Two weeks after stopping the Lysodren, Tyler was stabilized on his insulin. He is now stabilized on 13 units twice a day of NPH Iletin I. This amount will fluctuate at times. Stress from a vet visit, at times getting groomed and hot weather are just examples of things that will elevate his BG. It usually takes at least 2 days-especially after a vet visit to get him back to normal.

We have always used urine strips to monitor his diabetes. Tyler would not tolerate home blood testing. We do very well with urine testing. However, it like any type of monitoring system has it's limitations, and it's important to know those limitations. We however, don't solely depend on the urine reading either. We consider water consumption as well as the way he's acting before adjusting insulin.

We have experience with three different vets advice on urine testing.

Tyler's first vet thought it was ok for the sample to be 1/2% to 1% for most of the day. However, on every visit Tyler's BG would be 300+ usually within 2 hours after injection. This meant to me his BG probably could go as high as 500+ and no lower than 200.

Tyler's present vet wants his sample to run negative all the time. His theory is, if you increase the insulin until it goes negative-than decrease until it reads 1/10% or 1/4% than you were at the correct dose at negative. Tyler's curves using this method usually fall within the range- High of 200-180 low 80. Tyler's never had a hypo attack and very few occasions of hyper symptoms.

When we saw the internist in Nov 97, he did a 24 hour curve. Tyler's BG ranged from a high of 128 to a low of 71. The internist was afraid we were overdosing him running him at negative. He wanted us to allow him to run with a trace of glucose (1/10% to 1/4%). He wanted another curve done in a month.

We tried, but his readings were all over the place, 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 sometimes 1%. When an 8 hour curve was done a month later, Tyler's BG was at 304 (2 hours after injection) and hit his low reading at 5:30 at 146.

My vet and I knew Tyler doesn't ever eat away from home. So we knew the 24 hour curve was much lower than it normally would be. We went back to my vets method.

It's important whichever method is used-curves be done to check the BG value ranges. Tyler's vet prefers his BG values range within 200 and 80. However, he has mentioned a normal dog (without diabetes) has a BG between 90-55. All dogs are different and what works for one may not work for another.

Tyler was on w/d for a little over a month. Until he started feeling better and he realized he didn't like what he was eating. We tried everything to get him to eat the w/d. Finally we went back to the food he's eaten most of his life. There was no change in his insulin requirement. In fact, it's been easier to control his diabetes-since now he eats everything we give him-when we give it to him.

Update: After a bout with colitis-we put Tyler on a bland diet of chicken and rice. This lead us to follow Dr. Pitcairn's Weightloss Diet for dogs-which is a homemade diet. Since than we have been able to decrease Tyler's insulin by almost 2 units per day. He is more alert, loves his food (actually eats every bite) and you can see he is extremely happy. He was doing fine before-but I can see the positive difference it has made.

cajones_2000@yahoo.com
Date Last Modified: 2/14/2000