May 2008 has been a busy month.

Welcome to New Members
Kristine and Henry the pug-chi
Danielle and Gracie a lab mix
Cherie and McDuff the westie (how are you making out with the blood testing)
Roger and Albert who is lab and airedale
Ericca and Meeka a Siberian Husky
Melissa and Kregger(hubby's dog from college)
Colleen and Corey the Jack Russell Terrier (how are the shots progressing)
Carolyn and Blaze the min schnauzer
Sharon and Sassy also a schnauzer
Michele and Sylvia a lab mix
Karen and Frosty an Eskimo Spitz
Heidi and Polo Bear another Siberian Husky
Patricia and Molly an Australian terrier
Renee and Soukie a samoyed
Wendy and Pele a min pin
Kate and Tinkerbelle a golden retriever
Kendra and Gizmo a yorkie poo
Cathy and Phoebe a maltese
Debra and Patsy a wheaten terrier
Joyce and Bailey a mini schnauzer
Mary Lane and Black Jack a mixed breed
Ann and Jack a jack russell terrier (trouble with shots as well)
MJ and Sadie a black lab
Jean and Qwen 18 and a half year old cat
Sue and Moses the rottweiller

We also have quite a few new members that we do not have information on and we welcome you to our internet family too.

Membership Update as of May 31, 2008
We have 32 new members for the month of May.
Our membership is now up to  472  members.
943 messages was posted this month in the yahoo group.
We are averaging about thirty posts a day which makes it nice to wake up, turn on the computer, 
download emails and not have to wade through a bunch of emails not pertinent to diabetes.
Have received feedback that the members prefer the group the way it is now. 
Less emails and the sharing of important information about diabetes and health related matters.
We are going to encourage off topic emails to be posted to the off topic group that we have.
We no longer have people joining and then unsubscribing due to receiving too many emails.
Mike and me came up with 31 tips of the day and there has been good feedback on this feature too.

