panting episodes

[Hancock72280]

Hello my name is Jessica and my dog Jack, an eleven yr old lab mix, was 73 lbs when I took him in but he's lost probably about 10lbs was diagnosed about 2 1/2 months ago I'm am really struggling to get him regulated but I finally bought the alphatrak 2 and have started testing him myself bc he is extremely anxious when I'm not around so I really don't want to leave him at the vet all day. They started him on 12 u of novolin n twice a day and he responded really well at first and just recently all of his symptoms came back. I think I'm going to change vets as I am not super excited about how proactive they've been. They have ben kind of dismissive even your website is where I've learned the most although I still have a whole lot to learn I did increase his insulin after having done a 24 hr curve the lowest Number he ever had was 239 in that curve so I'm certain he's in no danger of going too low I upped it to 14 and then 15 and he is still in the mid 300's to mid 400's which on the 12 units he was in the high 500's to mid 600's so it did come down and his thirst and frequent urination also stopped so he is managing but I want to do better than just maintaing he is just about blind in one of his eyes that quick. The vet suggested no form of diet or food and his numbers only came down when I started feeding him chicken, broccoli, carrots, and brown rice after reading some of these threads. I had one test strip left tonight and used it about an hour after he ate because he was panting very heavily and it worried me but his number came back 133 which is the lowest number I've gotten so far but I've noticed that he has these little panting episodes in the evening sometimes after injections anybody know what thats all about and should I be concerned they only last about 10-15 mins and then he calms down I am going to take him to a new vet soon but sometimes I wonder if they know what the heck they are doing! If it wasn't for this site I'd still be sitting here scratching my head...

[evp471]

Re: panting episodes

I'm having the same problem with maggie. 2 weeks now on humilin 70/30, but her panting lasts several hours.. high ketones causes heavy panting I think which is caused by high glucose.. maggie's numbers are always between 300 and 425 which is not good.

Ed

[Hancock72280]

Re: panting episodes

I thought maybe it was his bg climbing too but like I said it was 133 when I checked which I was almost excited about but the panting scared me. This is an overwhelming battle to say the least waiting on my alpha strips to get here I'm excited to have the knowledge of his numbers at my fingertips, now its just knowing what to do with them!

[Rubytuesday]

Re: panting episodes

Hi Jessica, welcome to you and Jack.

Can you give us the last curve that you ran with times of food and injection? That will help us get to know how he trends.

Can you also tell us how long he was at each dose before increasing? It is typically recommended to stay at a dose for 3-5 days and to curve before increasing.

That 133 on an AT might be a problem if he was going to drop more or if his dose wasn't held for long enough between increases.

My dog can get agitated if the BGs are shifting quickly. You will be better able to determine if that is what's going on after you have more testing and trend data under your belt.

Tara

[Eddie]

Re: panting episodes

Hi Jessica
Our dog used to pant for up to 2 hours a few hours after eating/injection. It was in the early days when he was still on quite a low dose of insulin. It was unusual as he doesn't usually pant much indoors. It seemed to make him extra thirsty as well.
We never really identified what it was all about but I guess it was as a result of his BG going up quickly. we tested urine for ketones and they always showed negative so I don't think it was that. It stopped after a few weeks and has not happened again.
Hope it improves soon
Antonia

[lemstar]

Re: panting episodes

Strider pants a lot. He has no ketones, and does have high BG (we haven't gotten him regulated yet). I think its just part of the whole picture....

[BogiesMom]

Re: panting episodes

Hi Jessica,
There are times that Bogie pants after his insulin injections, approximately 2 to 3 hours after. His BG levels are mid to upper 100's after his food. It seems to occur more when his coat is longer and when he goes to the groomer and his coat is short it doesn't occur. His panting also only occurs when he is on the couch or his bed etc. when he moves to the wood floor it stops. It just occurs for a few min and then he's done.
It may have something to do with the way the insulin starts to work and increasing body temp... not sure I am just throwing that out there
It happens less frequently now then it did before. Hope it improves for you.
Dawn

[Hancock72280]

