? Question about normal ranges on SS.

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, Daisy was diagnosed Dec 4, 2020. She's on 1 unit of Lantus every 12 hours, as well we switched to a low carb canned. I home test with a human meter to monitor her levels. I made my own excel SS to track her #s. I've gotten her to normal levels on this dose.

I downloaded the spreadsheet here and I'm going to start inputting all my numbers, but I'm a bit confused with the reference ranges.

From what I'm reading, "green" is where we want them to be (50-99). However on the blood test from Idexx Daisy had done at the Vet, 71-159 is listed as the normal reference range.

I feel dumb, like there's something really obvious I'm missing here. I thought she was testing normal as she clocks in between 100-150 consistently, which is normal on the Idexx reference but too high (blue) on the SS here. After I feed her she goes "green" for a bit, but mostly clocks in at "blue."

Can anyone help me understand this? Thank you!

 

Hi there, J. Welcome to yourself and Daisy.

First up, the IDEXX analysers will be calibrated for measurement of cat blood, so they will have a different reference range to that for feline BG as measured on a glucometer.

There's a difference in the way that glucose is transported in cat and human blood. This difference means that human glucometers read lower than equipment calibrated for cat blood (lab analysers, pet meters such as the Alphatrak). Therefore, at FDMB, the reference range used for feline BG as measured on a human meter is 50-120.

Tightly regulating a cat (keeping it between 50-100) can enhance chance of remission. Numbers between 100 and 120, while still within the normal reference range, don't give the pancreatic beta cells as much chance to rest and recover function as time spent in the lower range. On the LBL board, they consider that time spent safely (i.e. with adequate testing) in the 50-80 range (in which healthy, non-diabetic cats typically run) offers the greatest chance for the pancreas to rest and therefore for a cat to achieve a strong remission.

That's a promising sign. If BG drops in the couple of hours after eating it is most likely due to the pancreas producing pulses of insulin in response to ingestion of food. (Can't say for certain without dosing/BG data readings, but fingers crossed! )


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