Group News this Month
An old member returned to our family Cathy ... she is fostering a diabetic fur baby Phoebe and hoping to find a home for her.
Tonya's Hogg celebrated his birthday and her diabetic cat Scan celebrated one year of honeymooning from diabetes.
Barb is still trying to regulate Mitsy and we all have our fingers crossed that she will soon find the right dose.
Jill is also still trying to regulate Belinda and again we hope that she finds the right answer. Could you urine test Jill?
Our happiness that Hoss had a great check up!!
Kristine received her pet glucometer in order to check Henry's blood...not sure if she had success.
Some of the members are using cosequin(glucosamine) with no complications in their diabetic pets.
A lot of members seem to use advantage for flea control in their diabetic pets.
Nancy told us that Jewell had a reaction to the advantage (abcesses between her toes) so she was switched to Frontline.
Annette's Wilson had glaucoma in his eye and has regained a little of his sight and we all hope that he does not lose it.
Sharon's fur baby Baby had a birthday!!
Danielle did you find out what food you are going to feed Gracie and how is she doing?
Christy shared with the group how Angel Cheyenne adjusted to being blind once she regained her confidence.
Fran told us how Dilbert has now been diabetic for almost a year but that he is still running high :( If you blood test and can do a curve and post it Margo could really help you.
Erika is fine tuning the amount of treats Pepper eats.
Karen's Loki had an upset tummy and we hope she continues to improve. We are waiting for an update on her progress.
We realize that sometimes due to parties etc...owners have to give insulin an hour earlier or later and that other members have done this including myself with no problems. Read the words of wisdom from Lee on this.
Good thoughts going out for Lee's Simon who has a possible mass on his spleen. Simon is Lee's sixth diabetic.
Michaela has almost reached the perfect dose of insulin for Tash ... a big congratulations. She would now like Tash to lose a little weight.
Bette's Nikki had a great nine month vet report and that always makes everyone feel good and gives hope to those just starting down the road of living with a diabetic pet.
Good to see you post Emi.
Josephine from Australia always takes time to read the emails and share information on how she takes care of Buffy!!  People like her makes this a fantastic group.
We do hope Margarete's husband Stan is doing ok and that she is making lots of real estate sales beings she is supporting their family now.
Sue Starbuck also celebrated a birthday this month.
It is always good to see old members like Eileen, Missy and Dot make a post...then we do know they are still with us and they are reading emails and will have a suggestion for some new member with a question that they can relate too.
Linda said that Jasmine has had a urine infection and some yeast problems too so we hope now that she is off the antibiotic that everything continues to go well. If you can't blood test then urine testing is an alternative.
Regi and Angel Buddy you are always in our thoughts and it was nice to see you post.
Bert's Lyndse has lost a few pounds by cutting the dry food and adding some grean beans to the food.
On the opposite end Kristine would like her Henry to gain some weight.
Stacy had two diabetic dogs Gretchen and Hanna and she continues to share information that helped her pets in the struggle with diabetes.
Maggie Mae had a hotspot on her leg and we hope that it has healed. Her Mom Dr Marlene reminded us that human insulin syringes can be used for vetsulin by converting the  U40 dose.
Erin gave an update on Buddha who was diagnosed back in December of 2007.  Her blood glucose is running at good numbers now and that is great to hear and encouraging for others. She stays between 125 and 200 so way to go Buddha.
Anne has been feeding Solid Gold Hundenflocken to her dachshund Reba since diagnosis in February. She feels this food has made a big difference in her dogs. So if you are having troubles with a food you are presently using keep this in mind.
Leslie finally got a negative urine culture on Wilson so we will keep good thoughts that the persistent uti infections are a thing of the past. His blood glucose is very good and hopefully in the near future he will have his eyes fixed.
Connie's Darby is doing good on the 70/30 insulin and she is now on thyroid meds as well.  Again this helps new members to realize that different insulins for different pets can be the answer to regulation along with undiagnosed other illnesses such as hypothyroidism. 
Michele's Sylvia is doing better and ate all the baby food at the vet.  You continue to fight Sylvia.
Renee's Soukie is taking the shots like a big girl but would rather sleep in then get up to eat.  Her daddy is reluctant to give shots but Steve told us he too was afraid at first but it is just him and Rocco so he has to do it and now it is just part of the daily routine.
Joyce is concerned that Bailey is not gaining weight and wondering what is the underlying cause for this. 
Claire's cat Tam is still missing and we pray that she finds her way home.
Judy posted on how she adjusted Queenie's insulin by urine testing and observation. 
Karen shared that she only urine tests Loki and Bonnie only urine tested Keisha too.
Linda Underhill shared how long her dog's lived with diabetes. Heidi was almost 14 with 8 yrs diabetic 
and Crosby almost 15 and 7 yrs diabetic when they passed on.  She did not home bloodtest.
There was a discussion on jet injectors versus syringes for insulin injection and Margo and Lee explained that they caused pain and extreme bruising and likely why most humans do not use this method of insulin injection.
"The insulin penetrates the skin from sheer pressure, it's painful and it leaves nasty bruising." Margo on jet injectors
Susan's Bella has developed diarrhea but the food change was started over two weeks ago so likely not from that. We look forward to her vet's input on this situation.
What Stacy does for diarrhea. "I give my dogs Imodium for diarrhea. Also canned pumpkin is great for both diarrhea and constipation(pure pumpkin not pie mix) and it shouldn't affect the BG much. 
Mary is having trouble getting blood from Black Jack for hometesting.  We hope that she succeeds because this is a powerful tool one has if you can do your own blood curves.  She said she will master this procedure.
She injects insulin before feeding and we strongly recommend that one always feeds first because if the pet refuses to eat or vomits you cannot remove the insulin that you injected from the body.  Insulin can kill :(
Janie posted that she had to do a mass delete of emails. Her Mom has been sick and we do hope she is doing better but all her dogs are doing fine. Hope this digest helps you catch up with the last month's news.
Jean had a lot of questions but her main concern is that idexx is discontinuing pzi insulin. Her kitty Qwen is regulated on this insulin. Do let us know what insulin you switch to Jean. I love your sense of humor.
 
Words of Wisdom from Lee
(Lee is a vet tech, a moderator of this group and has taken in six diabetic animals of her own over the years.)
"I have managed all of my diabetics based on behavior not testing every few hours, I rarely do curves, they all eat what everyone else eats.  On the weekends I may be 2 hours late for the AM injection.  I give some treats in between meals. My first diabetic was on Ultralente.  It worked 5 years for her but my second couldn't handle it.  He went on to nph.  The one cat I had was on U.  Not one of my diabetics has died of diabetes."
More from an email posted this month:
"This is not a one size fits all disease.  That is why we need to have a choice of insulins.  If it was a one size fits all then there would not be so many different treatment choices for our animals and our human friends."

