My dog is requiring more insulin than normal.

[AlisonandMia]

Re: Not sure if I am feeding him enough

Smaller compared to what he was eating before but he doesn't know the diiference..he just knows it's a treat.

You are absolutely right! You can get away with giving dogs the teeniest of treats - they are smart but not in the sort of way that makes them very good at telling what is a small treat and what is a big one. Odor (very important IMO) and taste and number of treats seem to matter much more. Two tiny treats (size of your pinky fingernail) can make more of an impression than a cookie 2 inches across.

My dog (young, healthy) will sell his furry little soul for 1/4" or smaller cubes of low-fat cheese. If I'm very pleased with him he gets 4 or so in quick succession and thinks he's the luckiest dog in the world! Sometimes I even break them in half and he doesn't notice the difference.

It's the thought that counts.

Alison

[Dog Mom]

Re: Not sure if I am feeding him enough

My thing is that Buddy has not been requiring alot of Insuling. Before he got into that bag of food he was at 4-5 units a day. I started increasing his food this morning and gave him 6 units. Before I switched him to the WD, he was on a diet of Lean ground beef, carrots, green beans and fat free cottage cheese. He lost weight. I would too since it seemed he was on the Atkins diet. I guess I could feed him some canned green beans as his mid day snack. I have been giving him just a little of the WD.

[Dog Mom]

Buddy's first curve...it sucks

Did my first curve on Buddy yesterday and personally I don't think it looks so good. Doing another one today.

DATE TIME LEVEL FOOD
10/24/09 6:30:00 AM B4 FEEDING 180 1 1/2 CUPS WD/1/3 C EVO DUCK 2 LITE COOKIES
GAVE HIM 6U

10/24/09 8:30 AM 70

10/24/09 10:30AM 155 1 LITE COOKIE

10/24/09 12:30P B4 SNACK 251 1/2 CUP GREEN BEANS

10/24/09 2:30p 183

10/24/09 4:30 PM 129

10/24/09 5:15 PM 1 1/2 CUPS WD/1/3 C EVO DUCK 2 LITE COOKIESGAVE HIM 4.5 U

10/24/09 6:30 AM 94

10/24/09 8:30 PM 162

10/24/09 10:30 PM 237

[k9diabetes]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

That looks pretty good to me!

What meter did you use?

Natalie

[Dog Mom]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

I use Freestle Lite..always on his lip. My concern is how high it jumped mid day. I am still so new to this, I am not sure what is good and bad. I looked at the chart for the curve and it didn't look like that chart.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

Dogs are infamous for ignoring the books, the charts. Lots of dogs don't have curves that look like the book. I will put up a chart here in a minute.

I don't care what shape the curve is as long as the blood sugar stays in a healthy range, preferably between 100 and 200 - that's an ideal that many dogs can't manage. Buddy came dang close! This is really a nice curve.

I suspect the 6 units is a bit more than he needs.

And the rise you saw at 12:30 could be the cookie. Even though it's a "lite" cookie, it's still calories and most likely carbs and that alone could be enough to account for that spike you saw. You might try going with something like meat or the green beans and skip the cookie and see how it goes with that.

Natalie

DATE TIME LEVEL FOOD
6:30AM 180
1 1/2 CUPS WD/1/3 C EVO DUCK 2 LITE COOKIES - GAVE HIM 6U
8:30 AM 70
10:30 AM 155 1 LITE COOKIE
12:30 PM 251
1/2 CUP GREEN BEANS
2:30 PM 183
4:30 PM 129
5:15 PM 1 1/2 CUPS WD/1/3 C EVO DUCK 2 LITE COOKIESGAVE HIM 4.5 U
6:30 PM 94
8:30 PM 162
10:30 PM 237

[k9diabetes]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

Here's a chart of his curve. Presumably the Freestyle Lite is reading close to or somewhat lower than the actual blood sugar values.




Some dogs start lowest at meal time and then their BG goes up for awhile and then back down, making a "mountain" shaped curve instead of a valley. I've seen a few double humped camel curves too!

Truly, the shape doesn't much matter - that's determined by the balance between the action of the insulin and how fast they digest their food and is very dog specific.

The ideal curve is flat flat flat. Normal blood sugar doesn't vary by much more than 40-50 points from highest to lowest. So we aim to come as close to that as possible, which allows you to have really tight control of the blood sugar.

How much insulin you can give is always controlled by the lowest blood sugar you get.

You wouldn't want anything lower than that 70 you had. If the meter's very close to actual values, that's lower than I'd like to see. Try to keep the BG at about 100 or above to allow for natural day to day variations.

Natalie

[Dog Mom]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

You people are so wonderful. I have learned more from being on this forum than anywhere else. I am so glad I found it. I also periodically test his urine with the strips and he isn't spilling even when it is in the 200's. I am grateful for that. He is so good about everything I need to do for him. The urine test is the easiest because he could care less. In the beginning I was using a little cup, now I just put the stick under him.

[k9diabetes]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

I used to do the same with Chris - just tuck the strip under there. Chris liked to stop peeing if he knew I was trying to check it, just to be a butt I think!

Natalie

[Soaphie & Sydney's Mom]

Re: Buddy's first curve...it sucks

THose numbers are great

[Dog Mom]

Buddy's 2nd Curve

Level
6:15 b4 feeding 164 1 1/2 cups wd/ 1/2 c evo duck 2 lite cookies dosage: 6u
8:15 am 65
10:15 am 180
12:15 pm b4 snack 292 1/2 cup green beans
2:15 pm 262
4:15 pm 233 sugar in urine 4:10pm
6:00 pm 169 1 1/2 cups wd 1/2 cup evo duck 1 lite cookie dosage: 5u
8:10 pm 139

the sugar in the urine is rare for him. It was hot here today (90 degrees) and he laid in the sun for about 25 minutes in the afternoon. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. This is the first time i have done a curve on him. Didn't even know what it was until i found this forum. You guys are great. Thank you!!!

[k9diabetes]

Re: Buddy's 2nd Curve

In a second here I will merge this thread with your previous one. We like to keep all of the information about a dog in a single thread. That way, six months from now, when I want to see how his curve compares to the previous ones, I can just page back in his thread. I am in the habit of clicking always on the "last page" to see the newest information posted!

So there's an incredible amount of consistency to these two curves - check them out one laid over the other:



There is a slight difference in the dinner feeding time, 5:15 yesterday and 6:00pm today.

Both look great! He definitely got an early kick from more insulin than food and then a later spike of more food than insulin. I'll be curious to see what a little smaller dose does - it might actually get rid of the sharp drop and even things out.

Congratulations!!

Natalie

[Arlene]

Re: Buddy's 2nd Curve

The curves you did are so interesting. I'm going to try that also - the visual is great. What is the food you feed Buddy. The w/d part. I new to this so I'll be asking many 'not so dumb' questions!!

Thanks,
Arlene

[Dog Mom]

Re: Buddy's 2nd Curve

He eats the dry version of WD. He has always had sensitive teeth so I put it in water and let it soak. Moistens it up. I had him on a diet of Lean ground beef, carrots, green beans, fat free cottage cheese and bone meal. I am still frightened because he is still losing weight and that is why the change in dog food an adding the can of EVO Duck.

[Arlene]

Re: Buddy's 2nd Curve

Thanks for info on dog food. My poncho is a 'strange' eater. He will hardly touch anything in the AM, and on some days, not much at all anytime during the day. It's difficult to give his insulin. Still working on that. Thanks again to everyone!