Terriers Apparently Need Groomed...

Buzz and Bella got hand stripped today - and they look AMAZING.

Buzz BEFORE:

Buzz AFTER: 

Bella BEFORE:

Bella AFTER:

Diabetic Living

A year ago, I got an offer from Diabetic Living to do an article on Buzz and his diabetes. The issue came out last month and it's AMAZING. The issue is the Spring 2014 edition.

The piece of artwork (done by the wonderfully talented Kathryn Finney) is actually hanging in my living room right now.

Go pick it up at your local magazine retailer today (I got mine from Kroger!)!

Been a while..

Buzz has been doing amazing lately. The past couple months have seen some ups and downs, but overall, things around the M house are great.

We had a glaucoma scare back in October. Does anyone know a dog diagnosed with glaucoma and had to have the eye removed?

It all started with an eye infection. To be safe, since Buzz already has cataracts, our vet wanted us to see the eye specialist. Of course this had me on pins and needles, imagining the worst. Don't ever google 'dog glaucoma' unless you are fully prepared to have your dog's eyes removed. Because I was not ready for that. So I had a full blown panic attack at work.

The eye specialist was amazing. To make a long story short(er), Buzz doesn't have glaucoma. He only has chronic dry eye (which caused the infection) but is at risk for developing glaucoma in the future. So now he's on a daily anti-inflammatory drop and gen-teal severe drops to help the dry eye issue. A minor price to pay for his eyesight! 

He hates the drops, but he'll do anything for treats so he takes them like a champ. 

Anyone have any advice on glaucoma or cataract management in dogs? I'd love to hear everyone's story with these diseases.

Bella is OBSESSED with my 6-month old niece. Buzz couldn't have cared less.

Stress and diabetes/IBD

First, let me say that Buzz has been doing great since his hospital stay in June. It took about 3 weeks for him to fully recover, but he has been doing wonderful since.

The hubby and I went on vacation with some friends over Labor Day weekend and left Buzz and Bella with my parents. My parents live 6 hours away from us so it's a haul to get there, but kenneling them isn't an option (I have yet to find a kennel that will give insulin injections) and staying at the vet is too expensive for a short trip - so we drove the 6 hours for my parents to look after the pups.

Everything goes fine after we leave - Buzz eats normally, my mom is a pro at injections, no major fights with their dog. Everything is good.

But then we get back to my parents yesterday and start the 6 hour drive home. At dinner, Buzz refuses to eat. So he gets half of his normal amount of insulin. Then he refuses to eat breakfast. Again, half the dose of insulin.

We'll see how he does at dinner, but it looks like I'm going to need to call the vet and get him back on metronidazole. I've seen the effects of stress on Buzz before and it's been known to start a flare-up of his IBD/pancreatitis. I know I hate stress, but it seems like Buzz hates it just as much.

I'll leave you with a picture I took right after Buzz got home from the hospital. Doesn't he look so happy to be home? I love this picture...

a diabetic setback...

Buzz is in the animal hospital. Or the doggie prison if you'd ask him. Pancreatitis: the return of the vomiting. Sometimes I feel like my life would make a great movie.

In his mind, he's done his time. 36 long, hard hours. I will (hopefully) get to pick him up tonight, but that could change if he starts throwing up again. I visited him last night and the poor guy couldn't stop throwing up long enough to cuddle with me. But the only thing that seemed to be on his mind was the door and getting through it to go home. It broke my heart to leave him there.

Please don't leave me.

Before the pancreatitis set in, Buzz had his first hypoglycemic event at home. He started shaking and acting really strange and he even threw up, so I checked his sugar. 30! As in, T-H-I-R-T-Y (the normal low is about 80). He (of course) had no interest in eating, but I was SO FREAKING LUCKY that we had karo syrup. I dipped my finger in it and spread it over his gums (as I had read to do in other blogs and websites). Buzz was not happy about that, he really hated the taste - but I can't blame him. Everything returned to normal within an hour.

Then it happened again in the middle of the night. The vomiting, shaking, and totally weird behavior had me absolutely freaked out. I got him to the emergency vet, which is also the same place as our diabetic/internal specialist vet, and he's been there since.

I think the pancreatitis caused the hypoglycemia - everything just got so messed up. Having an autoimmune dog sucks.


Does anyone else have any experience with pancreatitis and diabetes?

