Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

I changed image hosts for you as you were not able to see the images I posted earlier. Maybe this one will not be blocked for you. You should see the curve we did on Saturday. You'll see I accidentally missed the 4pm test but I don't think it mattered.

I don't know if the eyes are new. I never pulled her eyelids back to look at the white part of her eyes before. Here it is 1pm and her eyes still look very vieny. Maybe it's just allergies, I know the allergies have got me right now.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

I think its a good idea to feed her midday 6hr mark. How much? Start at 1/4 cup of dry, give her half hour to digest before she starts work.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

Goodday to you, bright and sunny here. Feeding the squirrels

Seems your due to do and post a weekly curve then we can look at the spike after eating.

I think her digestive system is still recovering from the bleed you saw in her mouth which might have been an ulcer.
Are her eyes bloodshot after every meal and injection? Is this something new?

So glad shes back to work with you enjoying herself you must be very proud of Bear and relieved at how well she is recovering.

You Rock Bear

Your good at finding food for her. What you need to do when you change food is do it over a few days. 25% new, then 50%, 75%, 100%. To be safe

Also drop the insulin back 1 unit to 8

Then wait for her system to digest the change do a curve n 7 days

Your doing great, happy saturday

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog



I'm still trying to figure out how to eliminate our postprandial hyperglycemia spike after her meal. I believe she went down to 151 by her fasting pre-meal test because we were playing and running cows quite a bit that day. I couldn't get her to run our of energy. The real Nadir probably would have been in the 200's somewhere. I've been pouring over dog foods on https://petfoodsherpa.com/ looking for high protein, high fiber and complex carbohydrates to replace our food when we run out months down the road. I've been finishing the bag of Holistic dry and would like to replace the Hills w/d because it's just too dang expensive. I'm finding some really good alternatives that are surprisingly better ingredient wise and less expensive. I'll be making a list and cross referencing it with what is available locally. Shipping is too unreliable here. No word from the vet yet, I'll be sending the next update to them on Monday. We don't take blood glucose most days because she has bountiful energy and no clinical signs of low blood sugar seem to be present. The whites of her eyes do get really bloodshot after her meal and insulin injection but she always wants to play right after her evening meal.

It's been very hard to find dog foods with less than 25% carbs that are high in protein and fiber.

[jesse girl]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

What you may feel important maybe discounted with a busy veterinarian clinic . They just don't have the time for detailed diagnosing . Especially physical symptoms . Blood work is most of how things are diagnosed and treated

For Jesse I was able to do the detective work and find solutions that improved her quality of life . Some things a vet is very good at and other things that require detailed time-consuming diagnosing other than a specialist is going to be difficult

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

I make sure to send all of my notes on to the vet even though I never hear anything back from them. I can only hope some gears are working somewhere in their offices.

[jesse girl]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

I felt Jesse had changed regulation in bloodsugar changing vials of nph insulin . Starting a new viral could start out a bit higher and settle in 3 to 5 and go back to normal

I guess there can be some potency issues and with my Jesse she was sensitive to injected insulin . If she had a good run at regulation I would hold onto the vial as long as I could . I think Jesse's record was 3:months

Now it's possible the new viral is more potent which makes more sense and maybe seeing some rebounding

Heavy breathing can point to stress . Bloodsugar higher or lower can cause that . Also steep rises and drops can have that same affect . The other factor could be cortisol levels fluctuating and maybe 100 other things . Just pay attention and make a note and see if you have a pattern.

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

Nadir was 249 but no clinical signs observed and weight is maintained so we will be remaining on the same dose and recheck again later.

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

I haven't checked with a thermometer. She's still acting fine and running and playing around outside. Our food and insulin habits haven't changed. Just noticed the change after starting the new bottle which triggered my questioning if it was abnormal. It's probably fine and I kind of agree it's probably more to do with her being intact and she probably has mood swings from time to time even if she's not in a heat cycle.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

Blood sugars are like a thermometer always changing. I dont see any insulin amount change .she seems good if the numbers go higher or lower on this 9. She might be warding off an infection
Does she have a temperature

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

I dont think its the vetinsulin but good to check its expiry date.

