Talk to me about dogs on insulin

[justletmein]

FYI for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation and searches up this thread later.

PetTest brand home glucose monitors are garbage. For 10 days I've been having some serious heartburn over constantly high tests. Today we had a vet visit and I brought the monitor with me, the vet tech drew blood from my dog's leg and gave me a drop and I tested it immediately in front of her and it came back at 455. She then took the blood back to their machine and it returned with 302. IMO it's not even close enough to provide any sort of reference to be useful in any way.

[bogusbenelli]

My 12 year old Lab has a new prescription, insulin every 12 hours for the rest of her life. I should be able to handle the dosing schedule I'd imagine, usually only feed once a day but now it'll be twice to coincide with the insulin. Doc was pushing it hard, previous doc we see monthly (same office) mentioned it but never really pushed it. Looking for end-user input. Dog lost about 5 lbs this last month and he says that's related, however we hit the ducks pretty hard in January and she's been hunting so some weight loss is normal. Sugars today were 350ish range, last month 250, before that something like 400+, 300ish, and mid-450's before that. We've been keeping an eye on it for a while.

We haven't started yet so I'm just looking for opinions and thoughts and discussion on it. Doc says it will extend her life and make the quality better.

is she spayed???

[justletmein]

is she spayed???

Nope! I desperately wanted a puppy though now it's far too late. I had a stud lined up around Covid time and all hell broke loose and lost contact.

Vet mentioned that in-tact dogs can have issues and spaying her might be required if we can't get it under control, hate to do that to her at 12 years old but apparently it might be a thing.

[Drycreek3189]

Your dog didn’t go blind from the insulin. She went blind because of the diabetes. Sarge went blind before we even knew he had diabetes. Google canine diabetes, it was an eye opener for us even though we have a child that is Type 1. Lots of difference in canine diabetes and human diabetes.

[bogusbenelli]

Nope! I desperately wanted a puppy though now it's far too late. I had a stud lined up around Covid time and all hell broke loose and lost contact.

Vet mentioned that in-tact dogs can have issues and spaying her might be required if we can't get it under control, hate to do that to her at 12 years old but apparently it might be a thing.

Spay her and the blood sugar will almost guarantee you go away. Dont spay her and it will get worse.

I just went through this with a 10 year old lab. I noticed it when she started needing to go out at night to pee. Then she started drinking more water than normal. Blood sugar was initially 500 and went to 700. She lost 10 pounds quickly. She would poop out what she ate and it would look the exact same (chicken, rice, sweet potatoes)

we gave 29 units twice daily just to get her back to 250.

vet talked to internal medicine and was told spay her bc it’s a hormone imbalance. Within 3 weeks of being spayed she was back to normal.

I too wanted puppies but let’s face it. At 10 plus years old if you haven’t had puppies yet it prolly isn’t going to happen and the odds of issues goes up greater with age just like developing endometriosis.

[bogusbenelli]

Seriously, I would schedule the procedure and spay her. My dogs sugar went down quickly. So fast that within 3 days of lowering the insulin level she would get hypoglycemia after I gave her the insulin shot. (We still had to titrate down). When she got dizzy I’d give her a squirt of honey in her mouth and a little bit of dog food and she would be right back to normal with minutes.

[justletmein]

Holy smokes man that's incredible. OK I'll email the vet right now, thank you.

[bogusbenelli]

Holy smokes man that's incredible. OK I'll email the vet right now, thank you.

You’re welcome. I went through this about 6 months ago. It was pretty terrible. She’s 100% now other than she’s getting older so she gets out of breath faster (my fault for not exercising her more) lol. But seriously you can do no harm and only good spaying her. If she were to get endometriosis do to sepsis it could kill her quickly if not caught in time. If your vet wants to consult with mine just shoot me a pm and I’ll get you my vets info and my info and they can collaborate. I’m not sure who he talked to with internal medicine but it did the trick.

[justletmein]

It's certainly worth a shot to see if it helps. Vet mentioned it as something that might be necessary if we can't get control of things with insulin but I didn't want to put her through the procedure at this age for nothing. She didn't elude to it possibly making a large difference, assuming it's a hormonal issue. Worth a shot. Vet was out for the day already but they said she'll call me tomorrow, very encouraging. The faster we can get the diabetes knocked out the faster I can have the eye surgery done to get her vision back, presumably.

[bogusbenelli]

Holy smokes man that's incredible. OK I'll email the vet right now, thank you.

I shot you a pm with my info, vets info, and dog info.

[justletmein]

Finally talked the vet into a Freestyle Libre. This far she's still never had a glucose curve done, vet wants to test once a month. Anybody familiar with Somogyi effect? Insulin at blue arrows 10p and 10a daily.

[eastover53]

Finally talked the vet into a Freestyle Libre. This far she's still never had a glucose curve done, vet wants to test once a month. Anybody familiar with Somogyi effect? Insulin at blue arrows 10p and 10a daily.

Insulin is like a "key" that unlocks the glucose in your body and makes it available for use.

Somogyi effect happens when your body senses that your blood sugar is low, so it releases a bolus of insulin that causes a large spike in blood sugar.

[justletmein]

Update: The Libre and the PetTest brand stuff is junk. We got an AlphaTrak 3 and everything smoothed out better and it's accurate with repeated tests back to back as well as compared to vet readings (vet uses it too so not surprised there).

She got her eyes back yesterday. The eyedrop schedule is intense, 6 different drops and gels 4x/day and 3 oral pills. Can't let her get excited or really do anything for 3 months.

[BerZ]

I’m sorry to hear your lab is going through this, but it sounds like you’re on the right track by seeking advice. My dog was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years ago and went on insulin, so I can relate to what you’re going through. It took a little while to get the dosing right, but once we found the right balance, it made a huge difference in her energy and overall health. I should say, the info on the Pharmacy B2B site helped me figure it out. The twice-daily feeding schedule did take some adjusting, but it became second nature pretty quickly.

I’d definitely say the insulin has helped extend her quality of life. She’s more active and happier than she was before. As for the weight loss, it’s tough to say without knowing your dog's full activity level, but insulin can help stabilize their blood sugar, which might reduce some of that.