Hi Ann,
On Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:54:28 -0500, Annailis <Annailis@NOnetscape.net>
wrote:
>Really cute pictures - this and the previous one. Are they
>wielding hypodermics?
Yes. I explained at some length in an earlier post here the other day.
The insulin required by the dog or cat (same as for humans|) gets
injected under the skin, usually twice a day.
Often humans find it difficult to face this, as they usually have no
warning, and have to learn immediately to deliver these injections! It
seems to be harder for people whose veterinarians prescribe certain
insulins made especially for dogs; they usually have a concentration
of 40 IU (International Units) of insulin per milliliter - and
syringes are made to measure that, specifically; so with a U-40
insulin, you need U-40 syringes, so the measurements turn out right.
If you inject the wrong amount, you can kill your dog - too much, you
kill fast; too little, you kill slowly; ha!
But the U-40 syringes seem to come only with thick, long, needles.
There's absolutely no reason I know of to use those syringes. Instead,
you can use ones intended to deliver U-100 insulin (which is generally
made for humans - 100 IU per milliliter of fluid - a much greater
concentration). But to do that safely, you have to know how to
convert, so as to measure correctly, because the marks on the syringe
barrel become "all wrong" if you use U-100 syringes with U-40
insulins.
I am extremely dyslexic, myself, about such things, and it seems I'm
not alone, so my project is to explain, visually, how to make the
conversion. I want it to be rather hilarious, because usually people
new to diabetes in their dogs are terrified - and it generally takes
several weeks anyway before the dog stops being quite sick - but
diabetes is very manageable, and after a few weeks, with proper care,
the dog usually recovers very nicely; after that, it's a matter of
trying to keep things stable, often with some adjustments to the
insulin dose.
Vektoria TwinkelMaus came about as my narrator for the project. Now
that I have my newsreader sorted out (I hope), I'll post a few
examples, and then get to my current question about vector drawing.
Fri, 7 Mar 2008 07:37:42
Carol W
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