? 8/14 Taishi AMPS 431, +3 421, +7 498/277???

Taishi_Ci

Taishi_Ci

Member Since 2021
Help!

I am at an absolute loss as to what's going on with the meters. After a day full of blues during our temporary switch to the human meter, we are now getting Taishi's highest readings ever while using the AlphaTrak (our preferred meter). I told myself he was "bouncing" (especially since we saw a blue with the AT yesterday) but after getting a +7 reading today of 491 with the AT, I decided to retest with the human monitor. The human monitor read 277. Tested again with the AT and got 498.

What is going on? Which meter do I "trust"? I know there's a difference between human and pet meters, but this is pretty extreme. I tested the new AlphaTrak strips with the control solution before we used them, and they seemed to be good to go. At this point, I have no idea what Taishi's blood glucose is... who knows if he's getting too much or too little insulin if the numbers are varying that much. I'm open to recommendations. We strongly preferred using a meter calibrated for pet blood, but this seems nuts. Has anyone had this happen before??

Yesterday: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/8-13-taishi-amps-314-6-130-pmps-461.251351
 
Tested the AT strips again with the control solution and getting an accurate reading, so I'm inclined to trust the AT over the Human meter... but I still don't know. Taishi is acting more like he does when his BG is high (lethargic, laying beside water dish and drinking lots), but it's also very hot today.
 
I suggest that you stop comparing meters. I have seen a previous member whose kitty is now OTJ who compared the Freestyle Libre CGM sensor with a Human blood glucose meter and an Alphatrak. The Alphatrak missed a lot of below 50 numbers while both the human meter and the Libre showed low or below 50 numbers. Her handle is Emily and Zen. You can look up her spreadsheet and see the data she collected. It might be illuminating.

I would go with the meter that shows you lower numbers in order to keep Taishi safe.
 
PerfumedCatMom said:
I suggest that you stop comparing meters. I have seen a previous member whose kitty is now OTJ who compared the Freestyle Libre CGM sensor with a Human blood glucose meter and an Alphatrak. The Alphatrak missed a lot of below 50 numbers while both the human meter and the Libre showed low or below 50 numbers. Her handle is Emily and Zen. You can look up her spreadsheet and see the data she collected. It might be illuminating.

I would go with the meter that shows you lower numbers in order to keep Taishi safe.
Click to expand...

Wanted to quickly reply and tell you that I appreciate you recommending Emily & Zen's spreadsheet. It is really insightful to see someone do a side by side comparison of the two meters. It looked like there could be up to a 40% variance sometimes between the two, which to me is very concerning, assuming that a meter calibrated for feline blood is giving the most accurate reading. I talked to a few other folks yesterday regarding the readings and got mixed info. Some folks said it was normal for the AlphaTrak to read that much higher, some said that much of a variance was abnormal and something was up, etc, so I still don't know what to trust.

We just got Taishi's lowest reading ever with both meters, so making a new thread for today as I'm feeling a bit panicky.
 
Oh no, the AlphaTrak reads way higher. Don't even attempt to compare them. Just wean yourself off the AT and ask for help until you learn the new meter. I have run through ~10 bottles of AT strips and have extensive numbers on my SS if you want to see how different the AT is. It was very accurate in my experience, but the calibration is different so it's safer to go with a human meter as that is the gold standard here and everyone knows the human meters inside and out.
 
Taishi_Ci said:
a meter calibrated for feline blood is giving the most accurate reading
Click to expand...
I will dispute this statement. A pet meter is a pet meter, and a human meter is a human meter. There are other pet meters out there and you can compare them for accuracy but you cannot compare a human meter against a pet meter. One of the most important things I took away from Emily and Zen’s study is she compared two human meters against each other. Granted, from the same manufacturer but one is a CGM sensor and the other one measures blood and they were much closer together.

Lesson learned: don’t compare human with pet meters. Ditch one and use the other. One is not more accurate than another. Since human is what we are comfy with here and you want help, that is the one I think you should go with.
 
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