How important is time? especially early on?

[erikamc]

My foster dog was diagnosed with diabetes last night. He had his first insulin injection around 1930 while still at the vet. This morning, I forgot why, on a day I don't have to be to work until 2200, in gods name I set the alarm for 0700, turned it off and woke up at 0830. so here I sit with a dog who is used to eating between 1600-1830 (depending on my work schedule, which is wonky) and is very vocal about his dinner not being here. do I really have to make him wait until 2030 (8:30pm) to get his dinner? I work 12 hour shifts so there are going to be days I have to rely on my boyfriend or his brother to take care of the insulin, until I figure out a feeding schedule that will work for all of us, Bucky might not be getting his food and insulin exactly 12 hours apart. how imperative is it that it's 12 hours apart?

[k9diabetes]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

It depends, a bit, on where your dog's blood sugar is. If it's fairly high, since he was just diagnosed, having it a bit early to get onto a schedule isn't likely to hurt anything.

What was his blood sugar level at the vet last night?

How much does he weigh?

How much is his insulin dose?

Is he eating well and keeping it down?

Natalie

[LizE]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

My dog is not on a 12 hour schedule. She never was never much of a morning eater and doing breakfast later in the morning is just much more realistic for us. I do try to keep her on a consistent schedule but sometimes we travel and we fudge that too. Snickers has been fairly easy to regulate so that might make it easier to break the rules.

When she was first diagnosed she was very sick and needed 24/7 care. My vet does not offer that and the emergency vet that did was cost prohibitive based on Snickers' age and poor prognosis. We opted to treat her on an outpatient basis. She got her insulin at about 8am and 4:30pm for the first several days.
It was less than ideal but that was two years ago. We did what we could and it worked.

Just do the best you can. It's all that can be expected.

[erikamc]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

It depends, a bit, on where your dog's blood sugar is. If it's fairly high, since he was just diagnosed, having it a bit early to get onto a schedule isn't likely to hurt anything.

What was his blood sugar level at the vet last night?

How much does he weigh?

How much is his insulin dose?

Is he eating well and keeping it down?

Natalie

I forgot to ask what his blood sugar was. I did try to glance at the meter, I thought it said 58, but that can't be right. He weighs 15 pounds, she is starting him on 3.5 units of the 40 whatever twice a day. he eats like a pig, and is quite determined that his dinner should come between 1600 and 1830. 1600 is when they get dinner when I'm working nights (I leave around 1700 or so to get there by 1800). 1830 is when they eat when I'm on day shift as I get home from work about then. My time at work tonight will be spent trying to come up with a schedule that works that if I am not home, my boyfriend can give it. If I could hedge an hour or so either way, it would make it a lot easier, and honestly reduce the chances of screwing up

[erikamc]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

oh, and if anyone is wondering, I did finally feed him at around 1900 (7pm), when my other dog started joining in on the demands for dinner, I couldn't take it anymore!

[k9diabetes]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

Since you dog doesn't necessarily like to eat in the morning and you have a challenging 12-hour workday, you might want to consider giving a meal once a day with a relatively large dose of insulin and no food and a quite small injection of insulin in the morning.

Dogs can be given insulin when they don't eat a meal. Approximately half of their insulin need is "basal" - times when there is no food being digested and converted to blood sugar. And usually, you can give about 1/4 of the with-food insulin dose when no meal is given.

So if you fed him his entire meal in the evening and were giving 4.0 units of insulin with that meal, you could likely give 1 unit of insulin in the morning with no food.

Many dogs do not like to eat in the morning and we have a few members using a variation of this type of schedule.

Because you give a full day's food in the evening, the with-food dose may be larger than the one given with two meals - because it's covering more food.

Please check in with the vet and have them give you a copy of his blood sugar readings. That will be very helpful in knowing how he's doing on 3.5 units and the current amount of food and whether there is much risk right now of giving an injection a little bit late or early.

Also, please consider learning to test his blood sugar at home. That will make your life so much easier! You can KNOW what's happening and how well his food and insulin are working together. By doing blood glucose curves at home, you can see when his highest and lowest blood sugar levels usually occur - low blood sugar points are times when you would not want to be giving insulin without food or even with food that's digested slowly.

Most likely you will be able to use a modified schedule that works around your schedule. Home testing will tell you whether that will work. The 12-hour regimen is just a starting point. Once you know more about how your dog's body responds to food and injected insulin, you can tailor it to give him the best regulation and work with your schedule.

Natalie

[k9diabetes]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

oh, and if anyone is wondering, I did finally feed him at around 1900 (7pm), when my other dog started joining in on the demands for dinner, I couldn't take it anymore!

Fortunately, as he gets better regulated, he should be a little less demanding... They are very hungry when their blood sugar is high.

[Raysaint]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

The food/insulin doesn't have to be 12 hours exactly, but if it's an hour different on either end, try and keep that schedule. Don't have him eat supper at 4:30 one day and 6:00 the next day.

My dog eats at 7:30 in the morning and 6:30 at supper.

And definitely get a meter so you can test at home.

[erikamc]

Re: How important is time? especially early on?

Oh it's not that he doesn't like to eat in the morning. If he could have his way he would have 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners and 2 snacks. Feeding in the evening is easier for me, especially since I can't put their meals together without two of them going bonkers, so I do it while they are outside. On my night works, that happens to be right when I wake up at 1600. I'm going to have to sit down and really scrutinize our schedule. I was hoping to not have to rely too much on my BF and his brother, but it just might not be possible:-(