Question:

Hey y'all. I have a question for all of you dog owners out there...

We feed Buzz and give his insulin at 8AM and 8PM every single day. His schedule is incredibly structured and he loves that. He knows when it's time to eat. When it's time to poop. When it's time to play. He has thrived this way. This not only makes his world easy and relaxing, but it also helps us. If even the smallest of Buzz's behavior is out of whack, we know something is wrong and can usually get him treated and healthy and back to normal.

It's been this way ever since he was diagnosed with diabetes. My husband and I are so careful to make sure one of us is home for breakfast and dinner, which is really hard for 2 young adults who love to go out with friends, but we've made it work (not without sacrifices, though).

Then came last week. My favorite band was playing at a venue which is a 90 minute drive from here and the concert didn't start til 8PM, which is Buzz's dinner time. We decided it was worth it to rearrange Buzz's schedule for the couple of days before and after the concert so we could go. Moving his food time didn't seem to bother him until the days after the concert. Now, he doesn't want to eat. This is a dog who LIVES for food. If I lose track of time, he's always there to remind me that it's dinner time. But for the past few days, he's acting like making him eat is like making him take out the trash - the worst thing in the world.

So my question to all of you dog lovers, how do I get him back on a schedule? We've tried taking his food away and only giving half of his normal insulin amount, to re-teach him that he eats when we feed him, but he still doesn't seem interested in food during the next meal. His behavior is fine. He's playing, drinking water, sleeping, etc normally. He's interested in our other dog's food. He wants treats. He just doesn't want his food during his normal feeding time. I've resorted to using his food as treats just to get it into his system, and he'll take the kibbles as treats. But as soon as I put his food bowl back down, he doesn't want it.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated. :)

Who couldn't fall in love with this face?

Diabetes is hard...

Buzz had an at-home glucose curve done back on May 23 and these are the results:

 

That's bad. I know it. You know it. His last curve was in January and it showed that his numbers were all within a normal range (see here), but obviously something has changed since then. I hate seeing numbers over 350. That's when his body starts making those dreaded ketones that can lead to ketoacidosis (not fun!).

He's gained a bit of weight the past few months (about 2 pounds, but for a dog his size, that's pretty huge). BUT he's exercising more now that the weather is better, and you'd think that exercise would help bring his numbers DOWN... not up. So I don't know.

We've increased his insulin by 2 units in the morning and 3 units at night and we'll check his glucose curve again in about a week to see how he's doing. As of now, he doesn't have any symptoms of ketoacidosis or pancreatitis or a flare-up of his IBD... so keep your fingers crossed for us, please! :)

still here!

Hi y'all! Just a quick note to let you know we're still here, chugging along. Buzz has been happy and healthy and he's been super busy with annoying Bella. Proof:

Who, her? No, she doesn't want that treat. She says I can have two.

A successful teeth cleaning!

Yesterday, Buzz was healthy enough to undergo anesthesia and had his teeth cleaned (yay!). He had two teeth extracted and has some pretty bad enamel damage, probably due to poor nutrition as a pup, but he is doing great. He's on pain killers and antibiotics, but it hasn't slowed him down one bit.

He did, however, have a low blood sugar reading right before anesthesia. 30. 30! Luckily, he already had an IV/catheter in for fluids, so they were able to control it right away and continue with the cleaning.

And the best part? No more stinky breath. Well, until he eats his own poop, that is. We're going to work hard to break him of that! :)

That little gnarly tooth on the bottom right is now MIA! :)

an update plus a bonus glucose curve

Buzz is doing awesome. Here's his glucose curve (using the alpha trak 2) from yesterday and his glucose number from this morning (his last curve was in September):

 

Pretty good, huh? He stayed between 100 and 200 all day until dinner. We may need to adjust his morning dose a bit so it doesn't get so high right before dinner, but his night insulin dose is keeping his numbers low enough that 12 hours later, his glucose is sitting right around 200.  Obviously this isn't a 24 hour curve, so I don't know what's going on at night, but since his morning numbers were similar two mornings in a row, it seems stable to me. 

Buzz and Bella both have appointments for teeth cleaning on Feb 6. Let's hope Buzz doesn't get sick because then our internal medicine vet won't let him undergo an anesthetized procedure and we'll have to deal with his teeth later (knock on wood for me, would ya?). :)