Re: panting episodes

Thank you all for responding so quickly this site has really given me hope that I can get this under control. Tara I just received my alphatrak on the april 29th so I did his first and only curve on the 30th he was eating blue diamond grain free and apparently it is a terrible (at least for my dog) food but as I said the vet put zero emphasis on food which I thought was strange bc I have a diabetic uncle and his diet as always been very important but his morning curve with that food was terrible
it was 467 before injection and food then 672, 628, 615,501,598,452
then at night I fed him boiled chicken, ground beef, and mixed w chopped raw broccoli his numbers went 459, 464,440,239,437 not good but much better his thirst and urination immediately subsided first night in a couple of weeks that he didn't get me up in the middle of the night to go out and pee for a very long time the next two days I didn't do full curves bc the kit only came with 25 strips
I did 4 checks on him on the 1st and it was 397, 415, 341,305 which was even more improvement then on the 2nd I did 5 checks they were 331, 425, 358, 454, 338 a little higher. I'm now waiting on more strips and like I said I used the last one last night when he started panting and the number was 133 (I did add brown rice to his meal on this day) which was also a strange number bc his number two hours after eating is usually the higher one so I'm not sure what happened there and I was bummed that I didn't have more strips to test him but I did keep a close eye on him through the night all I have to do is say his name and rub his belly and I get tail wags I also ordered the urine test strips on the same day as the alphatrak they haven't come yet but what if they do test for the ketones what are you suposed to do then? After researching the internet for foods I decided on the orijen and nutrisca to see how he reacts to those hopefully after 4 days of chicken etc he will eat the dog food he seems to think all of this attention is a good thing haha if only he understood how worried his mom is about him. I'm glad to know that the panting is not necessarily a threatening thing he has always been a very hot natured animal I always have to turn the air on earlier than I'd like just for him and he always forgoes his be for the wood floors and I used to hate that he had calluses on his legs and now I'm so thankful for them bc the ear and lip are definitely no goes for bg testing he's a brat

[Hancock72280]

Re: panting episodes

oh and he's fed and injected at 7 am and 7 pm
he was on the 12 units for a good 6 weeks but the last two weeks he was showing all the signs again I didnt have the meter at that point but I did increase him to 14 for about 5 days and then when finally started testing and it was so high I went up one more unit I will visit a new vet before I increase him any further unless you all think its ok to do this on my own?? don't know

[evp471]

Re: panting episodes

Maggie got diagnoised about 3 weeks ago. just got a glucose meter 3 days ago.. her panting is only in the evening after meal, but is getting less frequent. Her numbers are getting better from high 300's to high 200's and low 300's.. started giving her 1 tbl spoon of plain yogurt mixed in with her food. its helping her digest her food I'm sure.. my vet says its better to have numbers a little high than too low.. their are too many possible varibles to have perfect numbers all the time.. I think the panting might be from a fast rise in number after evening meal, at least for maggie.. she seems to do better if she goes outside and moves around for 5-10 minutes to burn off the glucose..

Ed

[Hancock72280]

Re: panting episodes

I'm really new to all of this but 20s and 30s I believe is dangerously low my doc told me if they drop too low to rub honey on his lips. But I would go with his initial suggestion I would love if my dog was between 100-250 I don't think I'd be comfortable w him dropping lower than 100

[Hancock72280]

Re: panting episodes

Ed I noticed my dog does this in the evening as well not after the morning dose

[amydunn19]

Re: panting episodes

I noticed you were looking at Nutrisca and that is what I feed my Maggie and her non diabetic schnauzer "sister" I noticed a huge difference with Maggie. I was feeding Blue Buffalo Weight Management, which was a good food which worked well with her insulin but caused really loose poops, really horrid gas and she seemed kinda bloated. When I changed to Nutrisca, all of those issues went away. I think choosing a food can be a real game-changer for some dogs. I think it really has more to do with their metabolism, digestion and physical make-up and how their body works with their insulin. I think everyone has their little food formula that works for their dog and what works for one may not be the key for the other. I think it is worth the time and effort if you are not happy with the results you are currently seeing.

The only time Maggie has panted was when she had really high numbers or pancreatitis. Maybe your dog gets a quick food rise and experiences highs until the insulin kicks in. Just a thought...ahh the mystery of diabetics. We would all be rich if we could figure it out.