If There Are Two of You Treating Your Diabetic Dog
Today we talk about how NOT to “double your efforts”. When there are two of you in the household that treat your diabetic dog, you will need to develop a system. A really GOOD system! First, let me start by saying that I LOVE that there are two or more of you that are testing and injecting your pup! That is a luxury that not many have. I was it when it came to taking care of Max and his Diabetes.
With this “luxury” comes one more step in the planning/organizing process. We need to make sure that your pup only gets one injection every 12 hours! I have seen scenarios that the pup gets two full meals and two full injections…. YIKES!!! I will say that how you decide to avoid this happening will be very household specific. I have some tips and tricks, but you need to devise a plan and do so quickly!
It happens about once a month where I see a post that says, “HELP, I fed and injected and so did my husband”, or “I thought that he did and so I didn’t”… You get the idea. The least complicated of this scenario is that your pup was fed and not injected. You can deal with that fairly easily and will be back on track in a day or two. When it gets dicey is if you both fed and injected. I know that it doesn’t seem like a bid deal, but think about it this way. Your pup has TWO FULL doses of insulin on board. I understand that there are two full meals also, but only a portion of that dose is to manage food, the first ¼ - ½ of each of those doses is to cover basic metabolic function. So now you have at least a ¼ - ½ of one of those doses that you don’t need. That’s a problem.
How do you deal with it? You test every 2-3 hours throughout the day to make sure that your pup is not dropping too low. If you both work and can’t stay home, take your pup to the vet to be monitored throughout the day. Take your meter and strips with you to save on the cost of this visit. If they use your meter and strips, they won’t charge you for theirs. Just be sure that you get it back when you pick your pup up at the end of the day.
For those two caregiver households, I have heard that many take out two syringes to start the day so that both people know that if one is gone, the pup has gotten their injection already. I have also seen this handy dandy device that many use…
Here’s the link for it: https://amzn.to/2mloCZ8
I might be inclined to use both systems as you have gathered about me; I am a believer in better safe than sorry. There is always the Journal method also. If you are both maintaining the journal for each meal and injection, then I’d suggest that you make it a habit to check the journal before you do anything. None of these methods are foolproof as you both need to be diligent and remember to either journal, count syringes or move the button on the device, but it’s a step closer to not duplicating efforts! I have great faith that you will figure it out and find the perfect system that works for your household!
Notice that for most of the products or groups that I mention, the text is linked to a website that you can purchase that item or a link to the prior post being mentioned or to join the group mentioned. Just click on the colored text (red or blue, depending what device you are on) and it should take you right to the item or group. If you have any thoughts or ideas for topics that you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to comment below or send me an email at NancyForPetTest@PharmaSupply.com. As always, please “like” this blog post or any of the others that have helped you or just refreshed your memory. Look for new posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!
Until next time…