I'm sorry to hear that we have to meet this way bc that means your cat has diabetes too
. To be honest with you, I am a perfectionist and I want accurate results so the ReliOn meter for me just doesn't work. Lol. There are many people on here that use human meters. With my experience, the higher the glucose level, the more of a difference you will see in the comparisons. The lower the glucose levels the lesser the difference.
For instance, I could do a comparison with the Alphatrak 2 monitor and the ReliOn. Let's say that my Booger is 456 on the Alphatrak meter (more accurate result). On the ReliOn, it will probably show him in the high 200's or low 300's. Now if I check him with the Alphatrak 2 monitor and he is 75, he will probably show as high 50's or low 60's on the ReliOn.
The most important thing you need to remember is that on the ReliOn meter, 50 is the take action number. Get some honey, karo, etc in your kitty. It only takes about a pea size amount. This will only bring Gretchen's sugar up temporarily, so put down some food as well. Are you feeding dry food or wet food? I have seen a remarkable difference in Boogers glucose levels every since I got him eating Fancy Feast pate food.
On the Alphatrak 2 meter, the magic number is 68 or below. I currently have the alphatrak meter and I use the Freestyle strips in it because they are technically the same strips. They do have a little lower or sometimes higher reading than the Alphatrak strips but they are not way off like the ReliOn. I prefer the Freestyle Insulinx strips. My comparisons have been like 13-25 point off. There is another thread of mine called "Freestyle Lite strip users" where there is the link to buy these strips on Ebay for $9.99 free shipping. If you decided to buy these to use in an Alphatrak meter, don't wait until last minute because they can take a week to get to you. I just purchased some Freestyle Lite strips (before I knew about the Insulinx strips ) from ValleyRainMedical.com for like $24.99. The alphatrak strips are just too expensive. I know the ReliOn strips are super cheap which is wonderful. I am just a perfectionist like I said, but there is nothing wrong with using a human meter. What someone told me once is that High is High and Low is Low. Also, get the spreadsheet going. I can not remember where I found the template at. I think it was in the Welcome Thread.
I have learned soooo much here in this forum and I am so thankful that I found it! My Booger was diagnosed in Feb. I would if you haven't already, click the Home button at the top and read the articles on the right side of the main website. Those helped me out so much. I completely understand your overwhelmed-ness as I still am! Once you get the hang of it, it will get easier. The first time Booger went below 50, I panicked lol. I think everyone does. Try to stay calm. Home testing can save Gretchens life. Once you get the spreadsheet going and inputting number, you will start to see when she drops to her lowest. This really helped me. I noticed a pattern with Booger that he would drop to his lowest between 12:30 and 2:30 day and night. So I got out of my helicopter (helicopter mom here) lol, and started just testing him before meals/insulin and during that time frame.
I just saw in your signature that she is on Novolin N. I would join that thread as well. Check out the Food Chart as well to make sure that the beyond wet food is below 10% carbs. This will help the glucose levels. I am not familiar with Taste of the Wild but I would check the carb content for that as well. I was feeding my carts the Cat Chow Naturals which has like 30% carbs and I just stopped because it is making them sick. Booger can not have that dry food at all. It is too high in carbs. A lot of people on here suggest YoungAgain or Dr Easley I think thats how you spell it.
so I’ll stop before I hit 10 more subjects in one post
- this morning I gave in her front shoulder and again she didn’t like it at all so I knew it went in.