Kooper and I have had a long past week or two. I brought Kooper in to the vet because he had a pretty nasty eye infection. He’s always had eye issues, but this time they looked red and had other issues that are frankly too gross to describe. So in he went! While there I told the vet that he’s been super itchy and that he’s on heavy duty flea meds and on Benedryl, which wasn’t helping. So when all was said and done we had a prescription coming in from Arizona for his eyes and a heavy duty cortizone prescription for his itchies. That was super cheap $$!! 😉 So home we went. Almost immediately Kooper started drinking water ALL day and having accidents ALL day. This was super alarming. So back we went to the vet. Well, turns out the thirst is a side effect of the itchy meds. Immediately he was taken off of the medication (there went a $60 prescription!). The vet said if his behavior didn’t change in 48 hours I was to bring him back in. And you guessed it, nothing changed!!! I gave him an extra day to see if the meds needed a little more time to get out of his system and three days later, they hadn’t. So back to the vet we went. The vet informed me that there were about 20 different reasons he was still having thirst/accident issues. To figure out which one it was, they needed to run some tests. I was almost positive it was the meds still lingering in his system, but the extreme thirst had me concerned enough to go ahead with the testing. $450 later and we have a diagnosis! Kooper has diabetes-osis (Doc McStuffins terminology!). So what does this really mean? Two injections a day (bi-monthly prescriptions of both insulin and needles) at exactly 12 hours apart (that should be easy/convenient, right?), regular visits with the vet for blood testing (that’s sounds cheap, right?!), and whole slew of health issues that are commonly seen with diabetes (i.e. cataracts and teeth issues- you know, special ones that pugs don’t already come standard with!).
So here is my twice daily routine with my favorite dog, Kooper (he must be my favorite to go through all of this with, right?!)
First up, we treat the eyes. He gets a drop in each eye. He is super calm and doesn’t resist at all. Scouts honor. Then I rub an ointment on his eyes to help with artificial tears. Again, good patient!
Next up, insulin!
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After he eats (and he better eat or else it throws me in a tail spin as far as how much insulin to give him!). I get 7 mm in the syringe (I don’t know what mm is, but it’s on the syringe!). The fun part is, I better make sure there are no bubbles in the insulin, and I better make sure it’s the exact amount. Because guess what? If I am wrong on either, he could go into hypoglycemia and that could mean anything from being lethargic, to non-responsive, the seizure, to death. So, are we having fun yet?! Luckily, Kooper is GREAT at getting his shot. Because let me tell you, if he resisted at all to the shot, I’d be shit out of luck. Sorry for my language, but this is serious! So as I sit and write all this, I am on day one! So far he is acting normal and still kind of drinking a lot, but no accidents! We go back Monday to check his levels and likely add more insulin. They err on the side of caution and start off with very little insulin because as I mentioned, if we give the wrong amount it’s pretty catastrophic. It’s really only that serious if I give too much. If it’s too little he still pees the bed and drinks water all day. So this is what is consuming my life right now, and that’s okay. I have some (read, A LOT!) of reading to do in order to be knowledgeable enough to handle anything that could go wrong. I love Kooper dearly and I will do this for him. He is my Mr. Magoo and all I want is for him to be healthy. Even if that means daily injections and wrestling him to put drops in his bulbous eyes! I. Will. Do. Anything. AND EVERYTHING (Sorry Scotty, this could get expensive!)