Hi:
I recently acquired a diabetic rescue dog who is in foster and I hope to adopt. His name is Tucker; he's a five-year-old Westie and cute as a button.
I just started doing blood glucose checks with the alphatrak system and today am doing an every two hour blood glucose check for a curve (or rough estimate, any way). (He gets insulin twice a day twelve hours apart)
I've noted his foot pad reads higher than the lip reading (when tested consecutively) by about 15 pts. Has any one else noticed this discrepancy? I make sure to wipe the inside of his lip with cotton or paper towel to make sure the saliva doesn't dilute the reading.
I've also noticed an odd trend. This 6 a.m. his blood sugar was 199 prior to eating. Two hours later, 104; two hours after that 164, and it has gradually been declining. At the peak of his insulin (or what should have been) around 2p.m., he was 144! At the 4p.m. mark his paw pad reading was 94. He isn't showing any signs of hypoglycemia but I gave him a treat any way, since I don't think he's been that low.
His nadir doesn't seem to be following the hypothetical peak action of his inuslin (NPH).
Has anyone else had trends that lead them to become suspicious about the readings and accuracy of their glucometer? I wonder if this is a user error issue, but the alphatrak doesn't take much blood.
I go to the vet tomorrow and will report my findings. They also use an alphatrak meter but use venous blood, and his sugars at about 1030a.m. one day were 441 on 3 units of NPH, so last week we went to 4 units.
Any insights into this strange looking curve?
Thanks,
piperknitsRN
I recently acquired a diabetic rescue dog who is in foster and I hope to adopt. His name is Tucker; he's a five-year-old Westie and cute as a button.
I just started doing blood glucose checks with the alphatrak system and today am doing an every two hour blood glucose check for a curve (or rough estimate, any way). (He gets insulin twice a day twelve hours apart)
I've noted his foot pad reads higher than the lip reading (when tested consecutively) by about 15 pts. Has any one else noticed this discrepancy? I make sure to wipe the inside of his lip with cotton or paper towel to make sure the saliva doesn't dilute the reading.
I've also noticed an odd trend. This 6 a.m. his blood sugar was 199 prior to eating. Two hours later, 104; two hours after that 164, and it has gradually been declining. At the peak of his insulin (or what should have been) around 2p.m., he was 144! At the 4p.m. mark his paw pad reading was 94. He isn't showing any signs of hypoglycemia but I gave him a treat any way, since I don't think he's been that low.
His nadir doesn't seem to be following the hypothetical peak action of his inuslin (NPH).
Has anyone else had trends that lead them to become suspicious about the readings and accuracy of their glucometer? I wonder if this is a user error issue, but the alphatrak doesn't take much blood.
I go to the vet tomorrow and will report my findings. They also use an alphatrak meter but use venous blood, and his sugars at about 1030a.m. one day were 441 on 3 units of NPH, so last week we went to 4 units.
Any insights into this strange looking curve?
Thanks,
piperknitsRN
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