So the strangest thing as a physician on bringing my newly diabetic dog home, was that I had absolutely no idea what her blood sugar was. In the human world, a diabetic would never be sent home without a glucometer. My anxiety level greatly decreased when with the help of our vet, we got set up for a home testing program. The benefits of home testing are numerous. Your dog will be far better regulated which will decrease the likelihood of acquiring diabetic complications. Your dog will feel better. And get this – your vet bills will decrease. Thats right, your vet bills will decrease. Veterinary blood sugar checks do add up. Not to mention your most accurate blood sugars will always be at home in your pet’s everyday environment. If your dog gets stressed at the vet, they could have a falsely high or low blood sugar. Your vet will help you learn how to adjust your dog’s dose based on home tests and glucose curves. You will be able to make changes faster to regulate your dog by providing this valuable information to your vet. Pretty soon your confidence will soar and you will be pretty much managing your dog’s insulin dosing on your own. In future posts I will go through the different meter options and how to do glucose curves and interpret blood sugars. My preferred meter is the AlphaTrak2 but I will be sure to give pros and cons of all the meters including the AT2.
A few tips not mentioned in the videos: You can fill an old sock with rice that you heat up in the microwave before applying to any test site except the inner lip. This will help bring blood to the area and help you get your sample. Also many pet owners use the Genteel lancing device (www.mygenteel.com) for pain free pokes on everywhere except the inner lip. These occasionally go down to ~$70 in certain colors on Amazon. Since we’ve never needed one, we’d love some feedback from Genteel users!
Hopefully our videos will help get you started. Be sure and comment below with your favorite test sites. We hope everyone has great sugars!
-Devoted Doxie Mom
Diary of a Diabetic Dachshund 