Human vs Cat glucometer

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Nicole M

Nicole M

Member Since 2020
Hey all!

My beautiful girl Tazzy was diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago. This forum has been so helpful and I’m so grateful for the advice. But I’ve run into a problem.
I was recommended to use the human Relion Prime glucometer rather then the vet AlphaTrak2 in my first newbie post. I bought the Relion and was using it with success, my vet was skeptical but respected my decision. She only asked that I bring Tazzy in and do a side by side comparison. My Relion glucometer read 207 and her AlphaTrak read 265. She did this twice to confirm 20 min later and again her reading was about 60-65 points off.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Tazzy has been off Lantus for two weeks now because the Relion was reading under 200, when really she’s probably been 260!

Who uses human glucometers? Have any of you had this problem? Is the difference in reading consistent? Like should I just add 60 to my readings from now on?

Who uses a veterinary glucometer like AlphaTrak2 ? Any money saving tips?
 
Nicole M said:
Like should I just add 60 to my readings from now on?
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Thats not exactly how it works but there is a variance with ALL meters. I cant remember the "formula" (for lack of a better description)
I'm sure those that know will chime in on this. If you get no responses and this topic falls way down the list, just post "BUMP" and it will go back to the top of the list.

Glad to hear your kitteth is OTJ! CONGRATS!
 
There is 20% variance given to meters, so those numbers are very close. Pet meters run higher than human but it doesn't matter because we're aware what "normal" is for a cat on a human meter. We've adjusted the scale to align with the difference.

50-120 on human meter
70-150 on pet meter
 
As you get down to lower numbers the difference isn’t usually so great.
My kitty went all green immediately after switching to a human meter, then OTJ pretty quickly. She didn’t “earn” a reduction (going under 68 on the AT) for a long time, but went under 50 on the human meter right away after my switch. My opinion is that if you use a human meter, you will get more precise help on the forum because that’s what most people relate to. And the protocol was written using a human meter.

On my own I found documents comparing human to pet meter numbers from the University of Queensland. And 130 (AT) aligned with 100 (human); if cat stays under 130 for a week, reduce, vs reducing if staying under 100 for a week on a human meter.
Once I got a 100 on the AT, and 48 on the human meter. I thought how weird, and just blew it off; I didn’t change from my AT at that time. Looking back, I should have changed sooner and may have gotten Tina off insulin sooner. Look specifically at 11/7 -8/ 2019 on Tina's Spreadsheet to see what I mean. Then look up and see how long she was staying under 130 on the AT.
 
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Nicole M said:
Hey all!

My beautiful girl Tazzy was diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago. This forum has been so helpful and I’m so grateful for the advice. But I’ve run into a problem.
I was recommended to use the human Relion Prime glucometer rather then the vet AlphaTrak2 in my first newbie post. I bought the Relion and was using it with success, my vet was skeptical but respected my decision. She only asked that I bring Tazzy in and do a side by side comparison. My Relion glucometer read 207 and her AlphaTrak read 265. She did this twice to confirm 20 min later and again her reading was about 60-65 points off.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Tazzy has been off Lantus for two weeks now because the Relion was reading under 200, when really she’s probably been 260!

Who uses human glucometers? Have any of you had this problem? Is the difference in reading consistent? Like should I just add 60 to my readings from now on?

Who uses a veterinary glucometer like AlphaTrak2 ? Any money saving tips?
Click to expand...

Hi Nicole
We have the Alphatrak2 because we bought it as soon as Mac was diagnosed as the one that the vet mentioned. I didn't know about the option of using human ones at that time (PS we need a Walmart in the UK - people are always mentioning popping there to grab human meters, lancets or strips - sorry I digressed there).
I wish could pass on money saving tips for the Alphatrak2 products but everywhere I have looked the lancets and testing strips are around the same price (expensive for the latter )! The only one thing is if you are free handing rather than using the lancing tool then you can buy any lancets you want so make a small saving. If you have insurance it may be worth seeing if they will cover the costs.
The one thing that I do really like about the Alphatrak2 though is that it only need the teeniest drop of blood to get a reading.
Ps if you or anyone else ever finds cheaper supplies for it please pass the tips along my way!!
Gill
 
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