9/16 Obie amps 288 on AlphaTrak (218ish on the Human)

[Obie]

Obie did either 1 of 2 things: He went low last night and 288 is on it's way up.
Or He didn't fly so high last night and maybe 288/218 is as high as he got.
Or something else.
I meant to test him again last night but I fell asleep.
He went pretty low yesterday. The Pet one said he hit 50 which is bad news on the Alpha trak 2
The human meter had him low, but never under 42.
He does seem to clear his bounces faster these days.
Anyways, his recent reactions seem to be sliding down into friendlier territories.
I have to leave for work.
I'll try to get a reading before I go

 

[tiffmaxee]

When Max first started with this dance I got a meter and was bringing it to my vet's to test along side his Alpha. Once I started testing at home I only use my Relion and my vet is fine with it. Testing with both can get pretty expensive. I have since bought a back up that I only use if I get a number that seems wrong to me. My first Relion seemed way off so indent it back and they sent a new one that works better.

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

I wanted to post the answer i gave to your pm here so others can see it as well. James' vet is suggesting that Obie ought to be all green by now.

there is a magic dose for most cats that will make them go green - but Obie isn't to it yet. It's kind of amazing when it happens.

The typical pattern is that first you get green nadirs. As they stretch out, the pmps is the next one to come down. Then the amps is last, because of something called Dawn Phenomenon. Then, voila - an all green spreadsheet. If the cat's pancreas can keep sputtering along, staying in the green numbers will help it to heal and then it will begin to put out insulin on a regular basis, like it should.

As that happens, you need to inject less and less, and the dose goes down until it goes to nothing. it's really cool to watch. My favorite one - the cat that went green but still took the longest time possible to work off of insulin was Davidson. He took about 4 months to work off of insulin, all the while staying green from February on.

The thing about getting to the magic dose - well there are a couple of things. one is that it's not all up to the person. If the cat's got any concurrent thing going on, even dental gingivitis, that can interrupt the process and prevent regulation. Hyper-thyroid and pancreatitis are well-known as problems. So you can do everything by the book and your cat might still not go off of insulin. The other factor that plays in is how long a cat has been in high numbers. Dr. Rand demonstrated that a cat forced into blood sugar over 550 for as few as 3 days would begin to have pancreatic damage and the insulin output would severely diminish. The good news is that a cat's pancreas has the ability to heal, unlike humans or dogs. But if a cat has been in high numbers too long, they stop accepting normal numbers as normal, and they bounce. and they might continue bouncing. We have cats that can go from amps 400 to 40 to pmps 400.

It also takes some time to get to that magic dose safely. It's your precious cat - you don't want to overdose him, so you start with a dose and adjust it per the protocol. that just takes some time.

 

[Obie]

The relion strips are 1/2 the price of the alphatrak strips. I rely mainly on the relion for most measurements. I use the Alphatrak at shot time, and the relion when I test in between shots.I can take a number from an alpha trak , and reference what the relion number was when it last matched the present reading and know about where he would be on the other meter . I figure these machines both use algorithms to determine the glucose and math is math. The other day, when My boy went pretty low, The Relion had him at 42+9, and the Alpha Trak 2 had a reading of 72 +9.
I would say that both Meters measured properly at that time.


His other numbers today were +7 196 relion,pmps 267 relion. The Alpha had him at 306 pmps.
These last 11 days(although he has gotten low a few times), Are showing a distinct move downward on the scale.
I can see a point where he might possibly get OTJ!
Thank you all for your help!

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

you know, i'm thinking i should clarify what i said a bit.

cats do bounce because they've gotten unaccustomed to high numbers. bouncing in itself is a normal response, and it can be a good thing, because it can prevent hypoglycemia in case of a crisis.

the connection to what i was saying about the pancreas is that if the damage is extensive enough, the pancreas may not be able to heal. when that happens, they can't go OTJ. However, for most (not all) cats it's possible to get them regulated even if they can't go off of insulin. I didn't get punkin regulated, but he had acromegaly. Cats with other medical issues may not be able to become regulated. Keeping their blood sugar in normal numbers, if possible, can protect their organs and help them be as healthy as possible.

everyone does the best they can. the cat is the lead in the dance, however - sometimes we're just following.