Glucose Test Meter Just Arrived, HELP

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I plugged in my numbers into the spreadsheet. Thank you Diane and frostyd for clarifying it for me. I was unsure about the abbreviations for the dosing method, but I was able to google the page here on this site that explains it. It's still above my understanding, but reading through it, the SLGS (start low, go slow) bullet points sounds like the advice frostyd was giving me? I'm not exactly sure so I left that blank.

@FrostD is it too soon for her to pick a dosing method yet?
She's using a pet meter

 

[FrostD]

@FrostD is it too soon for her to pick a dosing method yet?
She's using a pet meter

Yes too soon lol for now I'm assuming SLGS until she has hypo kit and comfortable testing...and not overwhelmed lol it's so much info at once

 

[keykey]

I assume the consensus is that I should test again around 7:30, and if it's above 200, I should give .5U of insulin?
and if it's below I should avoid a shot tonight?

*EDIT: Last test was at 5:55pm and I just tested again at 7:12pm, so just a little over an hour later, and it's 332. I updated my spreadsheet.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I assume the consensus is that I should test again around 7:30, and if it's above 200, I should give .5U of insulin?
and if it's below I should avoid a shot tonight?

If you read Melissa's post #44 the numbers are on the right hand side of every post
@FrostD she might be thinking for you to skip the shot tonight to drain the depot
Wait and see what she says
@FrostD

 

[FrostD]

This is your call. If you shoot, shoot 0.5U. You will need to do a +4 to start, and likely a +6 - and there's the risk she goes low again so you might be up for a bit in the middle of the night and need more higher carb food.

If you skip, you can start fresh at 0.5U in the morning with whatever shot time you want. Just know she might be on the higher side for a few cycles if you skip.

 

[keykey]

I'm going to err on the side of caution tonight and just skip it tonight. I will continue to monitor her levels and update my spreadsheet. I just don't think it would be good for her to send her BG on another roller coaster ride tonight like it was earlier today. If anything, she probably was dealing with low levels this whole past week when I didn't have a meter.

I will follow your advise and resume insulin in the morning with her breakfast. .5U

Thank you so much for all your help and advise. I still cannot believe I walked out of the vet with almost no help, with them telling me to change her food and give 2U twice a day. I'm afraid I might have done some harm this past week unknowingly while I didn't have a meter. I really hope I can help her and get her levels stabilized. You all have been a great help getting me started and I'm eternally grateful. This cat is my best friend.

 

[keykey]

I just did a reading at 9:35pm, It's at 67. (EDIT: The last reading I did was at 8:21pm, +11, and that was 278) I didn't give any insulin. I gave this morning's shot at like 8:25am, So that's like, +12. Why such a radical drop in an hour?

Should I give her more gravy food to get her BG back up? Also, how should I log this in the spreadsheet if I didn't give a PMPS? Just keep it blank and keep going?

I don't like seeing it this low, so I'm just going to give her the gravy food. What is going on? Is this normal? It terrifies me that I've been doing this to her unknowingly for a week now.

 

[FrostD]

Oh I'm sorry I'm just seeing this. Yes, gravy food, little honey as insurance. Retest now please

 

[FrostD]

This is the depot we talked about. She bounced from that low today (if that 48 was real) and she cleared it very fast. This is the depot - there is still stored insulin subcutaneously, and that's what you're seeing right now

It is normal in the sense that the dose was too high. Even 0.5U might be too high, which is why I asked how she was diagnosed. I'm wondering if it was a misdiagnosis. A simple blood panel could be elevated from stress at the vet, the fructosamine is the true initial diagnostic

PMPS is whatever number was closest to AM+12, in the dose column put "skip"

 

[keykey]

Just tested again, 10:40pm, 318. Reflected in spreadsheet. I gave her the gravy food so that's what helped bring it back up.
So what you mean by depot, if I understand it correctly...is that I gave her her insulin this morning. We got that first low 48 reading, and I gave her gravy food the first time. BG went back up, but after the food wore off, that initial insulin "deposit" from the morning was still in effect, which brought her levels back down again? Am I understanding that correctly?

