Bosco is an Angel

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Bosco trader joe treats

When you get a minute read Hawthorne ,s thread regarding the trader joe treats. He has a log showing the treats raise his blood sugar. When he stopped the treats his bg lowered. Also the carrots would raise his bg .

I use caledon farms beef liver and potato chews they dont raise Rilieys blood sugar. But all dogs are different.

[Bosco]

Re: Bosco

From reading several posts, it seems like it's not good for a diabetic dog to get a lot of exercise.

Is throwing a ball & she runs after not good? Is taking a walk OK? Thank you.

[eileen]

Re: Bosco

Another thought I have is whether many home cooked meals are really consistent? I realize those who home cook measure / weigh the ingredients, but is each meal consistent? Does each meal have the same amount of each ingredient? I really don't know if this is soooo critical, but it's something else to consider.

Many give a diabetic friendly treat after a blood test, as a reward for testing.

Testing after an unknown treat (something you're not sure how it will affect the BG) can be useful to learn if that treat is "friendly", or if it will cause the BG to skyrocket 100+ points. I wouldn't test right after a new treat, but maybe an hour later after it it was probably digested.

I personally don't usually give between meal treats other than a green bean type of treat. The way I look at is if I had a diabetic human child I'd definitely not give him candy between meals

Craig

As Craig suggests, I think it is important when home cooking to not throw all ingredients into a pot with then dividing out as every meal will not be the same as the next.
When I home cooked for Mildred I carefully weighed each ingredient that went into an individual meal, put that meal in a baggie and repeated.
I prepared several weeks worth of meals at a time with keeping 2 bagged meals in the fridge with the rest in the freezer.
As I fed one meal I pulled another from the freezer.

I personally did not give a treat for injections or for blood tests...just lots of extra hugs!

[Judi]

Re: Bosco

From reading several posts, it seems like it's not good for a diabetic dog to get a lot of exercise.

Is throwing a ball & she runs after not good? Is taking a walk OK? Thank you.

exercise is fine. I firmly believe a dog should still be a dog. You just may need to adjust insulin or treats! as often exercise can decrease blood sugar significantly

[Monsters Momma]

Re: Bosco

From reading several posts, it seems like it's not good for a diabetic dog to get a lot of exercise.

Is throwing a ball & she runs after not good? Is taking a walk OK? Thank you.

This is an "every dog is different" kind of question. With Vinny, if he runs around the back yard with Bogey, our non-diabetic dog, it depends on what time of day it is and how much I let them run. For example, if he's already at his traditional low point for the day, I will definitely cut play time short and check him when he comes in. I may let him play more if I'm there to watch or if it's a different time of day. Typically, if he's playing and chasing, I'll test him when he comes in.

Other dogs take long walks, but might have had to work up to that. If your dog is a 'chase the ball' kind of dog, you might want to play it safe and work your way up and test Bosco after each time. Always make sure you have with you or close by a rescue kit...Karo syrup and dog biscuits does it for Vinny when he gets too low.

Did I answer your question or confuse the situation further??

[Abby's Mom]

Re: Bosco

From reading several posts, it seems like it's not good for a diabetic dog to get a lot of exercise.

Is throwing a ball & she runs after not good? Is taking a walk OK? Thank you.

I feel that exercise is good.. If you are home testing, it is the perfect example to determine what it may do. Some use exercise to reduce Blood Sugar, if it is running high.

But, more importantly in my opinion, let a dog be a dog. Fit it in if you can - if he likes to chase a ball.

Barb

[eileen]

Re: Bosco

It is my opinion that while in the early stages and as while working at regulation exercise should be put on a back burner.
With the effects of exercise being a variable that is out of our control it is better to find an insulin dose that keeps the dog in an acceptable glucose range.
Once this has been established exercise can be added back in as one then has a 'baseline' and can know where the exercise is taking the sugar levels, and, can make the necessary adjustments if need be such as pretreating the walk.

[Bosco]

Re: Bosco Glucose Meter

I just bought a glucose meter, the Relion Prime. I think I read somewhere in this forum that the reading should be divided by .65 to get the correct dog glucose level. Can anyone help me. Thanks

[CraigM]

Re: Bosco Glucose Meter

I just bought a glucose meter, the Relion Prime. I think I read somewhere in this forum that the reading should be divided by .65 to get the correct dog glucose level. Can anyone help me. Thanks

That's what I do (divide the Prime by .65) to get a reading close to what my AlphaTrak2 would indicate.

Craig

[Bosco]

Can't Get Regulated

My miniature schnauzer is not regulated. She was diagnosed in October 2013. She is 13 pounds & can't gain weight. Have tried Novolin N. Numbers were always in the 300s. Vet put her on Vetsulin. She has been on Vetsulin from Jan-June. Still numbers were in the 300s. She would start out high with a big drop in about 5-6 hours.

So I decided to try Novolin 70/30. I started her on 5 units 2x a day.

These readings are from Relion meter actual readings

6am 201
Shot 7am 5 units
9am - 136
1pm - 210
3pm - 285
6pm - 300

She has only been on this new insulin since Sunday June 22.

