Doggie Diabetes

So .. it is Memorial Day...and I feel like I am losing my "lease on life!" Guess that means I feel like I am losing control.
I am so confused about the best food to feed my canine with diabetes that I seem to be going in circles. From the very beginning of owning a dog I have been schooled in the learning of Science Diet being the absolutely worst dog food on the market, almost. The info I have always been given is that veterinarians really do not get the best nutrition instruction on food selection and the company owning SD takes advantage of that by giving them some kind of kick-backs on the sale of SD food, thus vets push the sale of that food to customers. ???? Fact, I don't know. Nevertheless, I have always heard it is terrible food -- don't use it! So, what has my Piper (who now has Type I diabetes) placed on during her sickness and stay at the vet hospital??? Why canned SD, of course. Piper was sick and would not eat but finally they got her interested by warming the SD canned food and offering it to her. I feel I need to feed her a more nutritious food but can't find information about prepared food for doggies with the big D. I know she should be getting limited carbs and those she does get need to be slow digesting, that her food needs to be high protein, low fat, high fiber, low carb but ?????

This has been such a frustrating diagnosis! First, the initial and continuing costs are unbelievable. My Piper was sick when I took her to the vet and showing the typical signs a human shows with diabetes. Thus, I was not surprised at the diagnosis. But Piper was in crisis and had to go to the veterinary specialty hospital for a few days to be hydrated and to get the insulin regulated. We started out on a Wednesday afternoon --at her regular vet. We paid a bill there of $235 and I was sent with her to the VSH where I was given a proposed bill of $4000.00 to keep her until Saturday and I needed to pay up front!
Each day I was updated on the amount of the money that had been consumed. Friday arrives and I am told they need to keep her through the weekend and we have used up $3600.00 of the money.

At this point my Irish temper kicks in and I said, "Oh, no, you told me I could bring her home on Saturday and I expect to check her out by Saturday evening." The story they were giving me was that she had no energy, was lethargic, and needed more time there. However, I visited with her daily and the night before I played with her and knew better. Before I could bring her home on Saturday I had to go to the drugstore and pick up a bottle of insulin and a box of needles -- 100. This was another $100.
When I checked her out of the hospital the total charge was $4672.00. Do the math ---at this point I have spent five thousand dollars. Still her insulin is not at the correct level. So, in ten days I needed to take her in for an "insulin curve." A study to determine how much her insulin needed to be increased. This was another $300.00. Her insulin was increased one unit -- up to four. After ten days I received a call from the vet that it was time to bring her back in for another curve. So...last week she went in for another insulin curve -- meaning they check her glucose levels every two hours. After checking the patterns the vet determines how much to increase or decrease the insulin. This time I was directed to increase the insulin one unit again -- now we are at five units. I am to return on this Wednesday for another curve. Last week's charge was $197.00. I bought a glucometer of my own hoping to be able to do the glucose check myself but haven't succeeded to any extent. I have a hard time getting enough blood to activate the strip, as least as of this writing. And...the glucometer was $117.00. Now I think I understand why folks online are complaining about the increased costs of having a diabetic dog. It is not just about the insulin and syringes. My vet keeps telling me it will not be this way once we get the insulin regulated. Go figure, who am I to believe?

My Girls

Everyone who knows me knows that I am "stoopid" about these two schnauzers who share my existence. It all started when my sister and her husband gave me the first schnauzer six months after Ken died. My Sassy is the doggie you see at the top of this blog. I had her for almost twelve years and loved her every day of that time. At age six she had developed bladder stones and needed surgery. In fact, we had scheduled her surgery shortly after diagnosis. It was Christmas / New Year's season. The night before surgery one of those mean 'ole stones lodged and she wound up spending the night in the emergency vet hospital. The next morning I picked her up and transported her to her vet for surgery. They were really "bad guys" and it took a while to rid her of them that day. After that, we made lots of trips back and forth to the NC State Vet school and spent far too many dollars doing ultrasound after ultrasound always being concerned as to whether she was developing any others. Then at the age of almost twelve she started to limp on a fore paw. Her vet thought perhaps she might be developing arthritis and gave her a specific medication that should make a difference. When it did not, off we went again to the NC State Vet School. This time for an MRI. It revealed that she had cancer where the paw connected to her body -- a brachial plexis tumor which was totally wrapped up in the nerves and blood vessels. I was told I could choose to have the paw amputated. We talked about life expectancy. The conversation went something like this. Will amputation cure the problem? Answer: No How long will she have with amputation? Answer: Six months How long will she have without amputation? Answer: Six months.

You know which I chose, I am sure. Sassy rests now on the mantle in a chest. I love her today as always.

