Shadow still a mystery!

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DianeM &Shadow

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This will be his 5th consecutive dose of BCP PZI at 1.0 units. Doesn't seem to be much of a response. I am going to keep the dose at 1 unit this evening. Tomorrow I am due for a talk with Shadow's vet. Any thoughts on his numbers are welcomed***
 
Shadow at 397 pre-shot this morning. I increased his dose to 1.5 units. I might as well see if this is a case of just not enough insulin before I make a switch. Sue, when you refer to a 'cycle', do you mean 24 hours to include two doses? I also started a thread on the Lantus/Levemir group to get their thoughts.

On another matter, my brother sent me an Alpha Track meter which, due to cost and the inclusion of a lot of strips, I may resort to using to save some money. Anything I should know about this meter? I never understood why it was necessary to have a meter designed for animals - but it's here and available!
 
A cycle is 12 hours. So you have 2 cycles each day, AM and PM.

The Alpha Trak will give you different numbers. They aren't wrong, they're just different. They're higher, so don't let that freak you out. There is an Alpha Trak spreadsheet around here somewhere that you might consider using. If not, I would make a pretty big notation on your SS when you switch to the AT, just so that folks here understand. Also, I'd put it in red in your signature so that if you post a number, we know what it means. The reason I say this is since most folks use a human meter, which reads lower, we give advice based on that. If we know it's an AT, we'll be able to give better advice. :)

If none of that makes sense, please say so. I'm only halfway through my morning coffee, so while I'm totally making sense in my head...I might not even be writing real words here yet!
 
The AlphaTrak meters are designed to give a reading that is closer to the readings the vet would get if they drew blood and sent it to a commercial laboratory There was a great post a few months ago about the real, significant differences in the physiology of the glucose measurement of humans vs cats and it convinced me to continue with the alphatrak. I use the alphatrak because I don't want to constantly be converting in my head " ok - now what is the real number" I checked my own blood sugar with an alphatrak and I got a reading of 140-180 ( I am in no way diabetic - at least I hope not just got medical checkup) so it just shows the difference between readings between species. I thought what if I went to my doctor and told him the alphatrak gave me a high reading - he would say "why are you measuring your blood with a pet meter"
After you run out of the strips you have, I use the freestyle lite strips with the alphatrak meter- they are cheaper than the alphatrak strips
 
Rachel said:
A cycle is 12 hours. So you have 2 cycles each day, AM and PM.

The Alpha Trak will give you different numbers. They aren't wrong, they're just different. They're higher, so don't let that freak you out. There is an Alpha Trak spreadsheet around here somewhere that you might consider using. If not, I would make a pretty big notation on your SS when you switch to the AT, just so that folks here understand. Also, I'd put it in red in your signature so that if you post a number, we know what it means. The reason I say this is since most folks use a human meter, which reads lower, we give advice based on that. If we know it's an AT, we'll be able to give better advice. :)

If none of that makes sense, please say so. I'm only halfway through my morning coffee, so while I'm totally making sense in my head...I might not even be writing real words here yet!
Click to expand...

Perfect sense. I am going to hunt for the article!! Switching would be for cost savings only; I am used to using my husband's meter. It's funny; the insulin syringes my brother sent are all 1 cc U100's with what I consider very long needles. No half unit markings. Makes me wonder what kind of dosing he was doing; the cat was eventually PTS so I am reluctant to ask. It doesn't matter now, for sure.
 
Carol & Murphy said:
The AlphaTrak meters are designed to give a reading that is closer to the readings the vet would get if they drew blood and sent it to a commercial laboratory There was a great post a few months ago about the real, significant differences in the physiology of the glucose measurement of humans vs cats and it convinced me to continue with the alphatrak. I use the alphatrak because I don't want to constantly be converting in my head " ok - now what is the real number" I checked my own blood sugar with an alphatrak and I got a reading of 140-180 ( I am in no way diabetic - at least I hope not just got medical checkup) so it just shows the difference between readings between species. I thought what if I went to my doctor and told him the alphatrak gave me a high reading - he would say "why are you measuring your blood with a pet meter"
After you run out of the strips you have, I use the freestyle lite strips with the alphatrak meter- they are cheaper than the alphatrak strips
Click to expand...

Carol - I am going to try it out today side by side, I think. I agree, it's the consistency that probably is the most important. The Freestyle lite is what my husband's meter is! Fortunately, he can get additional strips by prescription paid for by insurance.
 
Conferred with Shadow's vet yesterday and we agreed to reduce his PZI dose back to .5 units for a week and to lay off testing other than pre-shot. She doesn't want to give up on the PZI just yet. So unless his pre-shots indicate a need for further testing in a cycle, we will stick to that plan and I will observe closely the peeing, appetite and behavior parts. Shadow himself seems to be settling in pretty well as one of our indoor kitties. He just stares at the others and they stare back and with the exception of the totally *****y babyBoo, no reactions. This makes life a lot easier. He seems to be feeling ok, is now clocking in a little lap time with both the DH(dear husband) and me. We are getting our routines established which makes kitty management easier. We have a total of 16 cats, including our outside colony made up of abandoned mostly tame kitties. About 10 of them might come inside to sleep and eat, so Shadow is put into time out to avoid him eating additional food. He continues on a diet of FF, some baby food and green beans for bulk but I will be looking at other foods down the road. So anyway, that's us for right now. It's spring here in Delaware, my daffy's and hyacinth popped out overnight and it's great to be warm,! Hope all of you are enjoying spring as well.
 
DianeM &Shadow said:
Carol - I am going to try it out today side by side, I think. I agree, it's the consistency that probably is the most important. The Freestyle lite is what my husband's meter is! Fortunately, he can get additional strips by prescription paid for by insurance.
Click to expand...
If you can get freestyle lite strips You can use those with Alphatrak & get the best of both worlds (tests more reflecting the cats measurement and free strips)
 
If you get a high preshot, I would try for a nadir as it could be too low and have caused a bounce. And if you get a low preshot, I would get a nadir to be sure he doesn't drop too low.
 
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