 

[FrostD]

Just tested again, 10:40pm, 318. Reflected in spreadsheet. I gave her the gravy food so that's what helped bring it back up.
So what you mean by depot, if I understand it correctly...is that I gave her her insulin this morning. We got that first low 48 reading, and I gave her gravy food the first time. BG went back up, but after the food wore off, that initial insulin "deposit" from the morning was still in effect, which brought her levels back down again? Am I understanding that correctly?

Yes but honestly this is perplexing, I wouldn't expect a 67 to 318 jump in an hour from food. Just as I wouldn't have expected the 48 to 300-something jump earlier.

I'm now leaning bad strip reading...next time you get another low or unexpected number, retest right away and make sure there's plenty of blood.

Correct on the depot - the best analogy I've heard is think of a potted plant, with a sponge on top of the dirt. When you do the initial watering (AM/PM shot) a bunch goes straight through to the plant, but a bit stays in the sponge. Then as the plant soaks up the initial water, the sponge starts to let some more out throughout the day. So even if you don't water it, the sponge will be leaking for awhile.

You're getting quite the crash course!

Let's do this - retest now just to make sure the 318 wasn't a bad reading. If the new reading is still high (upper 200s into 300s), test her again in 2-3 hours.

I'm going to tag @Bandit's Mom and @Bron and Sheba (GA) to keep an eye out for you

 

[keykey]

Retested: 333.
Question: is my meter a familiar brand?

EDIT: While those are radical readings, I'm inclined to believe the meter. I don't particularly like it, it's just that when I get a low reading like that, she's mad tired and I'm having to pick her up from sleepyness. When she's gotten a higher reading, she's more inclined to cooperate with getting up and being moved for testing.

 

[FrostD]

Retested: 333.
Question: is my meter a familiar brand?

Ok good.

No, it's actually the first Ive heard of it. It's not a bad thing, and it probably is accurate when it has enough blood. Most meters throw errors at you left and right if there's not enough blood, I'm now guessing yours just throws out an imaginary number it decided to make up

Did it come with a control solution? And/or do you have to enter a specific code for it that correlates to your bottle of strips? Sometimes also have to code them for cats vs dogs

 

[keykey]

Ok good.

No, it's actually the first Ive heard of it. It's not a bad thing, and it probably is accurate when it has enough blood. Most meters throw errors at you left and right if there's not enough blood, I'm now guessing yours just throws out an imaginary number it decided to make up

Did it come with a control solution? And/or do you have to enter a specific code for it that correlates to your bottle of strips? Sometimes also have to code them for cats vs dogs

No, no solution. Yes, it did come with a code and I'm using the cat code.

 

[FrostD]

Ok, it should be ok then.

Dang, 520?? She's not making this easy on me lol If it were me I'd have retested that one too, but give yourselves a break it's not that important whether its 300 or 500.

In the morning, go with 0.5U if she's above 200. We will hold that dose for a few days, unless.you get a legitimate number below 90. I'm usually not on much during the day, today was a bit of a fluke. So start with a +3, and retest any unusually low or unusually high numbers you get just to be sure. The sleepiness could just be coincidence, but we'll take the next few cycles to make sure.

Side note, you may want to consider a cheap ReliOn meter from WalMart as a backup. It's a human meter that a lot of us use, mostly because it's probably the cheapest one out there to buy, but also has cheap strips. I think the ReliOn Premier is the current one, I know mine (Prime) is being phased out

Housekeeping when you get a chance:

1. Add a few rows above today's date. I know you don't have test data, but still put in the dose for as many days back as you can remember. It's important for anyone helping you in a pinch to know what kind of depot you're dealing with
2. In today's Remarks, just mention trying to figure out if the low numbers are real or a meter fluke, because those number differences will jump out as very odd to other advisers too. Mention sleepiness, etc

 

[keykey]

Ok, it should be ok then.

Dang, 520?? She's not making this easy on me lol If it were me I'd have retested that one too, but give yourselves a break it's not that important whether its 300 or 500.

In the morning, go with 0.5U if she's above 200. We will hold that dose for a few days, unless.you get a legitimate number below 90. I'm usually not on much during the day, today was a bit of a fluke. So start with a +3, and retest any unusually low or unusually high numbers you get just to be sure. The sleepiness could just be coincidence, but we'll take the next few cycles to make sure.

