Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Just four days after coming home from a two-week long hospital stay, we had to take little diabetic Sammy back to the vet clinic this morning.  Our internal medicine specialist in Helena, Dr. Britt Culver, last week had found Sammy responding very well (finally) to cat insulin, of all things.

Sammy seemed fine Friday and Saturday but he "crashed" (as we call it) on Sunday morning, his diabetes going out of control again.  We talked with Britt at home and we got Sammy through it, but this morning Sammy was still not his normal self.  So Alayne bundled him into the truck and drove him to the clinic in Helena.  I took this photo a few minutes before they hit the road.

Britt and his wife Brenda, our primary care vet, will now conduct an expanded 24-hour glucose curve, requiring blood draws and monitoring glucose levels every two hours around the clock.  They are taking Sammy home to continue the curve test overnight.  To avoid having to prick him every two hours for the blood, they will also insert a catheter in his vein so they can draw the blood they need that way.

They’re hoping that the 24-hour curve will give them more data and a better explanation of why Sammy is chronically unstable.  (The previous curves were on a 12-hour basis.)  We’re keeping our fingers crossed.  This little guy has spent almost as much time in the hospital as he has at the ranch.

(Click on photo for larger image.)