Butterfly is diabetic, and she has created a ritual for her morning blood test. She sees that I am going to the shelf where her testing kit lives, and with great excitement she runs to the hallway. She makes sure that I can see her, and then runs a few feet away, and then she turns back to check on me, to make sure I’m following her. She makes a dance of it, turning back three or four times down the fifteen foot hallway, bouncing on her toes in between twirls.
“Is it time yet?!
“Aren’t you coming to the bus stop, Mommy?”
Then she lands at her bus stop in Grandma’s room. And I mean lands. She flattens herself into a down position and waits for me to pick her up. Then I carry her back to the living room, sit her on my lap, and start the testing procedure.
“You can pick me up now!”
At first, when it came time to pick up Butterfly for her blood tests, Cricket would escape to her apartment under the couch. She was very concerned that this blood testing idea would spread, like a virus, like a bath-giving, haircutting virus. But over time she started to notice that not only was Butterfly the only target for the needles, there was also a very reliable treat give-away after the test. So Cricket began to sit by my feet as Butterfly’s blood was tested. I even caught her sniffing the testing kit once, as if she could smell the chicken treats by association.
“We want treats! We want treats!”
We take blood twice a day from Butterfly’s tail. We tried the veins in her ears, and her paw pads, and the callus on her elbow, but none of them worked, and then I saw a YouTube video of a dog getting her blood tested from her small cropped tail. Butterfly’s tail is long and skinny, so I wasn’t sure if it would work the same way, but there’s blood available every time and it doesn’t seem to bother her, much.
Her insulin shot goes into the scruff of her neck and usually doesn’t bother her either, but sometimes I hit the wrong spot, or maybe the cold temperature of the refrigerated insulin bothers her, and she flinches. But it’s over in a second and then she’s ready for treats. She never runs away or growls or tries to bite me. Thank God all of this isn’t going on with Cricket. I’d have no fingers left.
If Butterfly’s blood sugar is low, which it often is in the morning, she gets a special bone treat, made with whole wheat flour to raise her blood sugar just enough. Mom got this Bake-A-Bone toy for Mother’s day or her birthday this year from my brother’s family, along with books of recipes for special foods for dogs. I think Butterfly has been talking to their dog, Lilah, and trying to influence the gift choices over there.
The magical bone making toy.
Bones in process
Bones!!!!!!!!
But if the blood sugar is normal-ish, or high, the girls share a chicken treat. They know where the bag is. They go straight over to the book case and stare up at it. Cricket has even tried to climb the shelves, unsuccessfully. They pull out all of their circus dog tricks if the treats fail to come as quickly as desired. Even Butterfly has learned how to stand on her back legs with her front paws in prayer pose, though she can’t maintain the pose as long as Cricket can. Then Butterfly takes her share and runs to the hall to eat alone. And Cricket inhales her treat whole, coughs a bit, and then stares at me expectantly as if I never gave her a treat at all.
Cricket is starving!
The other day, in the middle of the afternoon, Butterfly had a partial seizure. Her eyes started twitching, her legs wobbled, she walked in circles and couldn’t see clearly, and her body shook. When I calmed down, I tested her sugar and it was very low, the lowest it had ever been. We gave her maple syrup – applied to her gums the way the doctor told us to do, so she’d have no choice but to take it in – and within thirty seconds, she was herself again. Her doctor warned us about listlessness and even coma, but he never mentioned partial seizures, so thank god for doctor Google.
And Now Butterfly is back to normal. I can be sitting on the couch, or at the computer, or trying to sleep, and she’ll come over as if something very exciting is about to happen. She’ll dip her head and smile at me, and then she’ll run. If I’m too slow, she waits for me, every step of the way, because she wants me to catch her. She wants to flatten out on the floor and get scooped up like a rag doll. It’s her favorite thing, chicken treats or not.
rachelmankowitz 
What great dogs you have! I can’t picture either of mine being so compliant with all that. But who knows?
Butterfly makes up for her compliance by waking me up at three am to poop. Seriously.
I guess there are always tradeoffs, huh?
Yup. Really loud, barky ones.