Side note, you may want to consider a cheap ReliOn meter from WalMart as a backup. It's a human meter that a lot of us use, mostly because it's probably the cheapest one out there to buy, but also has cheap strips. I think the ReliOn Premier is the current one, I know mine (Prime) is being phased out

Yeah, I think this meter isn't a good one. I got a reading of 520, redid it and got 300, then 330.

Actually I redid it, and got LO
and redid it and got nothing because it didn't register the blood
then I got 300 and 330

So like, 5 different attempts. I'll continue to use this one while I have it, but I think I'm going to have to get a different meter. I didn't buy this, my mother did and she went cheap. So is Alpha Trak the go to one around here? That's the first that comes up on Amazon. From now on anytime I get a really low or high one I'm just going to try to retest twice after that to see if I can get two reading to stick close together, and then go off of that. That's probably the best idea I can come up with right now.

I'll check out my Walmart the next time I'm there to see if they have that cheap one too! Thanks for the recommendation.

Also, if she is low, and I give her gravy food...once I test again after an hour and it goes back up, I should remove this food and replace it with the classic pate low carb stuff right? That way I can kind of monitor again without the gravy food constantly spiking it? That's what I've decided to do so I hope I thought that out correctly.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I would buy the ReliOn premier test meter rom Walmart. It has been very reliable here on the forum

Also, if she is low, and I give her gravy food...once I test again after an hour and it goes back up, I should remove this food and replace it with the classic pate low carb stuff right? That way I can kind of monitor again without the gravy food constantly spiking it? That's what I've decided to do so I hope I thought that out correctly.

If she is low, you give some high carb food and or honey and test again in 20 minutes to see the BG is rising. If the BG has risen above 90, you can stop the higher carb food and give ordinary low carb food. You need to test again though to see the BG is still rising. If it has dropped low again, you give some more higher carb food.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I would also buy the Relion Premier Classic Meter human meter,I have been using it for over 2 years, never had a problem it's 9 dollars and the strips arec17.88 for 100 strips
It reads lower than the pet meters but you will get used to the numbers
We will explain them to you
I like it because as soon as you put the test strip on the blood it sucks it right up
Plus our numbers are based on human meters
You don't have to code the meter

The Alpha Trak starter kit is 59.00
https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/2752/alphatrak-pet-glucose-meter-kit
You get 50 tests strips with it control solution , lancets
The test strips go fast
Then when you need more test strips they cost around 50.00 for 50
Too expensive you also have to use the code for cats that's on the bottle
Those strips go fast and can only buy them on line so you always have to make sure to have extras on hand

 

[keykey]

I just took 2 readings of 345 back to back. I'm feeding her some fancy feast classic (I got the non-seafood kind last night) and will give 0.5U of insulin after she eats. Have updated and will continue to update spreadsheet throughout the day.

Thank you to everyone's help so far. This has been a difficult journey for us, but made much easier with your help and knowledge!

 

[keykey]

She's being difficult with eating. Again, if I'm not basically starving her she won't sit down and eat a substantial amount at once. She's nibbled a bit at it. I read on another forum on here that if you know she'll continue eating it (grazing at it) you can give the insulin, so that's what I did. Hope that was good.

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

She's being difficult with eating. Again, if I'm not basically starving her she won't sit down and eat a substantial amount at once. She's nibbled a bit at it. I read on another forum on here that if you know she'll continue eating it (grazing at it) you can give the insulin, so that's what I did. Hope that was good.

Yes with Lantus (insulin glargine) you usually have about 2 hours or so before the insulin really kicks in, giving you some time to get some food in her. With Hendrick's eating style he, like your kitty, only usually has a few bites then walks away. 5-10 minutes later, he'll have some more

so our routine is we test, give him some food knowing full well he will probably eat only part of it, shoot the dose and then continue to offer food, and feed again 1 hour after shot

 

[FrostD]

When you get a chance, start a new thread please ( we try to cap them at 50 posts so they don't get too long). Title format will be Date - Cats Name - Relevant BG Data. So "3-31 - keykey - AMPS 345".