New member looking for advice

[jesse girl]

Re: New member looking for advice

I gave jesses shot may 6 inches up from the base of the tail on either side of the spine ( of course you want to avoid the spinal area ) . It was kind of like where her love handles were so to speak . So I believe I was injecting into a more fatty area . I guess you could se discrepancies depending on location and how the shot is given but i did not see any substantial difference in blood sugar levels giving jesse shots in these locations

[k9diabetes]

Re: New member looking for advice

You can inject in many different areas. We started with the scruff but it built up scar tissue quickly. So we moved to the side of the chest just behind the front shoulder and that didn't develop the same type of scar tissue.

From the BD tutorial site (http://www.bd.com/us/diabetes/page.a...t=7001&id=7395):

[Bellandanny]

Re: New member looking for advice

Thanks for the advice! Injecting into a fatty area is something I’ve heard a few times now, I wonder if that’s it. Bella is completely lean (basically all meat no carb diet?) so I’ll try to find a the fattiest spot of the suggested locations.

[Bellandanny]

Re: New member looking for advice

Hi all, just wanted to relay some stuff Bella is going thru and see what you all think, this has been a very helpful place.

Bella has been in a journey with this diabetes, but for the past six months or so things were going well. She was very stable at 19u with bg ranging from 100-250. Her only slight issue was arthritis, so I gave a small dose of carprofen/rimadyl (nsaid) and that really helped with that.

At her last checkup a couple months ago her liver values were high, so we discontinued the nsaid. She did fine for a while, and then started showing a bit of arthritis. I gave her the last few nsaid to see if that helped again, and it did. But the vet recommended switching to gabapentin instead.

The gabapentin, even at a as low dose, made her pretty lethargic. After a few days she started eating less, then almost none. She’s barely had more than a couple hundred calories a day the last few days. Luckily thanks to the info I’ve gotten here in the past, I’ve learned how to give her the right amount of insulin based on for eaten, and her bg is still in range.

Besides not wanting to eat, she’s not showing any symptoms of sickness or distress. She gets up for her walk and walks about normal, and plays with toys in the evening. Pees and poos seem fine. She is drinking a little less.

Anyone have thoughts and/or experience with this? She’s 13, and I wonder whether we should continue with vet visits and potentially an appetite stimulant? Or just keep trying different foods and get enough in her in the hopes things get better?

Thanks again, so much.

[MomtoMax]

Re: New member looking for advice

Hi all, just wanted to relay some stuff Bella is going thru and see what you all think, this has been a very helpful place.

Bella has been in a journey with this diabetes, but for the past six months or so things were going well. She was very stable at 19u with bg ranging from 100-250. Her only slight issue was arthritis, so I gave a small dose of carprofen/rimadyl (nsaid) and that really helped with that.

At her last checkup a couple months ago her liver values were high, so we discontinued the nsaid. She did fine for a while, and then started showing a bit of arthritis. I gave her the last few nsaid to see if that helped again, and it did. But the vet recommended switching to gabapentin instead.

The gabapentin, even at a as low dose, made her pretty lethargic. After a few days she started eating less, then almost none. She’s barely had more than a couple hundred calories a day the last few days. Luckily thanks to the info I’ve gotten here in the past, I’ve learned how to give her the right amount of insulin based on for eaten, and her bg is still in range.

Besides not wanting to eat, she’s not showing any symptoms of sickness or distress. She gets up for her walk and walks about normal, and plays with toys in the evening. Pees and poos seem fine. She is drinking a little less.

Anyone have thoughts and/or experience with this? She’s 13, and I wonder whether we should continue with vet visits and potentially an appetite stimulant? Or just keep trying different foods and get enough in her in the hopes things get better?

Thanks again, so much.

Gabapentin was prescribed for a GSD I had with end stage DM and it did the same to her. In fact, we only ever gave her one dose and my husband refused to give it again after he had a very difficult time rousing her from sleep. He actually thought we had killed her with it. Many dogs don’t have the same reaction to it, but some do.
I’ve always given Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM supplements to my older dogs and it seems to help, but it does take time to build up in their system and it’s not a quick fix. There are many newer products on the market now such as Cosequin and my daughter uses an injectable one now, Adequan, for her GSD with severe arthritis due to elbow dysplasia. Perhaps you could discuss some of these with your vet?
Of course I have no clue as to what this class of supplements does for regulation of BGs, so I’ll be interested to see what others say.
Donna

[jesse girl]

Re: New member looking for advice

I fed my Jesse a superfood type diet for almost her entire 11 years being diabetic . She never showed any signs of arthritis which is fairly uncommon in dogs . She also went into remission for epelepsy with no medication . Now me and Jesse did this together as I had a similar diet to her so I could understand how she felt . You might say you eat dog food ? No we both eat good food . My bodies inflammation greatly reduced from being in mobile to very mobile .

Now many might say I will feed my dog cardboard if blood sugar is good and I understand that logic as it can be difficult to get to that place but I decided I would try to make a very good diet work with Jesse's bloodsugar . Its maybe a more difficult path to control bloodsugar but I felt her overall health was important to .She lived probably longer than any diabetic dog I know . The vet at the time early in this journey said I would kill her with what I was doing in 6 months

Sometimes thinking outside the box can be rewarding but it's not easy . If it was everyone would be doing it . With my Jesse she was in such bad shape we had nothing to loose as the normal things we were doing weren't working

Dogs handle pain much differently from us . My mom had arthritis and could not take anything more stronger than a Advil as she said she could not function. Her tolerance for pain was high . The body will adapt . It's never going to be perfect but getting old involves difficulties . This is the problem with the opioid epidemic . We replaced one problem for another .

[Bellandanny]

Re: New member looking for advice

Well after a few days of not eating or drinking much and being very lethargic, Bella has bounced back a bit. I guess it’s fair to assume the gabapentin caused it, but can’t be sure. From what I read it has a fairly safe profile, but she does have some pre existing liver issues that could complicate things.

And funny mention eating good food Jesse, Bella is still refusing her old mix of dry and wet, and holding out for the chicken tenders instead! We’ve tried a few things this last week and that’s the one thing she’ll eat plenty of. Had one runny poop but since then solid.

She’s lost some weight and still not fully back but she’s doing better. I’ve lost confidence in her current vet so we’re gonna go see an internist. I guess the hardest part of all this at this point is we still don’t have a great idea of what causes her various issues (diabetes in a super healthy dog, unknown liver masses that grow and cavitate, not regrowing fur, etc.) so it’s hard to know how to handle things. But I guess at this point she’s 13, been through a lot, and we need to take quality of life into account. She’s keeps bouncing back so I’ll do my best to support her there