Did at home BG test today for the first time and I’m so proud!

[Sammi Jo and Lulu]

Hi Sammijoe,

Glad you've been able to speak with your vet. Lulu's numbers are great thus far. Best of all is to hear how well she's feeing!

FYI, the normal range for feline BG levels as measured on a pet meter is 50-120mg/dL Per my vet's advice, the range on the Alphatrak is 70-150mg/dL.

It's possible that after the tooth cleaning Lulu's numbers might get even better. (Gum inflammation can elevate BG levels.) Be interesting to see what her readings are once she recovers from the procedure.


Mogs
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Yes unfortunately her teeth are in rough shape. I took her in for a pre cleaning check up and that’s how they found the diabetes! So the cleaning was put off to treat her. Unfortunately, one of her front teeth fell out a couple weeks ago. I feel terrible for her but so happy she’s finally going to get it taken care of.

 

[Gill & Mac (UK)]

Yes unfortunately her teeth are in rough shape. I took her in for a pre cleaning check up and that’s how they found the diabetes! So the cleaning was put off to treat her. Unfortunately, one of her front teeth fell out a couple weeks ago. I feel terrible for her but so happy she’s finally going to get it taken care of.

Don't worry , one of Mac's fangs fell out - I didn't realise until he was having his first diabetes follow up appointment - and he has coped fine without it! Hope Lulu's dental goes well on Tuesday - I'll keep my fingers crossed for her to have a good hassle free time & ask her to keep her paws crossed for me on Friday when I am due to have my root canal work done!!

 

[Sammi Jo and Lulu]

Don't worry , one of Mac's fangs fell out - I didn't realise until he was having his first diabetes follow up appointment - and he has coped fine without it! Hope Lulu's dental goes well on Tuesday - I'll keep my fingers crossed for her to have a good hassle free time & ask her to keep her paws crossed for me on Friday when I am due to have my root canal work done!!

Thank you!! I’m sure it’ll go great Yuck! Root canals are the worst. I’m sorry you have to go through that! Sending good thoughts

 

[Sammi Jo and Lulu]

Don't worry , one of Mac's fangs fell out - I didn't realise until he was having his first diabetes follow up appointment - and he has coped fine without it! Hope Lulu's dental goes well on Tuesday - I'll keep my fingers crossed for her to have a good hassle free time & ask her to keep her paws crossed for me on Friday when I am due to have my root canal work done!!

So I’m a little confused this morning. I received the AlphaTrak in the mail today, so I did her first test with it. She ate breakfast earlier this morning with no insulin and I tested her about 2.5 hours later. The AlphaTrak read at 52. Very low. I tried again. Still 52. I tried the human meter and it read 79. I always thought the human meter read higher than the pet meters. What is going on?? She’s not showing any signs of hypoglycemia.

Edit: Well it would help if I read directions! I didn’t properly calibrate the meter before the first test. Duh! Latest reading was 86!

 

[Sammi Jo and Lulu]

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
Now that you are home testing you can set up your spreadsheet and track Lulu's BG

In case you need dosing advice members can take a look.
Take a look at mine

If you have trouble setting it up just ask for help, we have members
that will set it up for you

Thank you for your help! I've just finished setting up her spreadsheet

 

[Cat Caregiver]

Re: "calibrating" an AlphTrak2 meter.

You probably read all this in your instruction book but just in case...my understanding is that the only "calibration" a user does is entering the CODE from the vial of test strips into the meter.

Anytime you use the meter you should look at the CODE number on the screen (which appears after you insert the test strip) and make sure that it matches the CODE number on the vial of test strips. The CODE displayed should stay the same until you start using a new vial of test strips that happen to have a new CODE, which you must enter to update the meter. (So far my two vials have had the same CODE and I haven't had to change it in the meter.)

My understanding of the CONTROL SOLUTION is that if you think a strip gave a strange number, you can test another strip with the control solution: the number should be withing the RANGE on the control solution bottle. The purpose of the control solution is to demonstrate that the vial contains valid strips; however, there's no way of knowing if a single strip might be bad. (I had to do that when I started a new vial only because I happened to get a weird number and just wanted to be sure that the new vial of strips wasn't bad. It was all good.)

I'm looking for a CHEAPER meter/strip system right now but can't find any that uses only 0.3 micro-liters of blood and has the ability to test twice/strip (if one side of the AlphaTrak2 strip didn't get enough blood, just squeeze the ear and touch the blood to the other side of the strip). Being new at this, I love these two advantages. I think my cat might run off if I had to reload a second strip because I didn't get enough blood the first time.