Can anyone offer me some sound advice. I am so confused. My vets, in truth are trying to find a correct balance with insulin,steroids and feeding. Trying to find a specialist who can put me on the road to success in managing Olivers condition. I am desperate.
Hi, welcome to the Forum. I don't have any specialist advice, but just to say sorry you are having to deal with Olivers illness. Do your vets have a system whereby they could refer him to a specialist? Diabetes is literally, such a balancing act. Has he been on steroids long? Has he become diabetic because of this? I hope you can find the help you need.
I am an insulin dependant diabetic and I know what a struggle it can be. Keep trying to find the right levels. It is worth it in the end. Which food do you have him on? You are a hero for doing this for your dog.
So sorry, it must be heart-breaking trying to do the best for your dog with this balancing act. I have no experience with diabetic dogs, but I know from human diabetics that a low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet is very helpful with managing diabetes. If you’re feeding kibble, you might find it easier feeding a home cooked diet or raw meat and bones diet because you’ll know exactly what your dog is eating. Most kibble is high in carbs.
Has he become diabetic as result of using steroids? Is it necessary he gets the steroids? How long is he on steroids?
I am so sorry, I don't know much about diabetes in dogs, just wanted to say, stick around and hopefully when the shock has subsided, you can have more of a discussion with your vet over treatments options etc...sometimes though it is a lot to take in a once.
We had a diabetic Lab, Ginger. She became diabetic at 12, and lived very well until 16. As you are probably aware dogs are almost always Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetics. After getting the initial doseage worked out with the vet, we made our own adjustments based on her blood glucose levels. We used a human glucose meter and strips, which works fine because a dogs BG levels are the same as humans. 100 is ideal, 80-120 is very good control. We did the blood sticks on the inside of the upper lip, using an automatic lancet. There aren't a lot of nerves there, and Ginger barely noticed it. I'm sure some dogs would object, but she really did not. Because we control their food, dogs are a lot easier to regulate than humans. As long as they eat the same thing at about the same time every day, and the exercise doesn't change a lot, they insulin dose can probably stay the same, with not a lot of variation in BG levels. Once we got Ginger regulated, (2 shots per day of about 20 units I recall) we would only do blood sticks occasionally, or if we thought something was wrong. We always kept some Karo syrup handy, just in case, and always took her BG meter if we were going for a significant walk. If a diabetic dog doesn't eat, throws up, or gets a lot more than normal exercise, you can have a medical emergency, but it can usually be dealt with with some sugar solution, especially if you also have a meter to tell you what is going on. Ginger got on very well, and still did all the things she did before she became diabetic. It did change our routine, because we had to feed her and give her shot on a pretty tight time table. We always had her meds, meter, syrup, and xtra treats with us. She used to go to my son's football games, and I would go out at 1/2 time and feed her and give her the shot. You always want to feed first, because if they did not eat after a shot, it is a serious problem. We were fortunate to have kennel that would give her insulin shots at no charge and she spent some time there over the 4 years. Many diabetic dogs develop severe cataracts, very quickly. Ginger did not, and we thought perhaps it was because we caught the disease early and kept her pretty well regulated most of the time. Some diabetics (called brittle diabetics) are much harder to regulate. Ginger may have still had some pancreas function, because she was fairly easy to regulate. Once or twice we saw her with BG levels of 20, and she could still stand up, but she acted like she was drunk. One time was after a long swim, that we had not planned on. We got Karo Syrup into her and she was back to near normal in a few minutes.
I just got a shock about the current cost of insulin. When we had Ginger, I think it was about $20 a bottle. When I asked the pharmacist the other day he told me that it was about $180 now. That would make maintaining a diabetic Lab pretty expensive.
