Our poor little Jasmine

Oh, Gloria where are they cute - there is something over older dogs and fortunately they look like the two patients who get the loveliest care :hugs
 
Ok, new updates on our little Jasmine.

Took her to the vet this morning for a follow up blood panel.
The doctor wants to see if her kidney values are any better with the heart medication that she has been taking for over a month now. It helps her heart to pump more blood helping to clear her kidneys better.

Jasmine has been drinking like crazy for the past two weeks and having so many accidents in the house that we have doggie pee pads everywhere and put a diaper on her overnight.

The vet now is suspicious that she is pre-diabetic! Between a value of 1.5 last time and now she is at 4.0 and lost four pounds since her last visit... he gave her a shot of insulin and I need to give her a shot at 9pm this evening.

I went online and the insulin is $24, but when I clicked the box for a pet the price jumped to over $150! What's up with that!!! I will ask the vet about it in the morning when I bring her in for another test.

Never having experienced this before I have to be trained how to check her pee daily to determine the amount of insulin to administer.

Has anyone else gone through this?
 
Oh Gloria, your sweet little Jasmine just can't catch a break. I haven't had any animals with diabetes, but being a nurse, I know it can be controlled with insulin. Of course, diet and exercise matter in people but I don't know how that works in dogs. A high protein/low carb diet is probably not the best for a senior dog with other issues.

My thoughts and best wishes go to you and Jasmine (and your sister).
 
Thanks Sharon!

Jasmine's blood work came back perfectly!
All her panels came in within range!!! Happy dance!

We do however need to give her insulin shots 2x a day. Small price to pay to keep her with us!
 
I've had a diabetic dog in the past. A really great resource is the K9 diabetes forum http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/. They'll have lots of tips for you including the best place to get insulin and tips on testing, diet, exercise, etc. Diabetes can be managed and dogs can live a long and healthy life even with diabetes.
 
Most importantly, remember that the biggest danger to a diabetic, insulin dependent dog is NOT high blood sugar - it's LOW blood sugar. So make sure you go very slowly when trying to find the correct insulin dose and I highly recommend getting an AlphaTrak glucose meter to do your own blood glucose curves (a set of readings over a 12 hour time period to determine your dog's pattern). I definitely recommend the AlphaTrak over the human meters because it was designed for dogs, so the readings will be very accurate. It also uses only a teeny little bit of blood so that makes routine testing much easier. If you check out the K9 diabetes forum you'll find all kinds of good information about this.
 
Sorry to keep posting, I just keep thinking of more details. Testing urine is actually not a good way to measure blood glucose. You need to get an accurate picture of her blood glucose at that particular moment. Since urine is stored in the bladder, you are really only getting an average of your dog's blood sugar when you test urine and most importantly, you will not pick up a low value testing urine. Dogs can actually tolerate elevated blood sugar much better than people can but low blood sugar can kill them. So be very, very careful and please do blood tests instead of urine.
 
Also, it's super important that you DO check her urine for ketones. If her ketones measure above a trace level, that is a medical emergency and she needs to go to the vet regardless of the day or time.

She will also need to be on a very low calorie diet to prevent pancreatitis. This is critical.
 
Cara, thank you so much for your numerous posts!

I am going to use the meter you suggested! I know it will be easier than urine tests and more accurate as you pointed out!

Thanks for your concern about our dear Jasmine!

Thanks too for the website information!
 
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