Non-repeating BG numbers

[MisterAlan]

Yeah sounds like a good plan and see how its goes. I had similar numbers when i was testing but mine were more drastic in the dip. He would go from fasting at 350-400 then 4 hours later Nadir to 80s then from there shoot up 400 insanely fast so he only stayed in the area thats low for probably 3 hours max which was not good. I was just feeding him protein and barley at this time and had to do more research into how fast and slow certain carbs release at. So many carbs and fibers to go through but i was lucky my first tweak worked. I reduced some barley and added some pinto beans which slowed releases while the barley is a medium release time and this seemed to level him off. I also found that adding more protein didnt affect his BG numbers only carbs did. I think i would have a harder time regulating my dog on a dry food since i dont know what carbs they use and how balanced it is. If this doesnt work out so well i dont mind helping with a homemade diet if you are up for it.

[bontemp]

Converted Hansel’s food to RC Glycobalance over a one week period then waited another week to run full curve. Results today: fed/inject 5:30 = 521, 8:30A = 263, 10:30A = 251, 12:30P = 289, 3P = 464, fed/inject 5P = 456. Looks advantageous to try to flatten the curve more; since he is on Vetsulin, with its fast acting component, would changing to Novolin N help flatten? Or would that increase the danger of “stacking” doses resulting in numbers that are too low? It is acknowledged that tweaking his food in the morning with a bit of carbs might slow the initial dive.Thanks for comments.

[jesse girl]

You could also try to reduce the dose to see if you can reduce that big drop early in the curve as an easy thing to try before trying new insulin . Its also possible it may take a bit more time to settle with the new diet .

Insulin is working and you do have a decent range for a period of the day.

[Riliey and Mo]

i think you can try reducing the dose before changing insulin as the vetinsulin is working. drop one unit at a time wait then do a curve
i think the curve should flatten out.

[k9diabetes]

Originally Posted by bontemp

Converted Hansel’s food to RC Glycobalance over a one week period then waited another week to run full curve. Results today: fed/inject 5:30 = 521, 8:30A = 263, 10:30A = 251, 12:30P = 289, 3P = 464, fed/inject 5P = 456. Looks advantageous to try to flatten the curve more; since he is on Vetsulin, with its fast acting component, would changing to Novolin N help flatten? Or would that increase the danger of “stacking” doses resulting in numbers that are too low? It is acknowledged that tweaking his food in the morning with a bit of carbs might slow the initial dive.Thanks for comments.

The insulin is lasting about 12 hours but is poorly balanced with digestion of food and conversion to sugar.

Substitution some of his food with something quickly digestible could definitely help flatten the curve. And, if you schedule allows, you can wait an hour or two to inject the insulin after eating, which would give the food a head start.

Every dog is different so you just have to experiment. Make one small change, see what happens.

There are a lot of dogs who don't do "consistent" - I don't know that anyone knows why. Blood sugar is so complex and affected by so many things that it's surprising more dogs (and people) aren't inconsistent! Plus there are a few breeds where I've seen more inconsistence - rottweilers are one and mini Schnauzers are another. They will cruise along for a while okay and then suddenly that insulin dose is too much or too little. Their people have had to just kind of go with it. Test and adjust the insulin when a major shift occurs.

They have to make sure it's a trend rather than a one-off or three-off. So track over time and if the change persists, you can adjust food and insulin to get better regulation.

Another issue at times is how insulin bottles are handled. In extreme weather conditions. they can be damaged sitting on a hot or cold loading dock, for example. So it's good to consider whether there's a problem with the insulin itself when an abrupt change occurs.

Natalie