Sissy became an Angel December 29, 2016

[stylynjm]

I am 8 weeks into this journey with my 9 yr old bichon.it has been a lot of reading and trial and error.I have just gotten her within range,100-220!! Woohoo.she is on humilin n,7 u.its twice a day.I have found the most expensive thing is the alpha trak 2 strips. I am using a lot right now.I hope that slows down.Sissy is on 2 meals a day now,we tried 3 but couldn't get her numbers low enough.she was often 500-600. She was on w/d,but DCO by purina has turned out to work better for her. I can't express how much help this site has been.it is wonderful.thank everyone who has posted for their input. I will keep looking for better,safer ideas.!!! I also had to deal with bad food allergie too,however,they seem to have taken a back seat to diabetes,and with dco have not had any trouble,thank goodness because steroids r a no no.

[Patty]

Hi and welcome to you!
Sounds like you are doing really well Congrats on finding a balance that works for Sissy.
Patty

[stylynjm]

Does anyone give their dog a lower insulin dose at nite?? I give 7 units in am and like to give 61/2 at nite,now that Sissys numbers r coming down. I am scared for it to go to low at nite and have her crash????

[CraigM]

Sure, I think there are others that give a slightly reduced dosage in the evening for safety.

In Annie's situation, I actually give 1/4 unit more in the evening. Through testing, I've seen she would normally have higher numbers overnight if I kept the dosage the same for both injections. The theory is that she is much less active at night (think of nighttime as anti-exercise) and doesn't get the insulin into use. Yea, I know, sounds backwards but works that way for us. Remember, every dog is different.

Home testing would help show what exercise, or in this case, sleep does to the blood glucose.

[stylynjm]

Scary stuff.Sissy just got low,had to feed her.Does the amount of insulin u give in the morning affect the nite dose or does it wear off so the next dose stands alone?? Wow,there is so much to learn. Still a beginner!

[Patty]

Insulin can last more than 12 hours, especially if you've had a low. But it also depends on how much the food you gave raised her blood sugar. I would usually reduce insulin if you've had a low episode.

If she's really low, you would need to give some honey, karo syrup or regular pancake syrup to get into her system immediately then follow up with food which has a longer lasting affect.

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by stylynjm

Scary stuff.Sissy just got low,had to feed her.Does the amount of insulin u give in the morning affect the nite dose or does it wear off so the next dose stands alone?? Wow,there is so much to learn. Still a beginner!

What was Sissy's reading? Did you discover the low reading while doing a curve, or a single spot test? If you were doing a curve, can you post the earlier readings?

Different dogs use their insulin differently. Some dogs (Annie) "use up" their insulin within about 12 hours. Other dogs seem to get more than 12 hours from an injection.

[CraigM]

Can you give us a bit more information about Sissy. How much does she weigh? You are currently giving 7 units, what was the previous dosage, and did you run a curve prior to increasing to 7 units? Can you post that curve? Did Sissy "exercise" within an hour or two prior to today's "low" reading?

[momofdecker]

Seems every dog is different. Decker gets overlap (more than 12 hours of duration, spilling into his next injection time) from his morning to evening shot (runs about 14 hours). But evening to morning he gets 12 hours or sometimes less.

If you are willing to run a night time curve, starting before evening fasting through morning fasting, every two hours, it may give you a better picture of how Sissy process the insulin day time vs night time.

Have run a couple of 24 hour curves with Decker because his morning and evening fastings are about 100 points difference. Just set my cell phone alarm for every two hours, get up, test, record and thankfully am able to fall back asleep until the next alarm. Still find myself a bit tired the next day though - lol!

[Patty]

From Visitor Message:

Hi party,I did lower Sissy dose.we e now at 61/2. I don't understand how u know whether the insulin lasts less or more than 12 hrs.what tells u that. Thanks,Jackie

Hi Jackie,
I wanted to bring this info to Sissy's thread. To determine whether you have overlap of insulin you would need a few curves to compare. Often you'll see a drop at the end of 12 hours and no or very little rise after the next food/injection. The overlapping insulin can push numbers down further into the next 12 hour time frame. But your curves can help sort that out.

I would wait about 5 days to let the new dose settle in, as long as you don't have any more lows. Then do another curve to see how things are looking.

Patty