Spreadsheet help

We want to start BG testing at home. We have a vet tech coming to our home tomorrow to help us. The Alphatrack 2 pen doesn't seem to lance enough to get blood, even on the highest setting. We're doing something wrong, or we have a lemon. Anyway, I'm trying to understand all of the lingo on the BG spreadsheet that I see people using. I have searched the site and can't seem to find any articles or links for spreadsheet help. I'm sure it is obvious and I'm just not seeing it. Can anyone help send me in the right direction? Thanks!

 

Here is the link on how to set up the spreadsheet. It’s a lot of text, but it is pretty straight forward if you follow the steps. But if you need help just let us know and we can tag someone for you Or are you just asking what all the abbreviations mean?

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

What size lancets are you using? Lower gauge lancets like 26 or 28 will poke a bigger hole and are easier to start out with. Warm ears help a lot too if you are not already doing that. I personally like using the lancet pen, but many people don’t use it and just use the lancet freehand, so that is another option as well

 

Hi JOJI,
I bet someone responds soon with some great links for testing. There are diagrams for finding the "sweet spot" on the ear, etc., but I am not sure where to find them. I have that same AlphaTrak2 gadget, and I had trouble starting out just like you. But now I like it a lot, and it works fine for me not even on the highest setting. (Also instead of buying the pricey AlphaTrak replacement lancets, the Relion ones from Walmart fit. They are like 3 dollars for 200 of them.) One thing that really helped me.... The "rice sock." Put a little uncooked rice in a sock and tie the end to make like a beanbag. Then pop it in the microwave and use it to warm the ear before you poke. Like Sarah said, warm ears help. Also my kitty loves just getting ear pets with the warm rice sock while we're getting going for a test. Good luck!

 

Understanding the Spreadsheet/Grid

It's in the Health Links/FAQ's forum. Look in the INDEX, first sticky at the top there.

 

I have up on using a lancet device after the first week. Just put a cotton pad behind the ear and aim for the outer edge.

Amps is am (morning) reading before the shot. Pmps is pm preshot. +1, +2, ect are how many hours since the shot.

 

Warming the ear? Aiming for the "Sweet Spot"? Using bribes to get your cat used to the process?

Marje and Gracie's Testing and Shooting Tips is a good document to read. One tidbit from her document is here. But you might want to read the whole thing. But start at the top of the thread for the most useful info.

• Be sure to poke in the "sweet spot" and not the major vein that runs along the length of the ear. Poking the vein will not only hurt, but will result in a lot of blood. The sweet spot is on the edge of the ear.

•Ear Testing Psychology• is another good one I think. Sort of learning to be a 'cat whisperer' as far as the testing process goes. Slow and easy.

Ask and ye shall find the answer. Or one of us here will try to find the info for you. Those two documents are buried in the Health Links/FAQs Index sticky. They are buried withing the Hometesting Links and Tips - includes numerous links, instructions, pictures, & videos that is there.

p.s. I know where good links are and can point them out to people. Still don't know everything and never will.

 

Tricks:
1) warm the ear slightly with a warm washcloth, rice sock, even your fingers.

2) hold something solid behind the ear (such as a tissue on top of the vial of test strips) and press down FIRMLY then trigger the lancet device. Don’t let up the pressure while triggering the device (it’s easy to get timid and let up)

3) make sure there’s actually a lancet in the device (yes Captain Obvious, but it has happened that the lancet is missing)

 

Aha! Thank you JanetNJ!!! I do feel a bit like I've stepped into a foreign country and slowly learning the language and culture.

 

Is it just projection on my part, or do I see a high percentage of diabetic cats here that are black?

 

Well, I think we love our black and tuxedo kitties, and notice more when we see a picture of another black cat.

One tip for you with the home testing and a black cat or cat with black ear edges (think tortoiseshell). You may want to take a safety razor and very, very lightly shave the area around the 'sweet spot'. People with lighter eared kitties don't realize how difficult it can be to see that blood drop hiding in the black fur.

My Wink not only had black ears, but also really long hairs growing out of the inside of his ears. Shaving that tiny spot on his ear saved my sanity in the beginning of ear testing. Once I got better at the pokes, I didn't need that clear shaved spot anymore. Still needed plenty of light to see, because of aging eyes.

