Winter Is Coming for Your Diabetic Dog

I know that we’ve talked about the season changes, but this is more of a combination of the prior posts, “ Are You Ready to Evacuate”, “Season Changes” and several mentions in other posts. Why does winter get its own post? Well, if this summer’s weather is any indication of this winter’s weather, we REALLY need to be prepared!

A couple years ago my friend Mary was without power for a week or more in the dead of winter in the Northeast. Suffice it to say that it presented so many more challenges than just a day or two of no power! So, we are going to talk about being prepared once again, but this time for a longer duration of time. We wracked our brains to figure out some work-a-rounds to keep the essentials warm enough to function.

Besides not having power to stay warm, cook, charge your phone, etc. deliveries may not be able to get through. Eeeeeek!! So let’s try to go through this systematically.

Power:

If you don’t have a generator, this is your biggest concern. How do you prepare for this? I keep external battery packs for my phone, laptop, iPad, etc. fully charged at all times. I have different sizes for different devices. I know that you’re thinking, well, we will just go out to the car and run the heat and charge everything. That’s a great plan until your car won’t start. Then what?  External battery packs, that’s what. I also have several battery powered lanterns that I use during power outages. Neither of these things is expensive.

Heat:

What do you do if you don’t have a fireplace? Bundle up. Not just you, your Furbabies too! Sweaters, blankets, socks, etc. Here’s an interesting thing that happened, when your house is under 45 degrees, your handheld meters may not work! Yikes!! Now what? You can always try keeping them under the blankets with you and hope that you are generating enough heat to keep them warm enough to function. Another thing that we came up with was those  hand and feet warmers that you put inside your mittens and socks. They last for several hours at a time. So I would suggest that you find a shoe box or perhaps a food storage container, line it with a hand towel or washcloths and keep your meter and strips in the container with the warmer. The ones on Amazon are called “ HotHands”; they are not expensive for a box of 60 or 72. They stay warm for 8 hours at a time. You can get a pack of 10, 2 to a pack, for $5.99. So you get 20 warmers for $5.99 that’s 160 hours of warmth for $5.99. That’s 6 ½ days of “heat” for your hands and meters for $5.99, less than a dollar a day.

Water:

Save those milk jugs, starting now. When you empty one of its milk, wash it and refill it with water. Easy…

Food:

If you feed kibble, please make sure that you have enough to get through not just the storm, but the aftermath of the storm. Now, if you home cook, you’ll need to start planning ahead and portioning your meals out into Ziploc bags or food containers so that you have a couple weeks’ worth of them in your freezer. Hopefully, you have an outdoor grill or hibachi that you can use to warm them up a bit. If you don’t have a grill, look into getting a small camping grill to set outside so that you can cook for yourself and your pup if necessary. There are several types on Amazon. In Texas, I had a foldup grill that folded up flat for easy storage. While we are still wrapping up summer, look for sales on charcoal to have on hand so that you can cook during a storm or blizzard. My preference is the small “one use” bags. Much more convenient I think.

Diabetic Supplies:

Make sure that you have an extra vial of insulin, enough test strips, syringes, lancets, ketone strips to get you through. Don’t rely on delivery to be available immediately after a blizzard. It may not be. I’m not just talking about in your area; consider where the supplier that you order from is located. Your weather may be just fine, but if your supplier is somewhere that is prone to violent storms that could last for a long time, this is now your problem as well! Be aware and be prepared!

Potty Breaks:

Not all of us potty pad trained our pups. When stuck inside during a storm, that’s a problem! One fabulous suggestion that came up during the hurricanes that hit this summer was this. Get an inexpensive kiddie pool before they put them away for the season, fill it with sod. If you have a “leg lifter”, put a potted plant in there so that your pup can both pee and poop. I’d put it in the garage now and start the training before it becomes a necessity. There are some great pictures on line to get tips on how to put this together.

Groceries:

Let’s be sure that you have enough supplies for you, and also your pup. Especially the supplies that you need to treat a hypo event. This may be the time to add a  Glucose SOS to your supplies if you haven’t already. If it isn’t in your budget, be sure that you have everything that you need to successfully treat a hypoglycemic event. Refresh your memory by looking back to these two blog posts. “ How to treat a hypo” and also “A Better Way to Treat a Hypo” for the supplies list.

I sure hope that doing all of the things mentioned above is not needed, but as I said at the start of this post, if the weather so far this year is any indication of what kind of winter we will have, I say let’s be over prepared as opposed to not being ready!

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 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…