Glucotest

[DiabeticMom]

Hi,
Is there any reason to use Glucotest confetti if you are already home testing with a AlphaTrak BG meter? What does 50 mg/dl on the glucotest mean? Is it bad?

Thanks.

Barb & Chong

 

[squeem3]

Hi,
Is there any reason to use Glucotest confetti if you are already home testing with a AlphaTrak BG meter? What does 50 mg/dl on the glucotest mean? Is it bad?

IMO, if you are already bg testing you don't need to use Glucotest. Glucotest, and KetoDiastix for Human diabetics, just tells you if there is glucose present in the urine. And the reading isn't accurate because glucose builds up in the urine over a couple of hours until the urine is expelled. A bg test tells you what the level is right at that moment.

That's a high reading but remember, it's from all that glucose that was building up in the urine until the cat peed. All diabetic cats have some amount of glucose in their urine. I would not use Glucotest as a way to monitor a cat's diabetes.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Hi,
Is there any reason to use Glucotest confetti if you are already home testing with a AlphaTrak BG meter? What does 50 mg/dl on the glucotest mean? Is it bad?

IMO, if you are already bg testing you don't need to use Glucotest. Glucotest, and KetoDiastix for Human diabetics, just tells you if there is glucose present in the urine. And the reading isn't accurate because glucose builds up in the urine over a couple of hours until the urine is expelled. A bg test tells you what the level is right at that moment.

That's a high reading but remember, it's from all that glucose that was building up in the urine until the cat peed. All diabetic cats have some amount of glucose in their urine. I would not use Glucotest as a way to monitor a cat's diabetes.

I just wanted to add to this a little--glucose is spilled into the urine when a cat has a blood glucose level that is above the renal threshold for cats (about 180-240). If your cat is dropping into low numbers, urine testing is not going to tell you anything. That's why blood testing is so important. If a cat's dose of insulin is too high, they can drop very low and then shoot up very high again. However, the urine testing would make it seem like the cat is just high all the time, since what it's really getting is an average glucose number from the past 5-8 hours.

A well regulated diabetic or a diabetic in remission will not have glucose in their urine.