Glucometer suggestions

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Jenifer

Jenifer

Member Since 2020
hi! I'm new and have a newly diagnosed cat. I was given a meter from an acquaintance last weekend and was told it was an AlphaTRAK2 which I had extra strips for. Long story short, it was not an AlphaTRAK. It is a Henry Schein Vet glucometer and it came with a bottle of 25 strips. I went online to order more strips for it and they do not exist. You can barely even find any info on the meter itself. So now I'm down to one test strip and need to get a new one asap. I checked around yesterday and was blown away by how many there are and that they basically all use their own strips and they are not interchangeable. That is seriously disturbing btw and I feel horrible for humans with diabetes that have to deal with that. Anyway, I saw the Countour brand and saw the strips were very affordable. The lady that helped me said that you're basically paying for the memory that the meter holds. So the more memory it holds, the more expensive it is. So if I'm keeping a spreadsheet, she said I don't need anything expensive or fancy. She said the main thing to look for is the amount of blood needed.
Does anyone use the Contour brand and if so, what do you think of it. I have a friend who has a brand new Libre for me but I won't get it for a few days to a week and need something to use in the mean time.........
Also, is it hard doing the conversions? I suck at math and with numbers in general and I haven't had the time to research this site to see if it is fairly easy to do or not since I've been using a pet meter and had planned to keep using it in the future.
Thanks in advance for any advise/help/suggestions. :)
 
I second ReliOn. The strips are the most affordable and that’s where the bulk of your money will go. ReliOn is easy to use and super convenient to be able to restock at a Walmart near me instead of waiting for shipping. It’s also in the list of most accurate and reliable meters. The second one I like is freestyle, as you can see by my signature I have both.
I feel some of the members have mentioned Contour in the past but I’m not familiar with it. The majority of people here use ReliOn since we test A LOT :cat:
 
Ok Cool! Thank you! The woman at the Walgreens pharmacy actually suggested I just go to Walmart because they had the cheapest meters and strips. i just wanted to make sure that they were accurate and decent quality. That's what I care about. well, that and least amount of blood needed. Not cheapest. I will pick one up on my way home today. Thanks again! I really appreciate it
 
Technically, both freestyle and alphatrack require only .3 while ReliOn requires .5. I was nervous switching to ReliOn because of that but honestly I get a lot less error messages with it! I think because of the chip on the strips that lets you visually see the blood getting “sucked in” and when it has filled the chip. I never felt the difference in the amount and even when I think I didn’t get enough, like this morning, I still get a reading. Just fyi
 
Hi Jenifer,

Welcome to you and KittenCat. :)

Jenifer said:
Also, is it hard doing the conversions? I suck at math and with numbers in general and I haven't had the time to research this site to see if it is fairly easy to do or not since I've been using a pet meter and had planned to keep using it in the future.
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Good news! You won't need to do any conversions of numbers. :)

Human meters read lower than veterinary meters so a different reference range* is used with them. The lower end of the safe range will be 50 on the human meter (cf. 68 on the veterinary meter you've been using).

You will need to clearly mark on the spreadsheet where you start using the human meter and then just carry on entering your readings as they appear on your new glucometer. I'm tagging member @Chris & China (GA) to ask if she can help you with that. (@Chris & China (GA) - can you please post the full reference range for human meters: I'm a bit rusty and cannot remember the top end of the range. :oops: )


Mogs


(* Reference range: the range of numbers where the cat's blood glucose is considered fully regulated. Numbers lower than the reference range are hypoglycaemia territory. Numbers above the reference range mean that blood sugars are too high and that can lead to other complications of diabetes, e.g. neuropathy, diabetic ketoacidosis.)

.
 
So after three different meters (which can’t be returned I learned) and an uncountable amount of sticks to my poor fingers, I got the Frestyle Lite. I got the ReliOn Premier and couldn’t get it to work last night. Kept giving an error message. Figured it was defective so I went to exchange it, which they don’t allow, so I ended up buying a new one. Got home and THAT one just gave me error codes. I’ve read and reread the instructions and everything is correct. Up until last night I’d been using her pet gluco meter with no issues so it’s not like I’m stupid and don’t know how to work it. So I went to a pharmacy to see if they would help me and they wouldn’t. But they would of course sell me a meter. They asked which one I wanted and I told them any one that actually works. Then I broke down and started crying cuz I’m so damn frustrated and my cat hasn’t had insulin in over 24 hours. They gave me the Feestyle which was probably the most expensive one there I’m guessing. I got home and tried it out and it actually works! Halle-freakin-lujah. I am officially done with this day.
 
The difference with the ReliOn and the other 2 is that with the other ones you basically scoop up the blood with the strip and it gives you a reading. The ReliOn strip doesn’t work like that. You have to let the strip “suck in” the blood so you just let it touch the blood and it will do the rest. If you try to scoop up the blood with the ReliOn strip, it won’t read it. It actually pretty cool once you get used to it. To see the strip pulling in the blood is fancy I think. Anyways, freestyle it is! If you ever have extra blood I’d try it again. It’s good having a back up meter anyway!
 
Aleluia Grugru & Minnie said:
The difference with the ReliOn and the other 2 is that with the other ones you basically scoop up the blood with the strip and it gives you a reading. The ReliOn strip doesn’t work like that. You have to let the strip “suck in” the blood so you just let it touch the blood and it will do the rest. If you try to scoop up the blood with the ReliOn strip, it won’t read it. It actually pretty cool once you get used to it. To see the strip pulling in the blood is fancy I think. Anyways, freestyle it is! If you ever have extra blood I’d try it again. It’s good having a back up meter anyway!
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So it’s interesting you say that because I thought it was neat watching it “suck up” the blood. I actually didn’t even know you were supposed to “scoop” the blood with the other meters. I have just always made sure I had a good sample and then basically touched the strip to the blood until it beeped........ only once did I not get enough blood for a reading. With the ReliOn it worked one time out of the 5 million times I tried and what was weird is that it worked on a pole that I wouldn’t think would even work because there was barely any blood but there was a lot of the clear stuff (plasma?) around it. And it worked perfectly. ‍♀️
 
That’s odd. I’ve had the opposite experience. I have a lot less error messages and the last time it was because I didn’t wait for the flashing icon that indicates it’s ready to accept blood. I like that Freestyle beeps but I prefer the ReliOn. Sorry about your experience. It may be worth calling the manufacturer so they can send you a sample solution to try on it. I wonder if it’s a bad strip batch. I had a weird issue with freestyle and I called them and they not sent me the solution but new strips and a new meter!
 
Aleluia Grugru & Minnie said:
That’s odd. I’ve had the opposite experience. I have a lot less error messages and the last time it was because I didn’t wait for the flashing icon that indicates it’s ready to accept blood. I like that Freestyle beeps but I prefer the ReliOn. Sorry about your experience. It may be worth calling the manufacturer so they can send you a sample solution to try on it. I wonder if it’s a bad strip batch. I had a weird issue with freestyle and I called them and they not sent me the solution but new strips and a new meter!
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I am definitely going to call them and see what they have to say. I'm going to bring it to work too and see if someone else will try it out and see if they can get it to work. Just happy to have a working meter again.
 
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