The Kahoots is a lamb & rice.

22% protein minimum
13% fat minimum

First four products lamb meal, brown rice, brewer's rice, chicken meal.

They claim 100% American ingredients, no byproducts & no fillers. No corn, wheat or soy.

Vet didn't say how much she wanted Lucy to weigh. I'll ask when I talk to her. Probly Monday. I will also weigh her again when I drop off the curve Monday.


Rick

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Does it list the calories per cup?

[Fishslayer]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Does it list the calories per cup?

Nope. Can't find it on the web, either.

Rick

[Fishslayer]

What's going on here?

After Lucy's curve Saturday these are her tests for Sunday, Monday & Tuesday.

2/3/09 1943 169
2/3/09 0718 210

2/2/09 1931 183
2/2/09 0731 256

2/1/09 1925 193
2/1/09 0728 288

Is this enough of a change to be concerned about?

Did I perhaps not wait long enough to do the curve? Dose was changed to 9 IU on Monday night and took the curve Saturday.

This is the first time I've been able to spot a noticeable pattern. All three PM tests are lower than the AM tests and each is lower than the day before.

And we are into the hundreds!

At what point do I need to be concerned about going too low?


BTW, Lucy still weighed 30.8# Monday.


Rick

[eyelostit]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

If you would see a 135 at fast thats when I would do a 12 hr curve if you can, testing BG every 2 hours, sometimes that is hard to do depending on work schedules etc. So you do as many as you day allows.

Then you can always check the reading against a urine ketodiastix also which helps confirm the reading, but it looks like Lucy is doing great, she gets alot of exercise doesn't she, she's an active dog like Niki

[k9diabetes]

Re: Lucie has a foster home!! Yes!! Thank you Rick!!

Day to day variation is not unusual... sure is nice to see numbers in the 100s!

Her blood sugar has been high for a long time so it wouldn't be unusual for her to have developed some resistance to the effect of the insulin and her week on 9 units may be starting to break through that. Which means she will start to get more out of that same 9 units as time goes on. Could even require a slight decrease.

I wouldn't increase the insulin - probably best to stand back and just watch for the rest of this week and only respond to blood sugar you feel is too low.

From the curves, it looks like the most common low points are around 9am and 4pm so how about checking her fasting and then, when you can, checking about 9am and 4pm and see how that looks.

As long as everything is staying above 100, I'm not concerned. You should start to see a significant drop in the urine glucose too.

If you start to see fasting BGs drop even further, then a decrease in the insulin dose may be needed.

She is stubborn about gaining weight!! Hope the additional Kahoots will help her along. If it does, her BG levels may rise again with the added calories.

If the Kahoots doesn't do it, then I'd find a more calorie-rich food to add, maybe some canned like Wellness, California Natural, etc. Jack is getting 1/4 of his meal with Prairie canned and is doing well on that.

Natalie