 

I

have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home

 

Three of my 20 diabetic cats are black and white.

 

Did you know you can change the title on your thread to ask a different question? If you do that, it keeps all your history together and can be easier for us helping you to follow the 'history' of what has gone on before with you and your kitty.

Try that and see how it works. Try the prefix of ? on your thread title to let people know you have a question. Try that feature out too. This info may be helpful to you also
HOW-TO USE THE FDMB: The Basics (it's a Sticky or pinned thread in the Announcements & How to Use the FDMB forum)

We like for people to keep their own individual threads when possible. That way, we don't bombard another new member with extraneous information in their thread about something they haven't asked about.

You were asking in someone else's thread about the Tiki Cat cat food. What was your question?

 

Oh!!! Brilliant. Thank you! As for Tiki, I was responding to someone who was talking about Tiki.

 

I had trouble for weeks getting blood with my AlphaTrak2 kit but once we got it once, it's been easy since. If you have to, test on yourself with a fresh lancet. My AlphaTrak lancing device didn't poke me at all on 4 but got me good on 5, so we have it permanently set to 5 now. I press firmly on the back of the ear with gauze and then press the lancing device firmly on the inside edge of the ear (in the sweet spot in the diagram posted above), press the button, and milk it. About half the time I have to re-cock the lancing device and press the button again and I try to do it in the same exact spot as the first one. The ears really do learn to bleed after time. Keep trying. We finally succeeded in testing just in time: our very first successful test was a 72 right before we were supposed to give 2.5 units!!!

 

Yeowza Yikes!!! @SullivansDad I see you didn't shoot that low of a BG reading and asked for help over in the lantus ISG. Did you get a hold of your vet? It's situations such as SullivansDad had that we highly encourage and recommend people learn to home test the blood glucose (BG).

It's also why we like to make sure people have a HYPO kit ready and know the signs to look for with low blood sugar.
How to treat HYPOS - THEY CAN KILL! Print this Out!!
jojo and bunny's HYPO TOOL BOX
New? Seeing Low Numbers? How You Can Help Us Help You

It's why we keep 'nagging' people about having some information in the signature and setting up a spreadsheet (SS). If we have an emergency situation and need to ask all those questions up front, What insulin? what meter? are you home testing? What was the dose?; it delays our responses to you.

Yes we've had members that did not home test and their cat had very low symptomatic low numbers, convulsions, coma and died. This can be serious folks. Happened to MommaofMuse many years ago. She has since gone on to adopt and foster many diabetic cats and always home tests now.

p.s. Looks like SullivansDad hasn't given insulin in 3 days. After the lantus "depot" drains, he may be doing an OTJ trial.

 

Yes, home testing is extremely important!!! We would have been home all day on Sunday and ready to fight a hypo, but who knows what would have happened if we had another unsuccessful test and shot him 2.5 without knowing his BG was at 72. We still have not spoken to his vet but are expecting to soon and will be asking him about the possibilities of low-dosing or (my preference if his next couple of pre-meal tests are still low) attempting another transition to lower carb food (this time without the worry of him also being on insulin during the transition).

 

Gotcha.

Here is some semblance of an answer about my experiences with the Tiki foods and a diabetic cat.

The Tiki cat foods have many different "lines" or varieties available. Luau, Grill, Aloha Friends, Velvet, After Dark, Raw and some dry foods. I've used the Luau and Grill "lines" with my cats. Tried the Stix wet treats, but my cat is not the type to hang around you while eating something, so those did not work for my cat.

Their foods are more expensive, but 'you get what you pay for' is an appropriate saying. Lots of their newer lines and treats contain more carbohydrates, more fats, less protein. They may say "grain free", but look at the ingredinets list first and you will see they have substituted tapioca, peas, beans, etc. Notice that smaller print word "with' on the After Dark line. That is because the first ingredient is chicken broth and then actual meat and organ meats follow. Still may be a good food choice for your cat and organ meats provide a lot of good nutrients.