In the meantime, I had gone back to the breeder when Sassy had the bladder surgery and adopted/bought a new puppy. So now, I have two...enter Miss Piper Kensleigh! She was a new experience! Where Sassy had been sweet and oh so easy to love Piper was my Wild Child!! At one point I almost gave up on her. My brother-in-law (who loved all schnauzers, no matter) kept her for about two months. At that point I felt guilty and brought her home. Since then we have made peace and she is my older girl.
Piper had been a truly healthy schnauzer until a few weeks ago when she started to drink an unusual amount of water. I knew what that meant in human talk ---unfortunately, it means the same in doggie talk -- diabetes. After a four day stay in the veterinary specialty hospital and some more really nice sized $$$ bills, I am learning to be a doggie nursemaid to a diabetic schnauzer. As of this particular moment I am certain we do not have the insulin regulated correctly but we are working on that task. I am learning to use glucometers and insulin and needles. I get frustrated when she will not eat. With a doggie insulin is given after a meal depending on whether and how much they eat. Oh, and the most frightening aspect during this diabetes scare, Piper lost five pounds in what seemed like a few days. That truly scared me!!

In the intervening times(s) I had gone back to the breeder in Tennessee and acquired another schnauzer before Sassy went away. Enter Kamelot Kamryn!! Kamelot because her mother is Guinevere!! We call her Kami and she is my wild child now. Cute as a button and unlike either of the other two. All three of these schnauzer girls have different personalities and have turned out to be wonderful pets. They are beautiful schnauzers. (Someday I will get current pictures of them up for viewing.)
Interestingly, they were all bred in Tennessee and come from the same bloodlines. But, the breeder has sold the schnauzer stock and this is the last of the girls from Tennessee.

Me Thinks...

I believe that bunch of "circus clowns" meeting downtown in the so-called legislative building need to just pack up their goodie bags and go home. The longer they stay the more evident it becomes that they really are up to no good and are wasting the tax payers' money. In spite of all they might claim with words like restructuring the tax code, doing away with teacher tenure, revising state employment job termination options, messing with voting districts, marriage laws, photo ID's to vote, only to mention a few, I think they have done plenty of damage and just need to go home and not return period! Period, I mean, like stay home forever!

These people have generated some of the most ridiculous pieces of legislation ever! It sometimes seems they got their ideas from a brainstorming session when they were all stoned. Words like vengeance, pay back, gotcha, are some that go through the mind.

One can only hope that the voters of North Carolina wake up by the next time they vote---and, oh yes, be certain to take your photograph and proof of address if you want your vote to count!

I Called Her Mom

Tomorrow is another day....something I heard my mother say often. So...tomorrow is another day in 2013, but it is an especially designated day...Mother's Day. For some it is a happy day filled with visits from children and family. For others who do not receive that special attention, it may not be considered so special. And then for still others it could be a sad day missing, while still remembering, those they have loved but who are missing from their lives at this time.

For me, I shall remember fondly, my Mom. She is a very short Mom physically standing barely five feet tall, yet being seven feet tall to those whose lives she shaped. She is of Irish descent and lots of others, no doubt. However, our Grandfather Daugherty was around as she was being reared, thus she remembers Irish!

My Mom was a good cook as was her mother. She taught me how to cook and clean, do the laundry and to sew. Thus, I have no excuse for being a sorry example of all of those at this point in my existence. (I don't like to cook, clean, and I do not sew. I do the laundry because I must!) My Mom would not be very happy with my excuses.

When I was small I can remember a time when all of the window treatments in our home were made by my Mom. They weren't any shabby looking homemade looking jobs either. They were "So Fine!" Our home burned on December 18th one year and all of those things went up in flames. Those events seemed to have sucked a lot of "the life" from my Mom for a little while. Our experiences in life seem to color our thinking and our being and such it was with my Mom. Our spirit gets battered around a great deal in this life. Mom had rheumatic fever at age six, her father was killed when she was eight, she lived through what was known as The Great Depression and who knows how many more dreadful things. But her zest for life, determination, love of learning soon surfaced and off she went in pursuit of life and its new experiences, whatever! I loved that she never lost her interest in what was new and "keeping up-to-date!"

My Mother had five children altogether. Her first was stillborn, the second, a son, George William, lived but a few hours after birth. Then there was me! I was the only one for six years, then another son, my brother. Another five years passed and my sister was born. That completed our family. Three children had survived and as far apart as we were born we were afforded the attention usually given to an only child while being fortunate enough to have siblings. Three makes a nice sized family of children but then so would five!!

We loved our times together!! Gathering at their home as adult children with children we often bored our parents out of their skulls with our steady conversation and chatter about politics and education. At some point in our lives we have all been involved in the field of education. Sometimes our folks (Mom and Dad) would just leave us in the middle of deep discussion and migrate to their favorite places in their home as we continued those discussions.
Our Mom has been gone twenty-one years now. (1992)

We miss Mom....and we know she is happy now with Daddy! Happy Mother's Day ALL!