hind leg weakness

[jesse girl]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

hi and welcome

meters can give false lows if you do not get enough blood . jesses meter does that .

they all should read error when not getting enough blood .some meters do and some dont

i actually think to much blood can be a problem giving false highs but less sure about that

when you see a number out of place its a good idea to check again as you did

meters are not an exact science

[Raysaint]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

False readings of any kind are bad, especially for curves or determining nadir, etc. Important decisions are made from these readings.
I hope one of the human meter manufacturers comes out with a good pet meter. Alpha may be accurate but it's still got flaws that good human meters don't have. I have 3 Accu-Chek meters and no amount of blood gives false readings. Not enough blood gives error message. And no strips to handle with fingers.

[CraigM]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

False readings of any kind are bad, especially for curves or determining nadir, etc. Important decisions are made from these readings.
I hope one of the human meter manufacturers comes out with a good pet meter. Alpha may be accurate but it's still got flaws that good human meters don't have. I have 3 Accu-Chek meters and no amount of blood gives false readings. Not enough blood gives error message. And no strips to handle with fingers.

You may be right, but in Annie's 9 yeas as a diabetic I really can't blame any of her meters.

A theory I have is that many meters only test a pin point amount of blood (AlphaTrak takes .3 micro milliliters, sounds small to me ) and not every tiny droplet is the same as the next drop. A blood drop LOOKS like just a red liquid, but how much can they actually differ? As I said, just my theory.

Craig

[amydunn19]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

I think when you get a reading that doesn't seem right, then immediately re-test. I think every meter is going to have an off reading occasionally because of the reasons Craig mentioned. The blood drop may be off, the strip may be messed up, or any number of issues. It happens. I just retested and figured it out from there.

I will say that the One Touch human meter I used almost always gave an error message if there was a problem with the sample. I never used a pet meter with Maggie in almost 9 years because I always was pretty confident in my meter. It stacked up well with my vet's meter and lab so for me, I felt that was good enough.

[Raysaint]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

Thanks for your insight. I guess the key is recognizing an off reading. With my dog running high right now, a really low reading was very questionable. But when sugars are running normal, you might not question a reading that doesn't seem so far out of normal. You may believe it and take action that isn't necessary.
Accurate error messages are critical in meters. That's why I like my Accuchek for my diabetes. And not having to handle strips takes another potential error out of testing.
Lots to learn with this dog diabetes thing. Thanks again.

[amydunn19]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

That is why we urge people not to take action unless you are seeing low numbers or symptoms of low blood sugar. I would always recommend retesting if the number is significantly low, and that is out of the ordinary. For my Maggie, low numbers were normal so I usually didn't retest. She was very sensitive to insulin and any kind of stressful event like a bath or trip.

A high number out of context doesn't require action and sometimes dogs do have unexplained random high numbers. If people try to "adjust" a high by giving intermediate acting insulin, it could have an overlap effect because it is not fast acting. I usually say let a high number alone and see if it was a fluke or if you start suddenly seeing higher numbers, it could be a sign of infection.

[Raysaint]

Injection site, muscle contraction

I am trying not to use the scruff area all the time, but some of the other areas don't have a lot of skin.
So I have tried an area above the side of chest, about 2 inches from the backbone just past the scruff. As soon as I start injecting, the area contracts/tightens, so I pull the needle out and finish in the scruff area. Not sure if the contraction is voluntary or involuntary.

[LizE]

Re: Injection site, muscle contraction

After the first week of giving my dog shots she became sensitive to the needle and would cry. After that I started rotating the locations and it helped a lot.

My vet told me that it doesn't make too much difference where you inject (I know others on this site feel differently) but that the middle part of the dog, the chest area between the front and back legs is the most sensitive and to avoid it.

I now rotate locations over the shoulder area, hip area and the scruff. I also just pull the skin up by the hair instead of tenting with the thumb and finger because I can better angle the shot into the skin and I don't have catch any muscle area. Pulling just skin makes it harder for her to tense the muscles.

I'm sure my dog still feels the shots sometimes - she always lowers her head in preparation - but I don't think it is painful anymore.

[jesse girl]

Re: Injection site, muscle contraction

as long as you can pull some skin . for me i like at minimum a 1/2 inch but prefer more than that .

yes you dont wont to hit any muscle . i am in the same boat as your vet if you can pull some skin your good to go but wildly different locations may absorb insulin differently

[Raysaint]

Re: Injection site, muscle contraction

I don't think I'm hitting muscle, and the other areas I mentioned, I get enough skin, it's just the contraction/tightening of the site that puzzles me.

[Aggie]

Re: Injection site, muscle contraction

I definitely see the contraction you describe (I just call it flinching). However, my dog doesn't vocalize, and I don't think he is in pain, so I just finish the injection. He flinches when the needle is put in, but not usually during the injection of the insulin. Sometimes he doesn't flinch at all. I have to be careful not to move the tiny needle I'm using once it's in, because I think that makes it more of an issue. He is very sensitive.

[amydunn19]

Re: Injection site, muscle contraction

The only place Maggie ever cried over a shot was the scruff. Plus, absorption is not great there so I never used it. I went up and down the sides close to the top avoiding the spine. Always vary your shots, scar tissue is a real thing. Learned that the hard way.

[peony]

Re: AlphaTrak false reading, beware

Thanks for your insight. I guess the key is recognizing an off reading. With my dog running high right now, a really low reading was very questionable. But when sugars are running normal, you might not question a reading that doesn't seem so far out of normal. You may believe it and take action that isn't necessary.
Accurate error messages are critical in meters. That's why I like my Accuchek for my diabetes. And not having to handle strips takes another potential error out of testing.
Lots to learn with this dog diabetes thing. Thanks again.

I was consistently getting a very low reading when I used the AlphaTracII meter. When I would test a second time I would get a number closer to the range I expected. Someone asked me if I "pinched" Kirby's lip to get blood to appear. I had been doing that because I was having a hard time getting blood. They told me the low readings could be because I was getting too much serum in the sample. Not sure if anyone else has heard of this but I stopped manipulating his lip and I didn't get the really low numbers as often. As others said I also learned to retest when I got any number that was extremely low.

[Raysaint]

How much spinach?

Because of it's great fiber content and benefits for eye health, I give him a good tablespoon of spinach once a day, every other week. Websites say spinach is Ok in moderation. What is moderation? Are they talking in raw leafy terms or cooked.

A steamer full of baby spinach leaves shrinks down to a cup of cooked pureed spinach. A tablespoon of pureed spinach could be 20 leaves.
Is moderation measured in an amount of leaves or cooked?

The reason for my concern is the oxalate content of spinach. Not good for the kidneys and not good for my dog who has had crystal oxalates before.
(Also going to start giving him wild blueberries, for the same benefits. he already gets pumpkin too, when he's not getting spinach))

[jesse girl]

Re: How much spinach?

my jesse gets a wide variety of raw vegetables but i grind them down in a food processor to break down the cellulose

now i have given her a third of a cup with dinner for maybe 5 years . i have read the same thing about vegetables and moderation . now jess has kept her site (knock on wood ) i have no idea if her diet has an impact . she was taking some supplements which i decided to discontinue because she was getting an ample supply from her homemade diet

jesse homemade diet has evolved where i removed quite a bit of the meat protein and substitute it with veggies and pinto beans . i wanted her pooh to firm up a bit because she was having some anal sak problems that did work

for me its the stomach test. if i do not here a bunch of gurgling and everything comes out the back end in good shape i believe jesse is fine