What are easy ways to monitor my diabetic dog's glucose at home?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Male | neutered | 9 years and 2 months old | 20 lbs
Im having problems getting blood from my dog to check his blood glucose as he is a diabetic and we have been unsuccessful. The closest vet is 30 miles away at least so i cant take him in everyday and my vet is not the most compassionate and doesn't really seem to make my dog a priority. Are there any other ways to check blood glucose without drawing blood?
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on February 17th, 2019
I have provided a link here that hopefully will help you. There are a lot of good owner tutorials/videos for owners of diabetic pets. The best spots to obtain a bit of blood for a glucometer are the paw pad and ear tips but a lot of owners have trouble and the values may not always be accurate. You do not need to check blood sugars daily as this is not very accurate. Checking a spot check blood sugar is more important if you think the value would be low, which is more concerning than a high sugar. A blood glucose curve is a better way to monitor and this is done 7 to 10 days after diagnosis and after any dose change. Some owners monitor urine dipsticks as well. If you feel like you need more help with this disease process then you could ask for a referral to a veterinary internist who specializes in managing chronic diseases like diabetes. I hope this helps and thank you for using PetCoach! https://www.aaha.org/guidelines/diabetes_guidelines/resources.aspx
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on September 15th, 2017
HI, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Bailey! He is adorable! Regular insulin is short acting and needs to be given every 6 hours which is not feasible at home. The only time I have prescribed regular insulin is for diabetic cats who have acromegaly. My suggestions are to discuss with your Veterinarians over the phone how to gradually increase Bailey's insulin dose. You can be taught, by purchasing a glucometer (made for animals not people), how to measure his blood sugars at home. The glucometer itself is initially expensive but it may save you in the long run. Also using Keto-diaticks to measure ketones and glucose in his urine. That way you can do blood sugar curves at home and report to your Vet. My other thought, is that Bailey may need a different insulin. Overall we may just have to wait for his pancreatitis to resolve. Pancreatitis can make diabetes hard to regulate as can Cushings. If Cushings disease is suspected he may need to be tested for it and treatment started to help regulate his diabetes. Sadly cataracts are almost inevitable in our canine diabetics. Maybe when you recoup your costs you can consider having the cataracts removed. I am sorry you and Bailey are struggling and I wish you both the best!
3Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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