Hi Sandy,
This curve is looking much better. The Vetsulin appears to be lasting just about 12 hours, which is great.
This is a very typical curve with Vetsulin, lowest blood glucose a couple of hours after the meal - that's the 30% semilente insulin working.
Like quite a few dogs I've seen with Vetsulin, she's getting a pretty large difference between highest and lowest blood glucose, which does make it difficult to increase the insulin for better control.
I'd say you could raise the Vetsulin a small amount, especially if you start home testing blood glucose so you can monitor it closely. I'd be comfortable with the lowest number coming down to the low 100s.
But if this is as good as it gets, this is pretty good. The BG in the 300s is brief, only during about 4 hours a day. The rest of the day the blood glucose is high 100s and 200s.
The Cushings is well controlled so I don't think you have to worry about that being part of the blood glucose control.
Nothing here is "borderline hypoglycemic"!!! It may be lower than they like to keep dogs because the blood sugar varies from day to day and it could go lower than the 168. BUT 168 is higher than normal blood glucose and hypoglycemic isn't a serious consideration until you get under 100. Hence I agree with the second vet that a slight increase would be worth trying.
Vets keep dogs in the 200s to avoid any risk of hypoglycemia from normal daily variation in blood glucose levels. With better monitoring via home testing, though, you can get a very thorough picture of her typical patterns and even potentially tweak the diet for a flatter curve, allowing you to bring her overall blood sugar down.
I encourage you to come to my site and forum!
We can help you get the best control possible and give you more insight on standard veterinary approaches and what more can be done.
I've been home testing Chris for years. We do a lip prick and there's a video of me testing him there here: www.k9diabetes.com/bgtestvideos.html.
I know of other mini Schnauzers being tested on the lip. You can also use the base of the tail, the pad at the dew claw, and an elbow callous or wart. There are demonstrations of most of these techniques at the link above.
The forum is at www.k9diabetes.com/forum. You will recognize the style instantly as it runs on the same software as this one.
Dogs' lips have almost no nerve endings and Chris doesn't mind being tested there at all, as you will see from his somewhat bored expression in the video!
I keep all of Chris' readings in a spreadsheet and do charts when I want to look at his blood glucose trends.
You may be able to add a small tweak to Zoe's diet that can help get rid of the large blood sugar swing... come on over to the forum so others can provide additional input. You'll see lots of familiar faces there!
I'm thrilled to see Zoe doing so much better and putting on weight. You're making great progress.
Best wishes,
Natalie and Chris
This curve is looking much better. The Vetsulin appears to be lasting just about 12 hours, which is great.
This is a very typical curve with Vetsulin, lowest blood glucose a couple of hours after the meal - that's the 30% semilente insulin working.
Like quite a few dogs I've seen with Vetsulin, she's getting a pretty large difference between highest and lowest blood glucose, which does make it difficult to increase the insulin for better control.
I'd say you could raise the Vetsulin a small amount, especially if you start home testing blood glucose so you can monitor it closely. I'd be comfortable with the lowest number coming down to the low 100s.
But if this is as good as it gets, this is pretty good. The BG in the 300s is brief, only during about 4 hours a day. The rest of the day the blood glucose is high 100s and 200s.
The Cushings is well controlled so I don't think you have to worry about that being part of the blood glucose control.
4/23/08 Curve
9:30 318
11:30 168
1:30 218
3:30 228
5:30 340
4/24/08 BG at 11:30 216 (pre-cortisol injection)
ATCH Stim test: 1.2 and .9
One vet at the office, who says he consulted with 2 internal medicine specialists said this is probably the best we can do and with the 2 borderline hypoglycemic days, shouldn't increase the insulin. The other vet says he'd be comfortable going up to 14.5 or 15 units 2x a day. It seems to me like she's doing much better on the Vetsulin than the Humulin.
I have asked the vet multiple times about home BG testing and he really discouraged it. Says it is too difficult & painful for the dog and really not worth it. How do you do it? Does it cause the dog pain? I've checked my own BG (with my step dad's meter just for fun once after an "Oreo" challenge and it hurt!).
9:30 318
11:30 168
1:30 218
3:30 228
5:30 340
4/24/08 BG at 11:30 216 (pre-cortisol injection)
ATCH Stim test: 1.2 and .9
One vet at the office, who says he consulted with 2 internal medicine specialists said this is probably the best we can do and with the 2 borderline hypoglycemic days, shouldn't increase the insulin. The other vet says he'd be comfortable going up to 14.5 or 15 units 2x a day. It seems to me like she's doing much better on the Vetsulin than the Humulin.
I have asked the vet multiple times about home BG testing and he really discouraged it. Says it is too difficult & painful for the dog and really not worth it. How do you do it? Does it cause the dog pain? I've checked my own BG (with my step dad's meter just for fun once after an "Oreo" challenge and it hurt!).
Vets keep dogs in the 200s to avoid any risk of hypoglycemia from normal daily variation in blood glucose levels. With better monitoring via home testing, though, you can get a very thorough picture of her typical patterns and even potentially tweak the diet for a flatter curve, allowing you to bring her overall blood sugar down.
I encourage you to come to my site and forum!
We can help you get the best control possible and give you more insight on standard veterinary approaches and what more can be done.
I've been home testing Chris for years. We do a lip prick and there's a video of me testing him there here: www.k9diabetes.com/bgtestvideos.html.
I know of other mini Schnauzers being tested on the lip. You can also use the base of the tail, the pad at the dew claw, and an elbow callous or wart. There are demonstrations of most of these techniques at the link above.
The forum is at www.k9diabetes.com/forum. You will recognize the style instantly as it runs on the same software as this one.
Dogs' lips have almost no nerve endings and Chris doesn't mind being tested there at all, as you will see from his somewhat bored expression in the video!

I keep all of Chris' readings in a spreadsheet and do charts when I want to look at his blood glucose trends.
You may be able to add a small tweak to Zoe's diet that can help get rid of the large blood sugar swing... come on over to the forum so others can provide additional input. You'll see lots of familiar faces there!
I'm thrilled to see Zoe doing so much better and putting on weight. You're making great progress.
Best wishes,
Natalie and Chris



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