AMPS.. Questions about this

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TigzMom

TigzMom

Member Since 2015
Ok.. So I was finally able to get a BG from Tiggy. I did one right after I have him his injection of Lantus. He's on 2 units x 2 a day. His BG was 324. I'm using a Relion (Confirm) from Walmart. If the Human BG machines are higher than the Alpha Traks, does this mean that his BG is good or not? I'm confused. Am I comparing the BG levels against what they would be at the vets office (who uses an alpha trak, or against the range of BG levels I get from the Relion? I mean, how will I really know if Tiggy is doing well? He seems to be "acting okay", I.e. Eating well. Drinking his water, and "acting like his usual self. And he doesn't have ketones in his urine. ?????
 
The human meters actually test about 35% lower than the pet ones

324 is still pretty high (but not outrageous), but it'll help when you can get some tests mid-cycle (like +5 to +7) so we see how low it's taking Tiggy. Lantus dosing is based on how low it takes them, not the pre-shot numbers. We'd like to see him lower...below about 230 is below renal threshold, so if we can get him down, it'll help save extra wear and tear on his kidneys (but it doesn't happen overnight...it'll take some time)

It's also important to try to test before you shoot because IF he was low, you might not want to give insulin at that time. Usually we Test/Feed/Shoot...all in about 5-10 minutes. You test to make sure they're high enough to shoot, then feed to make sure they're eating "normally" and then shoot.

It's important not to try to compare your tests to the tests at the vet....Most of us here use human meters and we understand the numbers with them. Once you understand the scale, it really doesn't matter. Think of it like temperatures...there's Celcius and Farenheight....both are correct, you just have to understand the scale to understand that 32F is cold...and 32C is hot!

It'll also help if you'll get our spreadsheet going. Here's some instructions on Creating a spreadsheet

The spreadsheet is every bit as important a tool in your "diabetes toolbox" as a low carb diet and a good insulin. It's how we tell if they need increases, decreases or to hold the current dose.
 
Thanks so much. And I am working on my spreadsheet. I read the instructions and downloaded this to my computer so I could fill it out, but was trying to find the instructions again as to how to upload it.
2nd question, (I'm not technologically advanced) if I am filing out the one I have downloaded on my computer, that means I would need to continue to upload any changes I make to the spreadsheet uploaded right?
 
The easiest way of doing that is going to be to upload the saved spreadsheet back to Drive and save it there. That way you can access it direct in Drive and future changes will save automatically.

I found it was easiest just to keep the spreadsheet open in a tab all the time so I could update it straight away any time I took a test - if I had to go and find the ss each time, I'd have missed putting numbers in for sure.

This is Google's explanation of how to upload something into Drive:

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2407404?hl=en
 
Thanks so much! Everyone here is so fantastically supportive! You, Chris & China, BJM, etc etc! My angels!!
 
There are lots of us here who really enjoy helping just as we've been helped when we were new to all of this and felt like all we had was questions we were searching for answers to. :) Just keep on asking whenever you have questions...that's what this place is all about! :)
 
Ok.. So, Tiggy went down to 155 at (+5), but I just checked his (+7) BG numbers and they were up a little to 175. I was going to test him again in two hours to see where he was at. What do I do if he keeps going up?
 
A gradual drop into nadir (the low point - typically between +5 and +7, but it can vary) followed by a gradual rise back towards the next pre-shot is actually a perfectly normal Lantus cycle so there's absolutely no need to worry about him coming back up a bit at this point. :) Now you're home-testing, it will be much easier to work out how to adjust his dosing to keep him in better numbers for more of the day, but you will need a few days numbers before changing his dose so you can be sure that this cycle is typical for him...results from the same dose on the same cat do vary day to day even with everything else being kept exactly the same.
 
Chris & China said:
The human meters actually test about 35% lower than the pet ones
Click to expand...
But not always
9-14-2014

I just did two tests with my original AlphaTrak and my human Easy Gluco Plus meter. Both comparisons used same drop of blood from two different cats


Dulce OTJ
AT = 72

Easy Gluco Plus = 54
The AT is 133% of the EGP value

The EGP is 0.75 of the AT

Badgar
AT = 377
Easy Gluco Plus = 331

The AT is only 113% of the EGP value

The EGP 0.88 of the AT
 

The human meters, on the average, test about 30-40% lower than pet meters. This data comes from international feline diabetes expert Dr Rand of the University of Queensland who obtained hundreds of paired tests when doing studies of feline diabetes. She observed the human meters reading an average of 30-40% lower values values and noted it in several of her research publications.

If you recall from your basic school studies, you get the average by summing up all the test scores, then dividing by the number of tests. There will be some tests higher than this average; there will be some tests lower than this average. (Well, unless everyone gets the exact same score!)

When you compare the difference between any 2 meters, the difference between them when using the same blood drop will vary, even at the same glucose level. Part of this is because the meters sold in the US are allowed to test as much as 20% lower or higher than what a lab would get.

Calculating the +/- 20% for Dulce:
The AT test of 72 means her glucose was somewhere between 57.6 to 86.4.
The EGP test of 54 means her glucose was somewhere between 43.2 to 64.8 .

The 2 meters could be as much as (86.4-43.2) or 43.2 mg/dL apart, or as little as (67.8-56.6) or 7.2 mg/dL apart, depending on whether each meter was reading high or low or someplace in between.

The EGP could be from 50% lower (1-[43.2/86.4]) to 18% higher than the AT value ([67.8/57.6]-1).
The AT could be from 100% higher than the EGP value ([86.4/43.2]-1) to 11% lower than the EGP value (1-[57.6/64.8]).

Calculating the +/- 20% for Badgar:
The AT test of 377 means his glucose was somewhere between 301.6 to 452.4.
The EGP test 331 means his glucose was somewhere between 264.8 to 397.2.

The 2 meters could be as much as (452.4-264.8) or 187.6 mg/dL apart, or as little as (397.2-301.6) or 95.6 mg/dL apart, depending on whether each meter was reading high or low or someplace in between.

The EGP could be from 41% lower (1-[264.8/452.4]) to 32% higher (1-[397.2/301.6]) than the AT value.
The AT could be from 71% higher (1-[452.4/264.8]) to 24% lower (1-[301.6/397.2]) than the EGP value.

Using just 2 pairs of tests (4 total tests) and the +/- 20% variance shows that the possible differences may vary widely.
The research Dr Rand did with many more tests narrowed down the average percent difference.






 
Right but just because the the average difference is 30-40 dose not mean you can just also use ththat differences.

Also the Rand study on used the following human meters.
The blood glucose values were based on using portable glucose meters (Ascensia Contour, Bayer,Leverkusen, Germany; Accu-Chek Aviva, Roche Diagnos
tics, Basel, Switzerland) which use≤0.6 μL of blood per test.

I have not seen the the data on the hundreds of test that Rand did.
 
If you want reference norms for the specific meters you have, you'll have to collect the data yourself. Get enough paired comparisons, and you can have Excel calculate the formula for you. It may not be linear.
 
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