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Name - Alfie
Breed - Border Terrier
Birth date or age -17th March 2003, 7 years old
Weight - 6.45kg
Date diagnosed with diabetes - July 2nd 2008
Type of insulin and how often given - Caninsulin 3units twice a day
Diet - Burns High Oats
Method of monitoring - Vet only
Best to start from the very begining I think.
I go Alfie when he was 2 1/2 years old from a rescue centre in the Scottish borders. The wee soul was 3times his ideal weight and although never been starved suffered a really shit first couple of years with his "owners"
Alfie came to me with more problems than I like to think about but his weight was clearly a huge concern and so started the diet! We sorted most of his behaviour out and got his weigh down a bit but he was still a chubby fat wee dog.
Alfie has always had the best tempremant with people and would do anything to please even the worst of humans.
Anyway a couple o years ago he was not feeling very well but there wasn't anything specific, he just seemed a bit off to me. My vet gave him a once over and didn't find anything wrong with him but offered to run some bloods.
Ok so we use different values in Scotland to the USA so I will try to use both - ( I found a wee web page thats going to convert it for me
)
His blood sugar came back as 18mmol/l or around 324mg/dl so although he was high it was felt it wasn't so high to be considered diabetic and possibly that it was just a stress reaction to being at the vets. By the end of the week Alfie has stopped eating and started to vomit an odd bright orange colour of what can only be described as foam. He was kept in at the vet and finally diagnosed with Pancreatitis. After treatment for this including a week long stay in vet hospital Alfie returned home a full blown diabetic.
I was only 26 years old at the time and living on my own felt totally unable to cope with this!
He was started on Caninsulin 7units twice a day. I cried every night beore injecting him and felt so totally lost with it all and had no one to talk to about it and to be honest I still feel that way at time.
The first year was by far the hardest as Alfie suffered from every type of infection possible all of which messed up his blood sugar. Here in scotland we are not advised to test blood sugar at home and all that stuff has to be done by the vet and very quickly it becomes a very costly business!
Originally Alfie was fed Hill Prescription W/d but at the begining of the year I swiched him over to Burns High Oats.
The last few months he had been great, no infections for about a year and his blood sugar has been stable within normal limits.
He had a hypo a 2am on friday morning and then another this morning at 5.30am so am once again worried sick about the wee dude. It could just be a change in the weather thats knocked him off, for once its actually really sunny and hot in scotland!!!!!!
I am keeping my fingers crossed thats what the issue is as I have read loads about the Vetsulin problems and hope its not that or anything worse.
I still find it hard on my own with him and my other dog and not many friends understand why I dont go out as much so I can be in to feed Alfie and give him his injection at the same time but then Alfie is my family and I would do anything to keep him as healthy as I can. I joined the forum as I figure ur lot are going to understand exactly what its like and think it will be great to talk to peole about it all.
Well done if u made it through all that
Allison, Alfie & Skye
Breed - Border Terrier
Birth date or age -17th March 2003, 7 years old
Weight - 6.45kg
Date diagnosed with diabetes - July 2nd 2008
Type of insulin and how often given - Caninsulin 3units twice a day
Diet - Burns High Oats
Method of monitoring - Vet only
Best to start from the very begining I think.
I go Alfie when he was 2 1/2 years old from a rescue centre in the Scottish borders. The wee soul was 3times his ideal weight and although never been starved suffered a really shit first couple of years with his "owners"
Alfie came to me with more problems than I like to think about but his weight was clearly a huge concern and so started the diet! We sorted most of his behaviour out and got his weigh down a bit but he was still a chubby fat wee dog.
Alfie has always had the best tempremant with people and would do anything to please even the worst of humans.
Anyway a couple o years ago he was not feeling very well but there wasn't anything specific, he just seemed a bit off to me. My vet gave him a once over and didn't find anything wrong with him but offered to run some bloods.
Ok so we use different values in Scotland to the USA so I will try to use both - ( I found a wee web page thats going to convert it for me
)His blood sugar came back as 18mmol/l or around 324mg/dl so although he was high it was felt it wasn't so high to be considered diabetic and possibly that it was just a stress reaction to being at the vets. By the end of the week Alfie has stopped eating and started to vomit an odd bright orange colour of what can only be described as foam. He was kept in at the vet and finally diagnosed with Pancreatitis. After treatment for this including a week long stay in vet hospital Alfie returned home a full blown diabetic.
I was only 26 years old at the time and living on my own felt totally unable to cope with this!
He was started on Caninsulin 7units twice a day. I cried every night beore injecting him and felt so totally lost with it all and had no one to talk to about it and to be honest I still feel that way at time.
The first year was by far the hardest as Alfie suffered from every type of infection possible all of which messed up his blood sugar. Here in scotland we are not advised to test blood sugar at home and all that stuff has to be done by the vet and very quickly it becomes a very costly business!
Originally Alfie was fed Hill Prescription W/d but at the begining of the year I swiched him over to Burns High Oats.
The last few months he had been great, no infections for about a year and his blood sugar has been stable within normal limits.
He had a hypo a 2am on friday morning and then another this morning at 5.30am so am once again worried sick about the wee dude. It could just be a change in the weather thats knocked him off, for once its actually really sunny and hot in scotland!!!!!!
I am keeping my fingers crossed thats what the issue is as I have read loads about the Vetsulin problems and hope its not that or anything worse.
I still find it hard on my own with him and my other dog and not many friends understand why I dont go out as much so I can be in to feed Alfie and give him his injection at the same time but then Alfie is my family and I would do anything to keep him as healthy as I can. I joined the forum as I figure ur lot are going to understand exactly what its like and think it will be great to talk to peole about it all.
Well done if u made it through all that
Allison, Alfie & Skye
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