From:
"kazpat1@juno.com"
Date: 2005-01-05 00:48:34 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Keto-Diastix reliability
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <20050104.164912.17792.189609@webmail18.lax.untd.com>
Check the glucometer when you bring for next vet visit against the vet's or the blood level at the same time.
I had found mine (freestyle) to be very good with the higher values, and tend to run off as the values got low.
The values will fluctuate a lot depending on if just ate, when last insulin dose was, etc.
For the glucose urine strips, I also found them accurate. Any glucose in the blood over 180 will show up as pos. glucose in the urine dip. The higher the blood the more pos the dip stick of the urine. So it is usually 1 +, 2+, 3+ or trace, small, mod or large glucose depending on your strips. The ketones only if the ferret goes into ketoacidosis, so this can be negative with high glucose, but the longer the glucose stays up the more chance of the ketosis occuring.
You can also check the glucometer against your self or another ferret to make sure it does read ok, and you can run the test solution on it too.
AT this point, I doubt your testing is off. It sounds consistent that the glucose is over 600 and the urine dips show glucose high in the urine. What insulin dosage, when last given? I think you may want to call your vet and consider uping the dose of insulin and giving some more sub Q fluids. make sure to document the timing of the blood glucose testing with last insulin injection and if before eating, or after. It took me about 2 weeks to get the dosing right, every time the ferret felt better, would eat more and the glucose would go up. It is not easy to manage, but you will be an expert soon enough.
Patty
-- jennifer-galarneau@idexx.com wrote:
Does anyone else use these urine test strips for ketones and glucose? I am seriously doubting the effectiveness of the glucose. The keytones seem accurate. The glucose is always the highest it can go (2000+) even when her keytones is negative. Her blood glucose was in the 600's at her worse when tested at the vet.
The pharmacies I have checked out don't carry Multistix or other brands of full test strips - I would love one with spec. gravity.
Can these be ordered by a private individual?
What about One Touch Ultra glucometers - anyone have bad luck with those? The results I run come back is consistantly (except for one time) as "HI" meaning above 600 even though I doubt it is. Her vet appointments showed in the 300's when she appeared in the same condition.