Kodee's Story
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Kodee's Story |
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Kodee is a 7-1/2 year old, male, yellow Labrador. He
was diagnosed with diabetes one year ago in September 2000. At his heaviest,
Kodee weighed 125 pounds. When diagnosed, he weighed 102 pounds, and he weighs
95 pounds now. He is currently getting 29 units of Humulin L twice a day, at 7:30 am and 7:30 pm. Kodee eats 4 times a day: 1-3/4 cups of dry Science Diet Light mixed with a little bit of baby food (stage 1 with no sugar) at 7:00 am, some green beans after his shot at 7:30 am. He gets 3/4 cup of his dry food at noon. These meals are repeated at 7:00 pm and 7:30 pm, and 10:30 pm. After his shot we take him for a walk to the park which is at the end of the block and let him sniff and roam, throwing the frisbee a couple of times, then walk home. This is done every night without fail. I have recently (1 month ago) started home bg testing and I use the glucometer elite. I started because he was almost totally regulated and then had a seizure. He had two seizures a few months after he was originally diagnosed, but none since then and I was shocked that he had another. I tested his bg all the time the fist few weeks after getting the meter, but have backed off recently to about every other day, or when I am suspicious his levels are getting too low or high. I monitor his drinking, urine, behavior and mood very closely. Kodee is in the house 24 hours a day, except for our nightly trips to the park (and potty time of course). Originally the vet would do 8-hour bg curves every other week. We moved to a new state in February and got in contact with an internal specialist here, who is doing fructosamine testing now. We have always used Humulin L. He started with 23 units twice a day, and had a seizure when he was getting 27 units, so we decreased the insulin and monitored his levels as we slowly brought his dose back up. Eight months later at 35 units his levels were finally starting to get down to 180. Then he crashed again and had another seizure. We decreased to 33 units and he had another seizure two weeks later (about two weeks ago). So, we decreased to 27 units and are slowly bringing the dose back up. He is at 29 units right now and is going in for a fructosamine test next week. Kodee also has colitis pretty bad so we cannot use w/d or other glucose control foods, because too much fiber irritates this condition. He is on Metronidizal for his colitis, two pills a day. I also give him B-12, chromium and MSM. After his second seizure we were very cautious about raising his insulin levels and his bgs were very high for a long time. During this period he developed leg weakness. For about a month it was really bad - he would stumble and fall just walking. That is when I started him on the B-12 and chromium. Since then (and getting his bg levels lowered) he is much better. He still has some hind leg weakness, but not as bad as it was. -- Contributed by Tiffany
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