Diabetic dog and cat log

What’s inside

• Your pet’s name, species and breed, weight, your vet and the emergency clinic’s phone number.
• “What your vet told you”: lines for the insulin, the dose and the times, the meals, and what to test at home and what to do with the results. You write it in; the form prints no numbers.
• The daily log: date, time, food eaten, water and urination (normal or more), insulin given, who gave it, a reading if you test, and notes. It goes on over page 2.
• One version for dogs and cats, in US Letter and A4, with fields you can fill in on screen.

How to fill it in

1. Copy your vet’s instructions onto page 1: the insulin, the dose, the times and the meals.
2. At every injection, write the time, the dose you gave, in the units your vet uses, and your initials, so nobody at home gives a dose twice.
3. Each day, note how much your pet ate and whether drinking and peeing seemed normal or more than usual.
4. Test glucose at home only if your vet asked you to, and write the result with the time.
5. Bring the log to every recheck. Ask your vet what any entry means, and call them whenever you are worried.

What the AAHA guidelines say to log

The 2018 diabetes guidelines of the American Animal Hospital Association say owners should be encouraged to keep a daily log of appetite, of thirst (increased or normal) and of the insulin dose given. Under ongoing home monitoring they list logging food, water and appetite daily, logging insulin doses daily and recording the result when urine is tested. Checking blood glucose at home is ideal but not mandatory.

The columns of this log follow that list. What a reading should be, how much insulin to give and when to change it are your vet’s decisions for your pet, so the form leaves room to write their instructions instead of printing any numbers.