Monday, July 8, 2013
Cupid went back to the vet for a follow-up visit on Friday to have her blood sugar levels re-checked to make sure we are giving her the proper amount of insulin. To our surprise, Cupid's blood sugar levels were low!
Currently, Cupid receives 1 unit of insulin two times a day. 1 unit is a very small amount of insulin.
One of the things we are struggling with is that Cupid needs eat before she receives her shot. Cupid has always been a grazer so getting her to eat enough food before her shot has been tough. To top it all off, Cupid is on special food for her hyperthyroid condition, so it is not like we are offering a can of fancy feast or something she actually likes.
So for the next week, we are going to give Cupid 1 insulin shot per day. After that we will recheck her blood levels and see how she is doing.
I think it is going to take some time for us to get Cupid's blood sugar levels stabilized.
Friday, July 5, 2013
A few people asked about the OBP secret pug food recipe when I posted the lovely picture the 15 lbs of turkey we purchased recently. Before I share the recipe, let me add a little disclaimer. The boys have eaten a variation of this recipe for the last 10 years. It works for us, but this recipe might not work for your dog. If you would like to try this recipe or something similar consult with your vet before you make the switch. Also, making sure your pug has a balanced diet when feeding them homemade food is also very important. Commercial dog food is tested for that, but this recipe is not. Our approach to making sure the pugs' diet is balanced is variety. We swap out different parts of this recipe to change up the nutritional content. We also work closely with our vet and monitor the pugs' blood work regularly to make sure they are not nutrient deficient.
Without further ado, here is the recipe.
Ingredients
- 99% Fat Free Ground Turkey (cooked)
- 100% Pure Canned Pumpkin
- A vegetable. One of the following:
- Peas
- Green Beans
- Mixed Veggies
- Spinach
- Brussels Sprout (not a hit with Benny or Luna)
- High fiber cereal or oatmeal
- Yogurt or cottage cheese
Below is a rough estimate of the quantity of each ingredient included in one bowl. This has varied over the years and at times has varied from pug to pug.
- 1/4 cup Ground Turkey
- 1 tbsp of pumpkin
- 2 tbsp of veggies (or 1 sprout cut up)
- 1 tbsp of high fiber cereal
- 1 tsp of yogurt or cottage cheese
The boys eat this meal twice a day and also get a mid day snack. Their mid day snack is either a tbsp of canned pumpkin with Wellness kibble or sometimes canned pumpkin with a scoop of turkey. We supplement with the Wellness kibble to hit any nutrients our recipe might have missed, but more importantly to keep their bodies used to the dry dog food in case a hurricane or some other event would leave us unable to make or keep their normal food.
Luna used to eat the same meals as the boys, but now she is on a special prescription food for her kidneys.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Happy Independence Day! To celebrate, here are some independent pictures of Benjamin, Henry and Luna. 
Enjoy the day!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Last week, Cupid gave us our latest medical scare. On Monday, after we got home from work, Cupid threw up. We didn't think much of it at first because Cupid throws up from time to time. However, a short time later, Cupid threw up a few more times. Eventually, she got up a good sized hairball. After that, I thought that was the reason for her upset stomach and that all would be OK after that. However, things were far from OK after that. Cupid continued to throw up and started drooling. In addition, she kept laying down. It was almost like she couldn't hold her self up.
We decided to take Cupid to the emergency vet. My thinking was that Cupid might have eaten a gecko or some other bug that wasn't sitting well.
The emergency vet, did some blood work and Cupid's glucose levels were off the charts. This would be a good indication of Diabetes, but glucose levels can spike when a cat is stressed and Cupid was definitely stressed. The emergency vet gave Cupid fluids and some medicine to calm her stomach and told us to take her into our normal vet the next day for further testing.
We headed to the vet the next day, and our regular vet took a urine sample from Cupid to see if there was sugar in her urine. The only thing that would cause sugar in her urine would be Diabetes.
It took a few minutes for the test results, but it was confirmed that Cupid had suger in her urine. In addition, she also had bacteria in her urine. The bacteria is an indication that Cupid has been diabetic for some time now.
To control the diabetes, Cupid will need to be on insulin shots. We were given a tutorial on the insulin dosage and how to administer the shots.
We started Cupid's insulin shots the same day. Right now, Cupid gets shots twice a day. Lucky for us she is a champ at taking her shots. She doesn't wiggle and is fully cooperative.
There are a few more vet visits in Cupid's future. We need to do some follow-up testing to make sure that we have the right dosage of insulin to make sure Cupid's blood sugar levels are at a good point.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Looking forward to your captions in the comments.
Monday, July 1, 2013
We received the test results for Luna's airway wash and the biopsy for the two spots removed on her side. The two bumps removed from her side were benign. Yay!
The culture from the airway wash showed signs of bacteria. So we have started Luna on a round of antibiotics to see if we can clear that up. I don't think the antibiotics are going to cure Luna's cough but hopefully it will get us on the right track.
Later this week, Luna will go to the vet to have the stitches removed from her side. The funny thing is that it appears that Luna has almost as much hair growth on the patch that they had to shave for her biopsy as Benny does on the shaved spot on his back from the testing he had months ago.
Friday, June 28, 2013
From the looks of this picture you probably think that we posed Luna with the gargoyle statue. Nope! Sitting with this statue was all Luna's idea. She walked up to it and plopped down next to it just like she does when she hangs out with Henry.
Let's not tell Benny that the gargoyle statue may be ahead of him on Luna's preferred friends to hang out with list.
