Blood Glucose Test

Close monitoring of the pet's activity, diet and consistent schedules are very helpful in controlling or maintaining consistent blood glucose levels at home. BVAH use blood glucose monitoring systems have been used by human diabetic patients for accurate assessments of their blood glucose levels for many years. We have been using these devices on the ears of dogs and cats with diabetes to get immediate and accurate blood glucose samples on their diabetic pets. This has improved quality of glucose regulation and accurate assessments of insulin requirements.

Management of diabetes mellitus in dogs and cats has always been a challenge for the pet owner and the veterinarian. When an animal is first diagnosed with diabetes mellitus or develops a crisis due to dysregulation, pets are typically evaluated, at which time glucose curves are performed from venous blood samples at regular intervals to evaluate the animal's response to insulin. Once an acceptable insulin dosage is determined, the pets are sent home to their natural environment, where the pet owner's subjective analysis (or an actual measurement) of the dog or cat's water consumption, appetite, weight, urine glucose and urine ketone levels and are used to determine glucose control. 

The patterns established from blood glucose curves are done in BVAH to accurately determine the insulin dosage before allowing the pet go home. Insulin dosages are selected by assuming that the glucose curve is representative of what occurs in the pet's body once it leaves the hospital. In fact, it has been shown that there is a large variation in the day-to-day results of serial blood glucose curves in diabetic dogs. It is rare for glucose levels to change over time.