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Brandy's World

May 2010 Update
Brandy has got to be the sweetest dog that ever lived. She went to obedience training but had evidently already been trained as she knew everything so only went once and has been wonderfully behaved ever since. Her cataracts took over and she is totally blind but as I learned with blind Goldie that doesn't make much difference to a dog as they don't see well anyway and operate practically totally by smell. Brandy does everything that the other dogs do - the only difference is that she can only go outside the yard on leash as cactus are low growing and she cannot sense when she is going to run into one so has to be on leash to protect her from cactus. Inside the 3/4 acres yard she runs totally free so gets plenty of good exercise. Her diabetes is well controlled with insulin. We did find out that she had been blood tested so much that we could not get blood out of her to check her glucose level so I test her urine at home with Diastix and don't take her to the vet any more except for an annual checkup. She has a bed on the couch at home (the only spoiled one in that respect) but it gives her a quiet place to rest when she gets tired.

Correction for Brandy

I notice in my April posting I said that when Brandy's glucose reading was low I skipped her insulin shot. That only happened for a short time as I learned from a doggie diabetic group I belong to that at least a half shot should be given with a low glucose reading (actually makes sense when you think about it as the half shot will cover her glucose coming back up as she eats food throughout the day). I have been doing that and it works wonderfully. She is doing very well and is a very happy doggie. She is always amazing as she is the second blind doggie I have had and you would never know they are blind because they operate from sense of smell and run around like the wind and very, very seldom run into anything. Usually my fault when Brandy does run into something as I have usually left a pail or something sitting somewhere in one of her usual paths. Her sense of smell is pretty long distance - I am about a quarter of a mile from the road and she is always first to know someone is walking along that road and runs to bark at them.

Brandy is Doing Well

Brandy had a spate of trouble with her diabetes - testing negative for glucose both at the vet and at home (urine testing). Since in the current economy we can't really afford the vet testing anymore I took her home and started testing with Diastyxx. I stopped the insulin for a day and her glucose came back up and have since monitored the amount of glucose daily and give her insulin doses as suggested by the urine tests. She is pretty stable now and on the occasion where she tests very low I skip an insulin shot and she comes right back on schedule. So, so far, so good. Will make a visit to the vet this month to report how it is going and see what the vet says but won't have them do a day long test. My vet is very good - she is fresh out of vet school but seems to know a lot about diabetes.

I have suspected that extra exercise has triggered the low glucose and need to follow up on that more. Don't think I had mentioned below that Brandy had gone blind shortly after I got her (a side effect of diabetes) but I have been teaching her to play ball. My Goldie had played ball during the last two years of her life while she was blind but of course she had learned while still sighted. I use one of the balls that has a rope through it as I can put a bit of liverwurst where the hole for the rope is. Brandy hears the ball hit the ground and runs to the area where it fell and then quickly finds it from the smell of the liverwurst. She hasn't learned to bring it back to me yet but I'm sure she will. We have postponed ball playing for the time being but after I talk to the vet will continue again.