What a good mama you are to your pups. Butterfly is so very lucky to have you to take such good care of her. I’m glad everything turned out okay during and after her seizure.
She’s been great, and begging for all kinds of treats, so we’re back to normal!
Great!
What precious babies! My Murphy would go and stand by the pantry door after his adequan injection (or just about anytime, really) what I called the prize closet, and I would offer him an assortment of treats until he was offered just the right one. I am going to try to find that Bake a Bone. My son gave me a nifty recipe book with cutters in the shapes of a cat, hydrant, bone, heart and dog house but what you’ve got looks very convenient!
Tonight we made tuna treats, and the girls are now licking the bowl! It will be quiet around here for minutes in a row.
Peaceful! I so enjoy your blogposts and the antics and escapades!
Thank you!
Oh what a great mom you are! We used to live next door to a diabetic cat. The neighbor taught my young son (maybe at age 13 or so) how to give the shots so he could care for the cat when the neighbors went away. That’s what he did for several years!
Thank you! It’s amazing how good it feels to be able to give her the shots and really make a difference to her health. And what a great thing for a thirteen year old boy to be able to do!
I know! He used to say the cat really liked the shots I guess because he felt better right afterwards. And he lived a nice long life!
The cat probably liked all of the attention too!
This is so cute…and I need one of those bone-treat making kits!
Thank you! The bone maker is really easy to use, but the smell of treats baking drives the girls crazy and they seem to think they should get to taste test one treat, each, from each batch.
Lovely post! Bumble says hi to both of them.
Thank you, and many woofs in return!
Where did you get the dog treat baker? You know all dogs like treats including our puppy dogs!
My brother found it, probably somewhere online. It’s called Bake-A-Bone, and it is very easy to use.
They are so cute and lucky to have you for a mommy
Thank you so much!
You are such a good mama. It takes two of us to cut Parker’s nails so I am in total awe of you being able to draw blood by yourself. You are my hero, Rachel! ps: you have the funniest captions under your photos. They so make me laugh.
Thank you! It’s all Butterfly, though. God forbid I would try to cut Cricket’s toenails, or brush her hair, I can’t promise I would make it to the hospital in time. Even at the vet, she had to have two people holding her, because she pushed the muzzle off first thing and then went to work with her teeth and paws. I’d probably have to tranquilize Cricket to get a blood test from her. Oy.
Butterfly gets poked twice a day? I thought I had it bad with my once every 25 day injection for Addision’s Disease.
She’s very patient with me. It’s possible she has a secret blog where she complains about all of this poking. If you see it, maybe don’t let me know.
You have the cutest dogs.
Thank you! I am very lucky!
Butterfly is blessed to have you to take such outstanding care of her. Well done, Rachel 🙂
Thank you so much!
I love reading about Cricket and Butterfly. Their antics always being me joy.
Thank you! Me too!
Aawwww! Just too precious!
Thank you!
You clearly adore your two girls!
My two are the same, Lily will take her treat away for private consumption and Poppy is exactly like Cricket, gobbles it down and looks for a second one!
Butterfly and Cricket are very lucky to have you.
I wish Cricket would stop badgering after two treats. She’s been barking all morning because she thinks Grandma got too much of the turkey bacon that was clearly meant for Cricket.
Haha! Ah we love them though!
Totally!
you are a wonderful mom! Isn’t that great that our dogs have their own rituals too?
Thank you! These girls have so many rules for how i need to do things, they love to tell me what to do!
She’s a sweetie. Mine would not sit still for that.
You never know, offer enough treats and motivation seems to kick in.
Awwwww, she’s precious. So glad she has you to take care of her.
Thank you!
Aww…such cuties! I used to make my own whole wheat dog treats too but never had such nice cookware. These look good enough for human consumption!
I’m tempted to make a blueberry and maple syrup version and have them for breakfast. But there’s just something off putting about that bone shape. Maybe that’s the point of it, to keep the humans away from the treats.
