Hi Betty,
Thanks for inviting us to visit your condo. I'll paste here what I wrote....I do think Hank is ready, being that he is a really freshly diagnosed cat (Amy's Pedro is somewhat longer diabetic and has other health issues, as well as some of the others I've helped out are "problem kids" :lol: Some cats are just super easy, they come the front door and straight out the back. If the diabetes is caught and treated early there is often little damage to the pancreas and all it needs is a short R&R and a jump start (sometimes just the diet change alone is enough!) with an honor roll student like Hank it is ok to cut the lessons short and move on to the final exam. The OTJ trial is just that a trial, if for some reason during those 2 weeks the cat starts slipping into higher numbers we can call it off and give him a little more study time and start over after a few more weeks. We have had many cats that had to be "held back" or repeat the exam, but I think Hank is ready to challenge the exam (I'm pretty sure he will ace it) if not he can finish the class and take it over again at the "normal" time :mrgreen:
As for the "German" numbers, first of all an 89 is certainly within the normal range, typically a number between 50 and 100 is considered very good (non-diabetic) and for a diabetic numbers upto 120 are acceptable. It is also not a concern when on occasion a higher number is encountered (I'm sure if I were to check my own BG periodically I might have a odd number once in a while) those can be explained by many things (stress, recent food intake, sickness such as a cold or tummy ache, even simple meter differences) as long as the numbers don't continually climb higher and stay high over days then it's not a concern.
Another point is that when the German protocol was written most of us were using meters that measure BG in whole blood and report those values. The reference range for whole blood for humans is 60-110 mg/dl (since human meters tend to underestimate the BG in cats slightly it was determines that numbers measured as low as 50 could still be considered "normal") almost all meters available today are calibrated to give results in plasma-equivalent which has a reference range for humans of 70-120 mg/dl. All meters in the US are now plasma-equivalent (only 2 meters still available in Germany are whole blood calibrated) I have one of those (Bayer Contour) I also have 3 plasma equivelant meters which do report a little higher. Of course there also differences between individual meters and manufacturers.
I think any "green number" is absolutly perfect and shouldn't be a concern, numbers as high as 110 (considering meter error) are reasonable to consider normal as well. Higher numbers that still are below 150 are good to follow up on but also are not cause for alarm especially if they occur only periodically and and lower numbers are recorded as well. Numbers over 150 that persist or continue to rise over a few days without dropping below 120 again are indicative that the pancreas is struggleing and probably needs a little more support and an investigation into other possible factors which could be behind the increased BG (eg. forbidden foods, infection, dental problems, physical or emotional stress, meter or test strip malfunction....)
Other references to the "German method" are simply modified techniques that I or someone else has recommended or used to deal with indivdual circumstances with cats that don't follow the "rules" when doing it the "typical way". ECID reffers not only to "problem cases" which require alternative dosing or requirements, but also to "gifted students" like Hank which are ahead of the game.
Good luck!
