The Roadmap to Success With Your Diabetic Dog Part 3

So far in our journey we have covered in Part 1 Food/Insulin Schedule and testing.  In Part 2, we covered Journaling and Ketones. Those are the skills to master when first diagnosed, if you lay that foundation and get proficient on just those few things, your journey will be much smoother.  Today we continue on our roadmap to success.

Now that you know how to test your fasting numbers and maybe even a midday number, it’s time to put those skills to use and run a curve at home.  There is an earlier post about this,  just click here.  I’ll hit the highlights for you.  You will begin your curve like any other day with a fasting number, feed and inject like usual.  Now you are going to test every 2 hours and record your findings until your evening fasting number just before dinner.  Many people don’t give treats or take their walks on curve days.  I was not one of those people.  Because our days were pretty much identical, I curved on a normal day so that I could see how insulin was working with our normal activities including treats and walks.  Whether you alter your routine on curve day or not is completely up to you.

I have shared before that running at home curves is one of the best ways to save money and also to get much more accurate readings on how your food and insulin are working together.  Most pups are anxious at the vet clinic, even if they love the people there, the smells, activity level and the stress of being around other dogs that are nervous and sick can and likely will take a toll on your pup.  By the end of the day, most likely the stress and over-stimulation of being away from home and in this environment all day will show up in the numbers of the curve.  Most pups’ numbers are higher at the vet, but some can have the opposite reaction and the stress can send their numbers lower.  In either case, you are not getting a true and accurate picture of what’s going on with your dog.

I have heard that depending on where you live in the country, a vet run curve can cost anywhere from $90.00-$150.00.  If you do your own curve at home, it costs right around $10.00 depending on what meter you use; it could cost a couple dollars more.  In any case, I chose to save that money and use it to buy strips.  I would share my curve results with the vet so that all records were up to date.

Besides knowing how insulin and food are working together, a curve will tell you if your insulin dose needs to be adjusted.  The most important part of this aspect of a curve is to know that any insulin change must be made based on the lowest number of the curve.  It’s important so I will say it again.  ANY insulin dose change MUST be made based on the LOWEST number in the curve.  Important to remember that when you lower the higher numbers; you will also lower the low numbers.  High numbers can be dealt with a number of ways, low numbers can be fatal, and so we don’t take any chances when it comes to increasing insulin doses.

When you are first diagnosed, you’ll probably curve once a week to determine if a dose change is required.  If you were started on a conservative starting dose then you will likely need to increase once a week until you find your “sweet spot”.  Trying to fast track this process is not only dangerous, it can lead to many complications along the way.  Slow and steady is the very best way to proceed.

What is a conservative starting dose you ask?  Good question.  A conservative starting dose is as follows:

The dog’s weight in KILOs (pounds divided by 2.2) times .25-.5 will give you a conservative staring range for an initial dose.  Starting dose is ALWAYS determined by weight, NOT by how high the BG (Blood Glucose) reading is.  So, for example:

A 20 pound dog weighs 9.09 kilos so you would multiply 9.09 by .25 which equals 2.27272727.  We round down to 2 units as the lower end of the starting dose range. That means that a conservative starting dose range for a 20 pound dog is between 2-4 units of insulin.  Try the math and apply it to your own case.  Was your pup started on the right amount of insulin?  If so, your journey has likely seen weekly improvement in numbers and seems to be going smoothly.  If not, you may want to read the blog post about Somogyi Effect (click on highlighted text).

You need no special tools to run a curve on your pup (just your trusty meter and 7 strips and lancets) and can read the prior post on “How and Why to Curve Your Diabetic Dog” (click on highlighted text) for some help in understanding your results.  If you have joined a group for help and support, post your results and see what other people think about where you are and what action they would take (if any at all).  Also, forward your results to your vet so that records are up to date and you can decide what to do next.

These few things that I have talked about over these three entries are the true fundamentals of how to manage this disease effectively.  The rest is nuance and worth learning as “tips and tricks” are worth their weight in gold as you travel along this journey.  The good news is that you are not alone in this.  If you have questions, please comment below or send me an email.

You’ll notice that for most of the products, previous blog entries or groups that I mention, the text is linked to a website that you can purchase that item or a link 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!