The insulin does not seem to last. I feed her chicken breast, hard boiled egg, small about of quinoa, & Real Meat dog food and psyllium. Everything is measured.

I was reading about how some people use Novolin N & them use Novolin R to control the spikes. How does that work? If I give Bosco 4 units of Novolin N and feed her at 7am, when do I give her the Novolin R & how much?

[jesse girl]

Re: Can't Get Regulated

hi and welcome do you have other curves on just novolin .

maybe give a progression of events. how many units did you start with and how much did you increase on each dose adjustment upward .

was there any reduction in dose to possibly giving to much insulin by the vet .

i think giving r separately than a premix version of 70 /30 is a better way to go . you have a bit more control of the r insulin's dosage . may not need that much r

most make the judgement insulin doesn't last and i believe that is not true on many occasions . either the body removes it form the equation or sugar overwhelms it . but cant know for sure . maybe the reduction of n because of 70 /30 may not have enough to go the full 12 hours

food also is a factor for the individual dogs some have more protein others need more carbs fiber can have an impact . i think the key is how to interpret curves ( not an easy thing ) i believe i am an expert of my jesses curve and believe there is know one else that can do better . its not that i am being arrogant or smarter than anyone else . actually i am quite average . its the time i put into it and figuring things out . from the beginning i took up the challenge and transferred most of the work from the vet to me

[Bosco]

Re: Can't Get Regulated

Here is a curve just on Novolin N at 4.5 units on Jan 1 2013

6am - 358
7 am - insulin injection
9am - 210
11 am - 143
1 pm- 79
3 pm - 135
5 pm-343
6 pm - 407

These are actual numbers with Relion meter.

If I go back to Novolin N, when do I give Bosco R & how much

Thanks for your help

[CraigM]

Re: Can't Get Regulated

Here is a curve just on Novolin N at 4.5 units on Jan 1 2013

6am - 358
7 am - insulin injection
9am - 210
11 am - 143
1 pm- 79
3 pm - 135
5 pm-343
6 pm - 407

These are actual numbers with Relion meter.

If I go back to Novolin N, when do I give Bosco R & how much

Thanks for your help

Welcome. Just have a minute, but wanted to give a thought or two.

We all know a single number doesn't tell very much, and I would say a single curve also doesn't tell enough.

Having said that, and if this curve is typical, a very small amount of Novolin-R might be useful at 6am/PM meal time. I'm afraid the amount will be a guesstimate.

With the 5 units of Novolin 70/30, I think you are actually injecting 3.5 units of "N".

I think 7 units of 70/30 would mathematically yield 5 units of "N", and 2 units of "R". This might work for you, but I'm a little afraid what the extra amount of "R" might do to the 136 at 9am you reported.

Craig

[jesse girl]

Re: Can't Get Regulated

that curve does give the appearance of to much insulin . depending on the individual dog they can be sensitive to drops and the curve you posted many dogs would be sensitive to that type of action with blood sugar .

basically you are not seeing stable blood sugar you maybe seeing over 300 points from low to high. excellent stable blood sugar would be a 100 points or less . i think the max is maybe 200 point spread and your well past that .

sometimes a starting dose at the beginning can be to much and it can create higher highs and the vet with limited testing continues to raise the dose . making things just worse and making it very difficult to find your way back.

just to give some perspective my jesse is a 30 pound beagle and cant have more than 3 units at shot time . which is quite low . she was overdosed early on and to this day she is very sensitive to amounts of insulin . some dogs need to go allot slower as far as letting things settle and with dose adjustment of a quarter unit sometimes less . yes this is micro dosing but needed especially for the smaller dogs.

so with the curve you posted 70 / 30 does not look to be appropriate for your pup compared to this curve on just n . it would only be used if you saw a big spike after food and shot and your not seeing this with this January curve .

i think you may have gone in the wrong direction instead of raising you maybe want to have been lowering the dose . now if this has gone on for sometime it may take quite awhile for things to settle at a lower dose and for the body to consider its safe .

so a staring dose maybe 2.5 units for a 13 pound dog . you can slowly back down to that number by half unit increments and see if the numbers get flatter and more stable as you reduce . that maybe the clue of to much insulin was given . you can reduce dramatically by a couple units at one time . like i said even a starting dose can be to much to start so going even lower maybe a good idea . so you may have to deal with some higher numbers for maybe 5 days or longer until you can get a true picture of whats going on . if you continue to see big drops the dose may still be to much .

its a hard thing to do higher numbers pull us to raising the dose its just the way our minds work as far as logic

whats problematic with that january curve is the large early drop and if that occurred at a lower dose that needed to be solved before raising the dose .

[Bosco]

Re: Can't Get Regulated

Just to make sure I'm reading your post right, you are suggesting I give Bosco 2.5 unit. On the 70/30 this would be 3.5 units and to keep her at this dosage for 5-7 days.

I'm sure her numbers are going to go higher. How high could the numbers to before I should be concerned? When do you think I will see the numbers start to go down?

Sorry for all the questions but I've been to 3 vets already & none of them understand.

Thank you for all your help.