BG readings and false readings

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Bobbie And Bubba

Bobbie And Bubba

Member Since 2015
GM everyone. Two questions The last 3 days Bubba's BG values have been 306 lowest to this morning his highest at 410. He is eating and actually has gained back a 1/2 lb. Prior to these readings on the 19th he had 221 and 281. Then I did a fur shot and then all hell broke loose. This morning I remembered the vet saying that if three days in a row his values hang high, creep up the insulin by a 1.2 unit. This morning I only gave 1/4 unit more. Was that the right thing to do? Sue and Oliver are going to help me set up a spreadsheet then the group will be able to guide me better. Guess I am just feeling frustrated.......
2nd questions: Last night I couldn't get a lot of blood for the test, so I used a tiny amount. My meter beeped and the value converted was 500! My husband said to do it again and use more blood. Then I got a 410 reading. The question is, can the meter give you an inflated value with not enough blood? I thought it wouldn't beep if there was not enough blood on the strip.
 
Hi. I'm newer to this ( DX in early May), so I can't say much to your dosing question, other than to say being conservative is always better, in my opinion, and that seems to be the case with the "start low, go slow" method used by many here. Obviously, you're keeping an eye on things, so you'll get an understanding if that was the right thing to do, and, if not, you can increase by the full amount recommended by your vet.

I will say, when I have missed a shot, the surprise to the system after the missed insulin and the subsequent perceived big bg drop caused my boy to go higher than usual, and then normalized ( for him- though he's not into good numbers yet- concurrent conditions, blah, blah, blah).

It is my understanding that there can be differences in readings from the same drop of blood, even. I have had this happen, though I my variance was not so great. The human meters have difficulty reading bg levels at the higher numbers and the discrepancies become larger and those estimations a little murkier, though they all (human and pet meters) have a possible variance of +-20%. So, if your meter beeped, it likely got enough blood, it's just the variablility factor and that these meters are guides more than absolute values.

The thing you can be sure about is that your kitty's bg is high and you're taking the necessary steps to move Bubba in the right direction.

Ugh! FD is a tough one! Good luck
 
Meters are merely tools to guide us with our kitties. Unfortunately they are not always perfect.

If you get a reading that seems not to fit then it is always a good idea to do a second reading. I had a reading this morning of 90 that made NO sense at all....it just did not fit in with his reading 2 hours earlier. I redid a second reading right away and got 290 (which made much more sense)....big difference that cannot be explained by the allowable 20% that meters can vary. Sometimes it may be too small a drop to give a proper reading but not too small to cause an error on the meter. Especially with unexpected lower numbers it is a good idea to do a second, and make sure that your kitty is not doing an unexpected big drop. Best to waste an extra strip and know for sure.
 
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