Rachel, I always save your posts to read carefully (not skim, as I do others) because yours are so food, so we’ll written. But today I have to admit that I also read with the particular interest of one whose dog was rushed to the vet yesterday because he was having a seizure. Very scary indeed, so I can relate. My best wishes to Butterfly. You are a wonderful mother and she’s very lucky to have you to take such good care of her.
Thank you! That partial seizure was really scary, but the maple syrup kicked in right away. Surprisingly, Cricket barely noticed that anything strange was going on. And Butterfly forgot all about it as soon as it was over.
Butterfly is such a good girl! My Rudy is diabetic and refuses to let me test is blood. So I have to just give him the same amount of insulin everyday. His food is very regimented, as are his treats. He is 12 though, so I am afraid he will not be with me much longer. You are blessed to have a compliant Butterfly! All three of my fur-kids are the same about the treats. When Rudy gets his shot, they are all three sitting for their treats!
Butterfly’s sugar still spikes up and down too much and we can’t figure out why, so I am very lucky that she tolerates the blood tests, otherwise I’d be scared to ever leave her home alone. Though Cricket would probably learn how to open the fridge if the need arose. One piece of cheese for Butterfly, ten pieces of cheese for Cricket. Perfect.
I loved this post. I have a bichon who we named Ali. She has similar personality traits like your two beautiful dogs butterfly and cricket. I am really sorry that Butterfly has to deal with diabetes but it certainly appears she has a very caring and loving Mom.
I think the positives of diabetes may outweigh the negatives for Butterfly: she gets a lot of outings per day to make sure she doesn’t start to pee in the house again; she gets chicken treats for every shot, and special bones to raise her sugar; and pretty much the whole daily schedule runs around her chase rituals. It’s a pretty good life around here.
Wonderful how Butterfly accepts this as part of her daily routine. Some dogs don’t. All of my dogs have had no such health issues, but there is some special thing about being able to identify the doggy cupboard, wherever it is in the kitchen. Even visiting dogs have this uncanny know how.
Cricket just needs to work on her upper body strength and then she’ll be able to climb that bookcase!
Reblogged this on Linda's wildlife garden and commented:
Lovely post what a good idea to make your own dog treats
I love their rituals.
And they are so insistent on those rituals too. When I turn off the TV in the living room, they both stand up and go towards the hallway and wait for me to follow them. They find it very disturbing if I break the rules and go over to the computer instead of going to bed.
My little Maci gets very determined when it’s bed time too!
Thanks for posting pics of your dogs – a friend, who passed away last week had one very like yours. He was a great comfort to her – used to lie right up against her and talk!! That little guy hated me sitting on my friends bed – he often growled, even bit me because he knew his mom was hurting…He got very sick and when he died she was devastated. I didn’t think it was good for her health, so I would sit on her bed and read your posts to her and look at your pics, and then look at all her pics!! And then have a lovely cleansing cry!
Wow!!!! I am so honored that you chose to read her my posts, and if they gave her even a moment of relief, that’s just…amazing. Thank you!
You are lucky she is so compliant with the process. A friend is having difficulty administrating the shots to her dog and has to take her to the vet every day.
Even with her easy nature, it still took me a week or so to find the right spots to give her the shots, or else it hurt and she would wiggle and the insulin would spit into the air. I know how lucky I am to have Butterfly helping me through all of this. I watched a new intern at the vet’s office trying to take blood from her. Three sticks and no luck.
The power of positive reinforcement! Love it!
The question is, who’s being positively reinforced? Me or the dogs?
Ha! Exactly! 🙂
Butterfly is so brave, a real trooper and so are you! You and Cricket take great care of her!
I love that little bone making thingimibob too! Gorgeous post, as always!
Hugs, Carrie and Pups x
I just have to make sure Cricket doesn’t try to sneak the thingamabob out of the box to make bones while I’m sleeping.