Home Cooking Recipe
There were some questions on homecooking so Margo posted the recipe she got from the vet nutritionist.
1/3 chicken breast meat
1/3 brown rice
1/3 mixed vegetables
salt
a little oil
calcium
multi-vitamin
The needed amount of calcium and vitamin will depend on their weight. I can't give you the exact amount for the oil, salt, calcium or the vitamin as it was for Alex's weight (65 lbs) but your vet should know how much to 
give daily. 

Note on vitamins from Judy: I purchased visorbits (a multivitamin for canines) from my vet and fed them daily to Queenie...they were chewable and she loved them.

Urine Testing
I only urine tested Queenie for her eight years of diabetes with occasional blood testing at the vet's. 
She did not want to be blood tested and I could not find a spot that bled good and it caused her enormous stress and myself trying to do it.
I then started to doubt myself when I could see that others were able to obtain blood. Don't do this! 
We are here to share experiences not to cause each other doubt.
If you can obtain blood and do your own curves then you are way ahead in the game but if you can't then you are still in good shape :)
I always observed how much she was drinking and how many times she had to go outside. 
I even counted seconds she peed to see if she had more urine output then usual.
I adjusted her insulin with the following method:
I wanted her urine samples to be negative all the time except perhaps a trace in the morning. 
Linda's vets idea and the one that I went with:
His theory is if you increase the insulin until you hit negative and than back off a unit or 1/2 unit 
until you get glucose 1/10 to 1/4 (on bayer diastix) I used the ketodiastix(checks for ketones and glucose in the urine)
than the dosage (units of insulin) you are adminstering is the correct dosage (at negative). 

Thanks to Barbara Farmer for saying some very nice things about the members of this group in some of her emails this month.
"Everyone here is just super - supportive and informative. When that fails, they are sympathetic and willing to suggest alternatives."
"From what I can tell, and from what I experienced, panic is perfectly normal at the beginning. With the support of this wonderful group, I think you will be able to overcome this."

This month we had our four who am I emails.
We do a new member every Monday
Sharon Byrd and Angel Luke
Annette and Wilson
Kathy and Zoe
Barbara and Maxi

If you missed them you can read them on the who am I webpage
http://www.caninediabetes.org/whoami.html

Sympathies
Our sympathies to Dave who lost his brother.
Our sympathies to Karen who was only with the group for a few weeks when she lost her beloved Frosty on May 17th.
Our sympathies to Kris lost her beloved Shasta Noel on May 6th.  She will always be in your heart Kris.
Our sympathies to Brenda lost her beloved Lewis on May 3rd.
Dottie reminded us that five years ago on May 29, 2003 she lost her beloved Pumpkin.  Rest in Peace little Pumpkin.

WITH ANGELS THEY PLAY 

They haven't really been taken away. 
They have only gone with the Angels to play. 
They have been given wings with which to fly. 
All their troubles have passed them by. 

Their life in heaven now must start. 
But we'll hold their memory in our hearts. 
Nothing about them will be forgotten. 
But now they sleep on billowy clouds of cotton. 

Some memorial pages were added to the website.
Kris's Shasta
Karen's Nyssa
Brenda's Lewis
Dottie's Brownie
Karen's Frosty
 http://www.caninediabetes.org/memorials.html

Monthly Reminders
For those members who want more chat we have an off topic group where we share crazy information, pictures and just plain nonsense.
We encourage our members to join this group if they want to post off topic subjects.
Anyone from the groups are welcome to join. 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/otchat/
This group helps to keep our diabetes pet group more on topic and at a more acceptable amount of daily postings.
Not everyone wants off topic chat and that way we have a happy medium for all the groups.

Our group will continue to strive to be the best on the net and do the little extras that in my opinion makes us the best.
Daily Tips
Weekly Who am I Email...introducing a member and their pet (some are angels, some have been here a long time and some are brand new)
A new monthly digest that will try to cover some of the main events from the month. 
We try to cover the group news and apologize to something that we missed.
A silly weekly pet horoscope for no reason except to maybe make someone smile for the weekend.

We own two websites on the internet that contain a wealth of information.
http://www.caninediabetes.org
http://www.petdiabetes.com

If you want to be featured in a Who am I Email, Have your diabetic pet's story posted to the website, Have a memorial page made for your Angel Pet or If you have any suggestions for a weekly or monthly feature about something that you think would make the group better 
then send Judy an email with your idea.
queenie@mnsi.net

If you want something researched for the daily tips then 
contact Mike smithmj@clearwire.net