Urine Glucose Test Strip Meanings?

[Shelly_F]

Take look at this sample picture. What do the numbers above each glucose block represent. Does it mean how much glucose is in the urine? Like the 15 then it has + under the number. what does that really mean I am confused as usual LOL Our sugar girl is always in the negative blocks of blue to slightly green WHOOT WHOOT Which means she has less than 180 in her B/G right?

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Our sugar girl is always in the negative blocks of blue to slightly green WHOOT WHOOT Which means she has less than 180 in her B/G right?

What that means is your kitty is below the renal threshold where the glucose spills over into the urine.
If your kitty is consistently negative for glucose then I think you need to have the blood glucose checked as you don’t know how low the BG is dropping during the cycle and if it is safe to give the dose at the next due dose.
Are you monitoring your kitty’s diabetes with urine strips?
Have you thought about hometesting the blood glucose with a human meter? It is a much safer and better way to monitor your kitty. Home testing may sound scary but it isn’t and both you and your kitty will get used to it very quickly. Almost everyone here home tests their kitty.

What type of insulin are you using and what dose are you giving? Are you feeding a low carb diet?
Let us know if we can help you further.

 

[Shelly_F]

We have an alphatrak that we use on her. Prozinc 2 ul down from 7 just 5 months ago and yep she is on a low carb diet. I know that mean the spilling of the glucose but what does that first green square mean? What amount of glucose is in her urine if she is the first green square

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

We have an alphatrak that we use on her. Prozinc 2 ul down from 7 just 5 months ago and yep she is on a low carb diet. I know that mean the spilling of the glucose but what does that first green square mean? What amount of glucose is in her urine if she is the first green square

If you mean the +15 square, I can't give you an accurate number. It just means that there is some glucose spilling over into the urine. Every cats urine threshold is different.
We work here with blood glucose numbers. While urine strips to monitor are better than nothing, glucose testing is far superior at both keeping your kitty safe and tracking what the best and safest dose of insulin is for your kitty.
If you have an alphatrak meter, how often are you testing?
Would you be interested in setting up a spreadsheet so we can see your BG numners?

 

[Shelly_F]

We only test once a week. It is hard to get blood from her and don't want to put her through that stress nor us. That is frequency the vet was test her at. She is right around 200 when we test her. We did use a FreeStyle Libre on her for a month and her numbers were stable.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

We only test once a week. It is hard to get blood from her and don't want to put her through that stress nor us. That is frequency the vet was test her at. She is right around 200 when we test her. We did use a FreeStyle Libre on her for a month and her numbers were stable.

Dosing is based on the nadir or lowest point in the cycle not the preshot BG. The preshot BG is taken to see that the BG is high enough to safely shoot the dose.
Do you have a hypo kit set up in case of a hypo?
Just be aware that by the time the cat starts showing signs or symptoms of a hypo, their BG is very low.
Make sure you have honey or karo and some high carb wet food in the hypo kit as well as the number of the nearest ER
Here is a link to how to recognise signs and symptoms
HOW TO TREAT HYPOS

 

[Shelly_F]

Yes we have a hypo kit. Our dose is set based upon what the vet tells us to give. We dont do the test and then shoot. As I mentioned it is hard to get a reading from her and is stressful for us as well. We have been doing this for a yr and it has worked well for her.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

What I would suggest is you sometimes get a test around +5 or +6 to see how low the dose is taking your kitty.
As we wont know if your kitty is bouncing or not on any given day, I would do that more than just the one time.

 

[Shelly_F]

Oh we know she bounces. She has been 71 at night and 400 in the mornings. We did test her tonight and she is 133 at 5 1/2 hr after her shot.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Oh we know she bounces. She has been 71 at night and 400 in the mornings. We did test her tonight and she is 133 at 5 1/2 hr after her shot.

Depending on how low she drops, you may need to reduce the dose. If she drops under 90 on the alphatrak and you are giving prozinc, I would drop the dose by 0.25 Units each time. So if you were giving 2 units, and she dropped to 71, I would drop the dose to 1.75 U.