Bear turned 13 in April.

At dinnertime, Bear sits in his spot and barks when I'm preparing the food for 4. He can hear the dry food being stirred with the yogurt and the hot water running over the frozen veggies. He can also tell when I take the lettuce or carrots out of the refrigerator. Must be a special crinkle

When I know ahead of time that he can't get his shot on time, I try to adjust the one before by a half hour. If I can't adjust ahead of time, I let the shot be late, up to an hour and a half. It's better to have high sugar than low; low can kill. On Saturdays, my sister and I go to dinner at 6 or 6:30 and I wait until I'm back to give him 7PM shot, even if it's 8PM. Sometimes on Sunday morning I have to fight to get him to eat, but I that's only ocassionally.

I've been told that I'm lucky he was so easy to regulate and stays that way. I'd rather think it has more to do with being consistent with diet and insulin, a good vet that knows what she's doing and learning as much as possible from the diabetes board.

As long as Bandit eats the prescribed amount of WD twice a day, he will lose weight, too, but slowly. Bear prefers the dry, with something on it. I try to keep the toppings to a minimum, but varied. For a real treat, I mix canned dog food with water until it's soupy and spoon on a 1/4c. with a sprinkle of garlic powder and mix. He likes anything that crunches--lettuce, watermelon, carrots, cucumbers. Of course he only gets a little of these, and not often.

I would guess that Bandit gets about 3 cups of dry per meal or a couple of cans. Bear is a quarter his weight and gets a level cup at each meal. The WD costs $27 for a 20# bag, canned is even more expensive.

As they will tell you on the diabetes board, it gets easier as you get more comfortable with the routine.

Mary

P.S. I don't use a meter to test BG as some do.