Calculating the Initial Insulin Dosage

The dose of Caninsulin and the interval between injections has to be tailored to suit each individual diabetic dog. All animals should be weighed accurately before commencing treatment and at follow up visits.

Hypoglycaemia

Hypoglycaemia is a major concern. To help avoid hypoglycaemia:

• The dog's body weight should be rounded down to the nearest whole kilogram
• The calculated dose of insulin rounded down to the nearest whole unit

This helps to avoid overdosing particularly during initial stabilisation.

Starting insulin dose for dogs

In diabetic dogs the dose rate of Caninsulin can be once daily or twice daily.

After calculation of the starting insulin dose, subsequent adjustments to establish the maintenance dose may be required. For more information see dose adjustment.

Once daily administration

The Caninsulin starting dose was established and confirmed in dogs, based primarily on clinical response. For guidance the starting dose should be:

• 1 IU per kg oncedaily (plus a supplemental dose based on body weight. See table below.)
• Remember to round the dog’s bodyweight down to the nearest whole kilogram and the calculated dose down to the nearest whole unit.

See table below for the calculation of the body weight dependent supplement:

top

Twice daily administration

Many specialists recommend that intermediate acting insulins be administered twice daily to dogs.

Starting dose in the range of:

• 0.4-0.7 IU/kg twice daily is usually used, with larger bodyweight dogs started at the lower end of the range.
  (Ref: Broussard JD, Wallace, MS. Insulin treatment of diabetes mellitus in the dog and cat. In Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy XII Small Animal Practice. Bonagura J ed. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1995. p. 393-8.)
• 0.25-0.5 IU/kg twice daily
  (Ref: Fleeman LM, Rand JS. (2001) Management of canine diabetes. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice 31, 855-80.)

The starting insulin dose range is thus taken as:

• 0.25-0.7 IU/kg twice daily - larger bodyweight dogs started at the lower end of the range.
• Dose is also dependent on initial blood glucose concentrations. See table below.
• Remember to round the dog’s bodyweight down to the nearest whole kilogram and the calculated dose down to the nearest whole unit.

top