Diabetic dog questions?

[GoingPostal]

Looking for some info on diabetes in dogs, a friends dog has been sick and today was diagnosed with diabetes and possible pancreatitis. Lena is a 10 year old 115! pound husky, the vet gave him insulin, told him to give it wherever but didn't show him how so I did some looking and gave her the shot tonight, it says once a day, 15 mg?, it's 100u, she's also on antibiotics, prozyme powder and Science Diet w/d. He bought a meter at Walmart and has to take her back on Tues. I gave her the shot tonight because he was too afraid to but he's wondering how long it will take for improvement, how to test her blood sugar, anything else he should be doing?

Bloodwork that was off
alkp is high 263 u/l (23-212 range)
glu high 375 mg/DL (70-143 range)
LIPA high 3881 U/L (200-1800 range)

[jtalt7]

We dont recommend human meters as there can be a big difference in tracking when not species specific.
I have found www.alphatrackmeter.com to have tons of useful information wih videos.
Are they not treating the pancreatitis? As a diabetic they are going to be more prone to pancreatitis. One of our diabetic dogs has pancreatitis at least evey other month. Strict diet is must.
Also home glucose curves is the way to go, stress artificially raises glucose and can make monitoring hard for anxious, hyper dogs. Good luck !

[Misskiwi67]

I'm on my phone so can't post a link, but veterinarypartner.com has a whole series of in depth articles on diabetes that covers insulin, administration, diet, cataracts, home testing and more...

[GoingPostal]

I told him to bring the meter into the vet on Tues and check it against there's, I know lots of people on my ferret forum use human ones for their insulinomic ferrets and just adjust as needed if they are off but I will pass along the info. I asked about the pancreatitis thing as well because seems like it's a bigger deal than the vet made out from what I've seen on here but I guess they weren't sure if that was the problem or not and that they will see her on Tues again anyways.

He has an autistic brother that feeds the dogs whatever so I told him and he has stressed to his mom that the kid needs to be watched or the dog kept out of his reach or something, especially right now. I have to give her the shot tonight as well so I can see how she's doing.

What are you feeding your diabetic dog? The vet said to give her 2 cups of that W/D and it doesn't seem like that would be any nutrition at all, it's corn, sawdust and peanut hulls for the first 3 ingredients, is there any risk with a huge weight loss plan like that? I had him feeding TOTW for awhile and regulating her when he was on his own with the dog and she was 10 pounds less last year but now he's been feeding cheap crap again and his brother doesn't help matters.

[Mooresmajestic]

Here is a link to the Glycemic Research Institute. They have a list of certified low glycemic OTC foods, and some good info.
http://www.gripetfoods.com/

[Misskiwi67]

I told him to bring the meter into the vet on Tues and check it against there's, I know lots of people on my ferret forum use human ones for their insulinomic ferrets and just adjust as needed if they are off but I will pass along the info. I asked about the pancreatitis thing as well because seems like it's a bigger deal than the vet made out from what I've seen on here but I guess they weren't sure if that was the problem or not and that they will see her on Tues again anyways.

He has an autistic brother that feeds the dogs whatever so I told him and he has stressed to his mom that the kid needs to be watched or the dog kept out of his reach or something, especially right now. I have to give her the shot tonight as well so I can see how she's doing.

What are you feeding your diabetic dog? The vet said to give her 2 cups of that W/D and it doesn't seem like that would be any nutrition at all, it's corn, sawdust and peanut hulls for the first 3 ingredients, is there any risk with a huge weight loss plan like that? I had him feeding TOTW for awhile and regulating her when he was on his own with the dog and she was 10 pounds less last year but now he's been feeding cheap crap again and his brother doesn't help matters.

W/d is designed to meet nutritional needs with minimum calories. The high fiber has been shown to help regulate the blood glucose. It's still the preferred diabetic diet for dogs (not for cats).