I use the Tiki cat foods today, but my civie (non-diabetic) isn't on insulin. The Tiki cat foods Grain Free Luau line are all shredded or more chunky style foods, not smooth pate styles. Most are fish based, and because of the contamination of heavy metals and our pollution of the oceans, fish is better fed only 1 or 2 times a week. They do have a Succulent chicken and a chicken and egg version. Have not tried their After Dark line. Lower in protein, so if your cat needs to gain weight or has lost muscle mass, the After Dark line may not be right for your cat.

When my diabetic cat was still alive, I fed the Tiki to him as a treat only, because he preferred the pate style foods. Plus Wink had already gone OTJ (off-the-juice, insulin being the juice) also called remission or being diet controlled. So different situation. The Tiki didn't seem to have an affect on his BG readings, but by then he wasn't getting insulin so did not get tested throughout the 12 hour cycle.

The civie loves all the Tiki cat flavors and is able to eat the shredded chicken one ok, even without most of her teeth. She is easy with food choices and will eat any cat food I give her. Haven't had any dry cat food in the house for 6 years and 10 months (since I got the diabetic cat eating wet food). Haven't had any cat foods in the house unless they were <10% carbs for that long also. Took a while to transition my DFAA (Dry Food Addicts Anonymous) cat to wet food. The other cats were like "Hey, what took you so long to feed us the good stuff. It's about time."

These tips from Dr Lisa Pierson's catinfo.org website may be helpful to people that have a hard time getting their cat to eat canned food. Transitioning Tips for Dry Food Addicts.

p.s. SullivansDad is now a convert to home testing, even though his Sullivan is a bit of a "fractious cat" shall we say.

 

Ha, he's actually a VERY good boy, just a) very stubborn about his food and b) extremely restless when he knows it's mealtime (so pre-meal tests have to be like a 15 seconds or less affair).

Also, re Tiki Cat, I actually inquired with them directly about the carb content of their dry foods. Their response is below in case anyone is interested:

 

Yes, but what we really need to know is how they calculated the carb content of the food. We want to know the % calories from carbs. Or the caloric distribution as is now being used. Or at least, that is what I am used to. Need to know the protein, fat, fiber, water, ash and other mineral content. Then run it through a good calculator like this one:

• Calculating % Calories from Carbohydrates written by FDMB member, Marje and Gracie

 

Hey SullivansDad. Just wanted to talk about Tiki Cat dry food for a moment. Be cautious. The percentage of carbs by "dry basis" or "as fed" is not the same as calories from carbs. Dr. Pierson has done all the math for us on her wet food chart, to give us the calories from carbs. Her recommendation of keeping carbs under 10% is based on calories from carbs, which is quite different than measuring the carb content by weight, which always factors in the moisture content, making the carbs appear smaller than they are.

Tiki Cat Chicken Luau dry food, for example, does not have grains, but it does have Tapioca Flour, Ground Whole Flaxseed, Whole Chickpeas, Whole Peas, which are all sources of carbohydrates. The website We're All About Cats did a review of this food and found the calories from carbs to be 24.7%. That's high for a diabetic kitty.

 

Finally I think we have the hang of it. BUT, This Alphatrak 2 lancet device is so clumsy in terms of aiming for the sweet spot. Our vet tech visited us and agreed that this newer version device is not as user friendly as the old version. Today I lanced in a spot that was far from the sweet spot (inside the capillary instead of to the outside)! Stupid question alert: is blood from any location nearby going to give correct BG data, or does it have to be super close to the capillary?

 

As I understand it, blood is blood. Close to the capillary or "the sweet spot" is the easiest way to get a big enough drop.

 

Thank you Juls and Billy! I have been saying that to myself today...."blood is blood, right?"...just to calm myself down. We are so focused on every little thing since Dx.

 

I had a lot of trouble with the AlphaTrak lancing device at first, but I eventually got the hang of it. It’s also an option to just do it freehand with the device (I could never manage to do it this way). There are also other lancing devices that have a clear cap, which may make it a bit easier to see. I believe ReliOn makes one like that

 

Good response. Blood is blood. As long as you know it's from your cat and not yourself.

The only issue is if you hit the ear vein instead of the 'sweet spot'. You may have a gusher on your hands and the CSI crime scene team will wonder where the blood spatter came from.

If you absolutely, positively have to get blood (hypo symptoms) then aim for that vein and worry later.
Have you used a flashlight behind the ear to see where the vein runs?

Some people find it easier to test using the paw pad.