what are normal numbers for alphatrak?

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SweetAngel

SweetAngel

Member Since 2014
just a quick question. When Angel was on the trial of prozinc before, they had him on TR with a no shot limit of 7/126 on alphatrak. However I read somewhere that 8.9/160 is normal (that's after no food for at least 2 hours) so I'm a bit confused now. I'm more than happy to carry on with the TR as I'm around during the nadir and try to schedule his other feeds for then, but on the other hand I don't want to give him insulin if he really doesn't need it. I'm speaking to the vet on Monday anyway as I'm due to do a curve on him anyway. x
 
Depending on how much data we have and how well we know our kitty's responses our "no shot" number can vary. A fairly high number (11-12 mmol/L) is recommended for newly diagnosed cats and owners who have no experience. Many of us use the stall/retest technique and wait until we're sure BG is rising and has reached or exceeded the NS number. Then we feed and inject, probably a reduced dose. If you don't have time for stalling, you can opt to give a substantially reduced dose - reduced to whatever you're comfortable with. The third option is no dose at all of course. All of this is assuming you're not dealing with a kitty who's tipping into remission.
 
Kris, I hope he's going into remission again, he's only been back on insulin for 11 days though, after over 2 years OTJ.
I'm confident enough to stay with the "no shot" number as below 7 but what I'm wondering is what are normal numbers (on an alphatrak) for a non diabetic cat or a cat in remission? x
 
SweetAngel said:
Kris, I hope he's going into remission again, he's only been back on insulin for 11 days though, after over 2 years OTJ.
I'm confident enough to stay with the "no shot" number as below 7 but what I'm wondering is what are normal numbers (on an alphatrak) for a non diabetic cat or a cat in remission? x
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I use an AlphaTrak meter. All I can tell you is that my vet told me that for a diabetic getting insulin, the ideal range is 5 - 9 mmol/L but up to 12 is acceptable. If BG is 3 - 5 that's trending too low and below 3 is a hypo. I'm sure others on here have given the AT numbers for a normal nondiabetic cat or one in remission. Try putting a query in the search bar in the upper right corner on this page.
 
P.S. I apologize if my first response assumed you weren't experienced in treating a diabetic kitty. I didn't mean it that way. :)
 
hi Kris, no I didn't think that at all. I probably used to know what normal numbers were but if you try googling them rather than looking up here there's very little info comes up. I'll try looking here, thanks, just didn't think of that. Got a rotten sore throat and cant think properly, ugh. Is that Teasel in the pic? He has gorgeous eyes x
 
SweetAngel said:
hi Kris, no I didn't think that at all. I probably used to know what normal numbers were but if you try googling them rather than looking up here there's very little info comes up. I'll try looking here, thanks, just didn't think of that. Got a rotten sore throat and cant think properly, ugh. Is that Teasel in the pic? He has gorgeous eyes x
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Yes, that's Teasel. I have his sister and brother as well - three wonderful kitties.
 
Hi Cassandra,

My vet gave me 3.9 - 8.3mmol/L as the normal reference range for a cat's BG as measured on Alphatrak.

:bighug:


Mogs
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that's great, he's been 9.2 at his highest lately. I just did his pmps and he was 6.3/113!!! I've given him food and wondering whether to test again in 2 hours or see how he goes overnight.
 
Cassandra, this is a very good question as most people are familiar with numbers on human meter.
I have had the same problem as you trying to find this range on Google - no luck.
I remember I've asked that question here before and I think I got 3.7 - 6.7 range.
I feel a bit not sure if what I'm doing with Rocky is right as I shoot even if he is below 6 on AT.
Somebody once told me that if his BG 3 hours after food is 7.8 for example it means that he still needs insulin.
I don't know what's going in remission looks like, I'm so confused about it because I thought you need to give insulin until the BG goes lower and lower and you lowering the dose but I have seen so many spread sheets of kitties going in remission where insulin was stopped abruptly on high blue numbers. At first the cat goes up a bit, then goes low, up again (into yellow number) and then goes lower and lower. I have tried that with Rocky but in my opinion he was going progressively higher until I lost my cool and started insulin again.
I feel lost.
 
@Marlena .....I don't know where you're seeing spreadsheets that go from blue numbers to no insulin .......we don't encourage that at all (although some people have done it, not many....and they usually end up right back on insulin fairly soon)

The idea we promote is to keep them on insulin as long as possible.....to give their pancreas as much support as possible before attempting to go OTJ....that means waiting until they drop below 50 (68 on AT), reducing the dose, waiting for another drop below 50/68, reducing the dose again (etc. etc....) until they're able to stay in normal numbers (50-120 on a human meter, 68- about 150 with the AT, with most of those numbers under 100/120 on the AT) on a micro-dose of .1 unit .....THEN trying the OTJ trial

If they're then able to stay in normal numbers for 2 weeks with no insulin at all, we consider them in remission.
 
Mogs, my 2nd spreadsheet starts in 2014 and then jumps to this year. Marlena, me too. When Angel went into remission in 2014 I stopped insulin when he was 7/126 or below.
 
Chris I think Marlena is on an alphatrak too, so will be slightly higher than 100/120 for remission numbers. I was bad about filling in the spreadsheet after Angel went into remission but for at least a month I was testing him every day and he was usually well below 7/126 and he also went for regular follow ups at the vet school until July 2015 followed by random home tests.
 
that's what happened with Angel when he went otj last time. He had one blip where he was 133 but stayed nice and low the rest of the time, fingers crossed he can do it again, it's early days still but looking hopeful x
 
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