Re: Mickey and home testing
Hi Jamie, sorry to keep bothering you, but I just have a couple of more questions.
I also use the AlphaTrak meter and the reading you get should be pretty accurate. Since your vet sold it to you, have you ever been able to compare the readings from your AlphaTrak with the results from a blood test at the vet's office? When they test at the vet's office, do you know if they were drawing blood from a vein and testing on their blood analyzer, or were they getting a drop of blood and testing with their AlphaTrak?
What are you using to stick Mickey to get the blood? If it's one of the automatic lancers, some of them have fine, thin lancets that may make it more difficult to get a blood sample from a site like a pad, or even the ear. Even with the lancet device set at the deepest setting, I often have had trouble getting blood from a thick spot like a pad or callous. Bailey has a small callous on one elbow that I use, but I have found that just doing it by hand, using one of the lancets that you load in the device works better. I also get the 26 gauge lancets that are the largest lancets I can find. I get the Relion lancets at Wal-Mart since that's the only place I can find the 26 gauge. I get the 28 gauge if I can't find the 26. Doing it by hand with the larger diameter lancet lets me get deeper and makes a slightly larger diameter hole. Usually one stick is all it takes, but sometimes if I'm having trouble getting blood, I can do 2 quick stabs and he never notices the difference.
Good luck and let us know how the testing goes this evening.
Pat
Hi Jamie, sorry to keep bothering you, but I just have a couple of more questions.
I also use the AlphaTrak meter and the reading you get should be pretty accurate. Since your vet sold it to you, have you ever been able to compare the readings from your AlphaTrak with the results from a blood test at the vet's office? When they test at the vet's office, do you know if they were drawing blood from a vein and testing on their blood analyzer, or were they getting a drop of blood and testing with their AlphaTrak?
What are you using to stick Mickey to get the blood? If it's one of the automatic lancers, some of them have fine, thin lancets that may make it more difficult to get a blood sample from a site like a pad, or even the ear. Even with the lancet device set at the deepest setting, I often have had trouble getting blood from a thick spot like a pad or callous. Bailey has a small callous on one elbow that I use, but I have found that just doing it by hand, using one of the lancets that you load in the device works better. I also get the 26 gauge lancets that are the largest lancets I can find. I get the Relion lancets at Wal-Mart since that's the only place I can find the 26 gauge. I get the 28 gauge if I can't find the 26. Doing it by hand with the larger diameter lancet lets me get deeper and makes a slightly larger diameter hole. Usually one stick is all it takes, but sometimes if I'm having trouble getting blood, I can do 2 quick stabs and he never notices the difference.
Good luck and let us know how the testing goes this evening.
Pat
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