8/2023, same as the previous bottle. Which should be fine, I believe it's shelf stable for 24 months before opened and 42 days after the first needle prick.

But always we need to wait not make any changes. This is just a bump in the road. Or bump on the farm

Every day on the farm is a curve ball, so this is just par for the course I guess. When you wake up one morning and cows are in the yard looking in your window at you, nothing surprises you much after that. =)

I am thinking of doing a curve today. Something may come up and I may not be able to but so far here is what I got: 2 hours after injection 440, 4 hours after injection 290. So maybe it's fine. I have only been checking the 3pm numbers just to make sure she wasn't going too low.

I'm hoping we can switch from Vetsulin to a cheaper insulin option. I don't mind paying the $50 for now because she needed to be on something right away but I'm anticipating her being alive for a long time so switching in the future is definitely a goal.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

Good your testing when you make a change. Keep a check today on her 3to 5 bgs
We know her blood sugar is going to fluctuate being an intact female.
Maybe shes breaths faster when she first lies down and takes abit to slow when she deep sleeps. Shes going through some changes with her site might bother her when she closes here eyelids maybe.
I dont think its the vetinsulin but good to check its expiry date. As with any change the blood sugar goes up then levels off.

But always we need to wait not make any changes.
This is just a bump in the road. Or bump on the farm

[Zoology1603]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

Since switching to the new bottle of Vetsulin, her blood glucose levels have been higher.

Old bottle: Wednesday 3pm 96mg/dL
New Bottle:
Thursday 3pm 324mg/dL
Friday 3pm 344mg/dL

Perhaps this is the final stages of regulation and we are now seeing her true numbers, whereas the lows we had the past week were still fluctuations trying to level out.

Not related to the new bottle but an observation I have made; when she settles down on the couch for the evening, I'll watch her breathing and she's breathing in rapid shallow breaths, well over 40 per minute. It's plenty cool in the house so she's not hot. Perhaps it has to do with Vetsulin or Trilostane. Maybe something completely unrelated. Just thought I'd mention it.

How are you all doing today and all your dogs, cows chickens, groundhogs

She's been helping to keep the chickens out of the pear trees. They are very crafty for a dumb bird. She doesn't hurt them because she knows I don't want them killed.

I had a dog with a toy box made out of an old crate i painted blue. Jackie had a fairly large yellow dumptruck, a blue baseball bat, balls, stuffies. Ever morning he.d dig down to the bottom of his toy box for his favoite toy the truck. He had more fun playing with his cat. We always had a cat and dog never a dull moment.

She has her toy box in the closet, just an old basket that she slept in as a puppy. It's ready to be thrown away but I'll continue using it for as long as she's alive as she's used to her toys being in there.

[Riliey and Mo]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

How are you all doing today and all your dogs, cows chickens, groundhogs

I had a dog with a toy box made out of an old crate i painted blue. Jackie had a fairly large yellow dumptruck, a blue baseball bat, balls, stuffies. Ever morning he.d dig down to the bottom of his toy box for his favoite toy the truck. He had more fun playing with his cat. We always had a cat and dog never a dull moment.

[MomtoMax]

Re: Diabetic Australian Cattle Dog

In general dogs other senses are very useful and sometimes just as important if not more than sight . We as humans place more on perfection than dogs . They live within thier reality . My Jesse never cared she was epileptic or diabetic

I learned allot from Jesse living more in the moment and not worrying so much about what the future may hold .

I agree with you 100%! While I’ve always been told that dogs don’t live for the future or the past as they only see the “now”, I never fully understood it until Max. Diabetes has left him totally blind, but he really doesn’t seem to care. He’ll bump into things, shrug it off, seem to laugh at himself, but then keep going. It’s almost as if he doesn’t seem to miss his sight. In other words, he isn’t mourning his sight or the past, like a human would… He also isn’t much of a planner for the future either. While I’m now battling kidney failure, he has no problem showing his displeasure at me when I was forced to cut back his chicken to give his kidneys a break… He’d rather have more chicken now and to hell with his kidneys!!
Donna – who finally got it, along with Max the Corgi