I shot a 91 a few cycles ago and she dropped to 63 I think it was. So I'm not comfortable shooting a 83. I'm hoping she'll be up a little if I wait a half hour. I really don't want to get her too far off the 6AM/6PM shot schedule which is coming up in 10 minutes.
Weird numbers this AM. I stalled and when I rechecked 30 minutes later her left ear said she was 104 and I knew that couldn't be right so I tested the other ear seconds later and it read 94. I'm going to change the battery in my meter today and see if that helps. Either way, I was able to shoot. I didn't end up giving her the reduction the other day when I normally would have because I discovered she'd thrown up a furball right before the test and I know that effects her numbers. Her normal values have been quite nice and stable so I decided not to rock the boat, leave things as they were, and let the data speak for itself.
Beautiful cycles for Olive Hope Cindy is doing okay too.
FWIW, different droplets of blood will give different readings (and I think even the same droplet on different test strip could give a slightly different reading...all of this due to 20% meter variance) - this goes for humans too...94 and 104 are pretty close - and 91 and 94 are super close. Just my two cents
All that to say, I doubt there's anything wrong with your meter but a fresh battery is never a bad idea - if you want to keep the history, I read to change the battery within a few seconds so it doesn't get erased (I have yet to change the battery in my meter).
That can happen with the numbers. You can test with the same blood drop twice and get different numbers. The meter manufacturers are allowed a 20% variance. Also the size of the blood drop can affect numbers. What you got is so close together it is like they are the same number. Good job shooting. I hope Olive surfs safely today.
Thanks everyone! That would sure explain the variance. I feel better about it now. As soon as I get the results on Cindy I'll let everyone know and post an update on the thread.
As luck would have it, Cindy's holistic vet is closed on Thursdays and they got the lab results so late on Wednesday that who knows if they even had time to read them. Ugh! I wanted answers, so I phoned the vet that did the testing... Okay, just a recap for those who read this and might feel confused...Cindy's holistic vet is 40 minutes away. Travelling was so difficult for Cindy last time that the vet feared a heart attack with her cardiomyopathy and the fact she held her mouth open panting on top of screaming the whole time there and back. So that vet agreed it would be best for Cindy to have the lab work done right here (a mile from my house!!) and just have the results sent over to them. And just so you know, I can't stand this local vet (They do NOT believe in anything holistic) which is why I didn't want to take Cindy there originally. She had a dental done there a few years ago. They are also the ones I fired because of their actions with Olive. So, fast forward... I cringed at having to call them, but I didn't want to wait any longer. I got a new vet I'm not familiar with and she was very nice over the phone. She said she didn't have Cindy's prior files or prior lab work in hand so all she could do was give me the results from their testing yesterday. In a way, that didn't surprise me. It's their "lack of" that has been maddening in the past. But as you will learn, this actually turned out to be a good thing. She said the urinalysis came back fine, so why Cindy sits in the litterbox for several minutes in a "pee" position before the pee actually comes out is a mystery. However, her kidney values are only slightly elevated which she said really didn't put up any alarms, and the same with her liver values. Now, here's the part I was most anxious to learn about...her T-levels. This vet had ZERO prior knowledge of Cindy having Hyperthyroidism and she said she just wanted to let me be aware that Cindy's T-levels were slightly high but that for her those levels could be considered "normal" but that the real test would be clinical signs and so she asked me how Cindy was doing. This was when I explained to her that we already knew she was a Hyper-T cat and that she was on medicine (No, I didn't tell her holistic medicine) and this is why the other vet ordered another test to see if the meds were working/helping. I explained that Cindy's behavior has been so noticeably better since starting the meds that I highly suspected her T-levels were lower. Because she said she was slightly high, I then asked her what her new T-level number was and when she said it was 6.2 I actually jumped for joy! I told her this was definitely an improvement because when she was first diagnosed her level was at 10.4! After she heard this she said to definitely keep up with her medicine because it's working. Hooray! If she only knew the medicine Cindy's been taking is HOLISTIC. So, needless to say, Steve and I are ecstatic over her results. We will definitely continue as we've been with her and I can't wait to hear what her holistic vet has to say over this.
Hope Cindy is doing okay too.