Reading about Butterfly reminds me of the dance that I go through with Jack. I enjoy his meager attempts at escaping what he knows to be inevitable. lol When I had Marshall our Black Lab it was a totally different story; it involved tackling, sitting on the dog and it was always a battle of wills. Marshall never gave an inch, I had to work to get his medicine down the shoot. I was never afraid because I knew with utmost certainty that Marshall would never , never retaliate but it was a work out. lol
Cricket would retaliate, big time. It’s a good thing we have no firearms around here.
too funny! lol
Rachel, you’re such a good dog mommi!. Bless you. I’m sure Butterfly and Cricket are so grateful for your love and care, not to mention the chicken treats. 🙂
❤
Thank you! Though grateful is not how I would describe my girls. Constantly looking for more, is more like it.
tweeted this great post 🙂
Thank you!
You write a very good story. The love you have for Cricket and Butterfly shines through with every word.
Thank you so much!!!!!!!
Jeez, If I had to give the 5 yr old retriever/chow a shot I’d have no fingers! Your kids are too cute!
If Cricket ever gets sick I’m going to invest in workman’s gloves, really really thick ones.
Wow, butterfly is SO lucky to have such a patient, caring mom as you are! We have to give our dog medication twice a day (oral), and I’m even apologetic to her about that. I can’t imagine shots/poking multiple times per day. You are both very brave!
♥ Behr Behr 🙂
Oh Butterfly is much happier with shots than pills. She had to take antibiotics a while back and after days of struggling with pills she kept spitting out, we moved on to liquid that she likes to spit out, on me.
Those homemade treats look good. I can see why they want them. You are a good pet parent, taking such great care.
I’m just worried that they’re going to start requesting strange flavors as they get bored with the regulars. Sardine and liver anyone?
🙂
Reblogged this on A Beautiful World in Photographs and commented:
Rosie has just been diagnosed with diabetes. I must write down the bone recipe. Good post.
Rosie just got diagnosed two weeks ago. We are in the learning stages. Any recipes would be great as she is not enjoying the 12hrs between meals 😦 the bone maker looks awesome)
The tuna bones we made this week were really simple: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1and a half cups milk, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 can of tuna and 1 beaten egg. (and you can trade out the tuna for whatever flavor she likes best). I only give her those when her sugar is lower than it should be. When she’s high, but still needs a treat, I give her the dried chicken breast from Mellow Mutt, but she’d take chicken in any form.
Thank you for that. I will make it for her sometime soon. I get the point on the chicken 🙂 loves it. Thank you
Butterfly, you are very brave. Millie and Pearl freak out when I squirt flea treatment on their necks, so I dread to think what would happen if I tried giving them a shot!
Butterfly does well with the flea treatment too, but, man, trying to give her a pill could take all day!
Lovely post you such a good mum , Butterfly is such a good patient to.
Great shots adorable x
She is the best patient! I wouldn’t be so well behaved if I were the one getting shots every day.
Tweeted 🙂
Thank you!
Great post, Rachel! Lots of folks balk at managing their pets’ diabetes but you are able to share with everyone how you are managing and how the dog(s) actually become used to a routine (and the treats!) Butterfly is very lucky to have a dedicated Mum! I absolutely love the bake-a-bone thing, I’ll be looking that up very soon. Thanks for sharing!
Butterfly makes everything so easy. I’d say that I’m going to be spoiled, but Cricket is always here to remind me that not every dog likes to make things easy. Some dogs like to keep things more interesting.
They are just too cute!! And I love your treat machine. How cool is that?!
I’m thinking Cricket should be able to learn how to make her own treats. But I worry what she might try to put in them.
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Where do you live? in CA? Lost dogs in Scott Valley. One is Mason.
I live on Long Island, too far away unfortunately.
My colleague’s dog has seizures and his vet instructed him to rub vanilla ice cream on the gums. I’ll pass along the maple syrup tip. Also, the part about the bath-giving/haircutting virus made me laugh out loud. 😉
Ice cream!!!! Oh my goodness, both of my girls are going to start agitating for vanilla ice cream snacks now. We’re gonna have Cricket pretending to have a seizure, any day now.
Hahah, I would not put that past her!
Love is patient, love is kind!
Yes!
Tweeted 🙂 Hope more readers discover your lovely posts.
Thank you so much!
And again 🙂
Thank you!
And again 🙂
Thank you!
Once again 🙂 It deserves to get noticed 🙂
Thank you!
And now, too 🙂
Yay!!!!