diabetis

[mr p]

Harvey our cocker spanial has been diagnosed with diabetis,he is 11yrs old
we are finding it very difficult to get him stableised, the vet has changed his insulin about 5 times.
we are testing is urine 2 times a day with KETO DIASTICS,he as lost a lot off weight and we are
getting worried about his condition, at the moment he is having 13 units off insulin in the morning after is meal.
At about 9oclock in the evening he seems to go high and drink lots of water, i know the vet is being
carefull has he had to much insulin one day and went hypo we thought he was dying.

I have recently purchased a ONE TOUCH ULTRA GLUCOSE MACHINE but am finding it difficult to get a blood sample, tryed upper lip, pad, both  with no success.

We will never give up on harvey, but these are very difficult times,it has changed our lifes and more so harveys life.

ps: if there is any one who as been going though the same i would be most gratefull for any advise

[scjmk]

Hi Mr P,

my cat was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago, luckly it was related to stress and after the third day of giving her one unit of insulin we took her blood glucose and found she was Hypo after puting honey on her nose I refused to give her her one unit the next day and her blood glucose was normal (we saw the vet three days later and after three days of no insulin her bg was still normal, now she gets the odd urine test)! I know how upset I was when she was diagnosed, and I have insulin dependent diabetes myself! 

I found lots of info on the net about cats/diabetes/how to get a bg sample from a cat, so I would use that as a major resource, two I found this moning which looked useful are;

http://www.petdiabetes.com/
Pics on how to get blood from ear/tail

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/infocentre/inform/downloads/pets.doc
from diabetes UK, if you check on the diabetes uk web site they have a help line and have always tried to help when I have rang with questions.

Is your dog going high after his supper? Is there signs that he could be going hypo during the day (this can cause the pancreas may still be able to realease glucose, and cause the bg to rise)

finally, try not to stress to much! It is difficult to get perfect BG every time even if you have had the condition 20 years and take your BG four times a day as so many factors, stress, excercise, illness, food........

Sarah

i forgot to add that a warm cloth heated in the microwave -put a tea towel between the ear and cloth so the part f the body that the bg sample is going to be taken from - or rubing the are for a while will help in getting a bg sample, the heat brngs the Blood closer to the surface