Regulate your Diabetic Pet at Home & Make a Personal Pet Glucose Curve Yourself! Switching pets over from Vetsulin to DNA based insulin is not hard and daily regulation using your pets urine along with a product, available at Walgreen’s, called Diastix, will help you regulate your diabetic pet at home as quickly as possible. Most diabetic pets should be regulated within a week of beginning their new stable DNA based insulin.
Learn how to make a glucose curve for your pet at home. This will prove to be very helpful and will provide you and your vet with valuable information. It will allow you to monitor sugar level trends and follow your pet’s sugar levels accurately and cost effectively. You can also add a box at the end of each day to mark down any important signs you noticed in your pet that day such as appetite, energy levels, attitude, water consumption, frequency of urinating, etc. Whenever you visit your vet bring your chart along and review it with your vet.
Once you make your pet’s sugar curve chart, be sure to post it in a convenient place like your refrigerator door. This way everyone in your family will be on the same page when it comes to your pets insulin dosages. To Make Your Pet’s Personal Sugar Curve: Take a piece of notebook paper and write down the date each day. Place the dates vertically down the left side of the paper. Across the top of the paper, mark down the time of day, the urine sugar reading and the dose of insulin you have given every morning and every evening. You simply match the color of your pet’s urine to the numeric value on the Diastix strip and adjust the insulin dosage accordingly. This is vital to try to minimize further internal organ damage and preserve what if any vision is left, before cataracts occur.
It is important to remember that your goal each day with the urine Diastix is a reading of “trace.” Each time you get a reading of “trace”, that means you are doing a great job and you just repeat the previous insulin dosage. If the Diastix reads minus 1, reduce the insulin dose by 1 unit. If the Diastix reads minus 2, decrease the dose by 2 units. If the Diastix reads plus 2, increase the insulin dose 2 units, if the reading is plus one, increase the insulin dose one unit. It is important to remember that you NEVER, ever increase or decrease the insulin dosage by more than 2 units.
It is always a good idea, to keep a jar of honey or karo syrup handy just in case, after giving the insulin your pet looks dazed or gets wobbly. This is a sign that the insulin dose was too high and as a result your pet’s blood sugar is too low. We call this hypoglycemia. If this occurs, rub a teaspoon of the honey or karo syrup directly into your pets gums. It is immediately absorbed through the gums and enters the blood. This raises the blood sugar level almost instantly which then makes your pet feel much better and avoid hypoglycemia or a low blood sugar crisis.
The daily home routine for most diabetic pets is as follows:
- When you wake up, take your pet outside and collect the first morning urine. Use the Diastix and get a urine sugar reading so you know what dose of insulin to give. Feed 1/3 of your pet’s breakfast, then give the insulin. After that, give your pet the remainder of his or her breakfast.
- In the evening, just repeat the same procedure. If your pet does not eat the first part of his or her meal, before it’s time for you to inject the insulin, this is a sign that something is wrong. If this happens, do not give any insulin, call your veterinarian.
- Dr. Carol’s Tip: To save dollars: Cut each urine test strip in half longitudinally. This turns 50 Diastix into 100 and cuts your cost in half.
We have had a lot of success at our veterinary clinic with our diabetic canine patients by adding in digestive enzymes to help take the work load off of the already sickened pancreas. We also add probiotics, which are referred to as “good’ or “friendly” bacteria, such as Lactobacillus. Probiotic supplements are helpful for dogs and cats.
For example you’ve probably see a commercial on television for a type of yogurt called Activa. It is fine to offer pet’s yogurt and most pets enjoy the taste. Unfortunately your pet would need to consume so much yogurt to get enough friendly bacteria he would likely end up with another stomach ache. So we use concentrated PROBIOTIC supplements, mixed with your pet’s meals. This way, we promote normal digestion while letting your pets sickened pancreas rest, recuperate and take a break.
“Friendly” bacteria are normally present in the digestive system and are responsible for absorbing digested dietary nutrients. With repeated bouts of indigestion and sensitive stomachs, the good or friendly bacteria get replaced by “bad” gas forming bacteria which prolong digestion issues and make returning to good health that much harder for your dog.
The pancreas is a small flat organ smaller than a kitchen sponge. Half of the pancreas makes digestive enzymes and the other half makes insulin. With repeated stomach upsets, including bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, the half making digestive enzymes gets inflamed and releases digestive enzymes to the point that it becomes so exhausted, pancreatitis results. With repeated bouts of pancreatitis, the other “insulin producing” half of the pancreas gets worn out and can no longer make insulin. The result is Diabetes.
We also discuss pet diets with our patients and have enjoyed success in many of our diabetic pets using home-made organic diets and an all-natural, patented vitamin-supplement for dogs called Paaws.
Paaws vitamins balance out your pets home-made pet diet, boost internal immunity and help to further stabilize blood sugar levels, making insulin regulation for diabetic dogs and cats that much easier.
Many diabetic dogs also suffering with kidney issues have returned to normal kidney function by adding in the Kidney Essentials, a wonderful, natural, herbal kidney supplement.
For blind pets that already have cataracts, there are no products to restore vision. For diabetic pets that can still see, many have benefited from the Eye Essentials, which are a natural, herbal eye supplement.
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I hope this information is helpful for all the diabetic dog and cat owners affected by the Vetsulin issue, looking for help with their pets.