Help! Glucose meter suggestions

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Bubbas and Katrina

Bubbas and Katrina

Member Since 2023
Hello,

I am new to this platform, everyone seems to be very knowledgeable and helpful, so I decided to ask my own question on here!

My cat was diagnosed with Diabetes last week, I finally got the money last night to buy his insulin, Glargine pen 2 units every 12 hours. I have purchased the Alphatrak 2 from my vet, went home to look at reviews, and noticed its being discontinued in September 2023 -_-. I have been using it for the last week and it seems to be accurate? I am totally new to this but got explained how to use it and have done a LOT of research on cat diabetes for about a week now. I have been looking at reviews for the Alphatrak 3 and have been seeing not very good reviews at all, so I am scared to use it.

I was really hoping anyone had recommendations for a GOOD and ACCURATE blood sugar monitor? I do not care about the cost at this point, I just want something accurate that I can depend on.

Also, to prevent a hypo fit, are you suppose to test the blood, give him food than insulin? This morning I gave him food, waited about 15 mins, then tested his blood which was 330, then gave him insulin. So in which order do I do that in?
Thanks!
 
Hi and welcome to the group. If you are in the US, many members swear by the Relion meter and they are affordable and available at Walmart as well as online. I would agree, Alphatrak meters are expensive, the strips are even more expensive, and there is no need to use one of those. Vast majority of people here use a human meter and in fact the dosing methods are based off of human meter numbers.

We used a Caresens N, which we got on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082RSBPT4/ref=emc_b_5_t

As you are using Glargine, the process for injecting insulin should go like this, as close to every 12 hours as possible:

  • Test kitty's blood glucose so you know it is safe to give insulin
  • Feed kitty
  • Give the insulin

Ideally, this entire process should be done within a 10-15 minute window. With my boy Hendrick it took closer to 30 minutes as he is not a fast eater. But closer to 15 is ideal.
 
Thank you so much for the reply! And yes, I am in the US. I read that (and the vet told me) it's not good to use human glucose meter to test cats since it's not meant for cats, only humans, so I am not totally sure about using human ones. Do you have any suggestions on cat meters?

And great, thats what I have been reading, to test, feed than insulin. This morning I fed, tested than insulin, is that ok that I did that? From here on out ill test, feed and insulin!
 
Kitty Kat said:
Thank you so much for the reply! And yes, I am in the US. I read that (and the vet told me) it's not good to use human glucose meter to test cats since it's not meant for cats, only humans, so I am not totally sure about using human ones. Do you have any suggestions on cat meters?

And great, thats what I have been reading, to test, feed than insulin. This morning I fed, tested than insulin, is that ok that I did that? From here on out ill test, feed and insulin!
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the idea that you cannot test a cat's blood sugar with a human meter is untrue. The experts here at the diabetes forum have been using human meters on their cats for literally decades, since before any company decided to market a meter as "for pets." i used a human meter and by following the advice and guidance for members here, combined with testing using that human meter, my cat Hendrick successfully made it into diabetic remission and he is now a diet controlled diabetic feline. And there were dozens of other FDMB cats who did the same on human meters in 2022 along with him.

Like you, my vet said we had to use the Alphatrak and that is what we started with.

Then I found the experts here and they requested I switch to a human meter as it would work better with the dosing methods and make it easier for the experts to follow my cat's numbers and give dosing help. I said yes without hesitation because I was ALL IN on helping my boy Hendrick. The gurus here said it would help so that's all I needed to hear.

Speaking of helping your kitty -- if you are really committed to getting the most assistance out of this group and maybe, just maybe getting your kitty into diabetic remission then please consider setting up a spreadsheet and signature.

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
 
I totally understand! I am just so new at this and I want my boy to go into remission asap so I thought listening to the vet was the way to go, but I will definitely go ahead and try the human ones! But yes I will go ahead and do the spreadsheet later today :)
 
I'm not saying don't listen to your vet for most things. But when it comes to the Alphatrak, unfortunately we see the same story time and time again where vets push them and tell people that is what they MUST use. It is a similar story for the Purina DM food or glycobalance. Vets push it like crazy and sometimes it is not the best for the diabetic cat.

Your best shot at remission is almost certainly by following the Tight Regulation Dosing Method that has been so successful here at the FDMB. That method requires a lot of time, energy and dedication from the caregiver but it has the highest success rate. In one study almost 80% of diabetic cats entered remission on that dosing method.

Personally, when I heard about Tight Regulation and that 80% number from the study -- I was on board immediately. Whatever it took. It was confusing at times and I needed lots of help from members here to understand the dosing method and what to do in certain situations but this place is like a miracle, and the people who give freely of their time and knowledge to help strangers and their cats are like angels. I'm getting all emotional now lol


dammit where's that tissue box
 
So, I actually get my cat Purina DM wet food, per my suggestion to the vet. He wasn't giving me really any suggestions, but I told him I've been doing my research and I saw really really good things about that wet food, and he gave me a prescription for it. Bubbas has been eating it for about a week in a half now and his blood sugar levels have been going down, well up and down, but definitely not as high as it was when the vet tested him a couple weeks ago. Is the Purina DM food not a good suggestion?

What is the Tight Regulation method?

By the way I forgot to mention, bubbas is 12, so a senior kitty.
 
Kitty Kat said:
So, I actually get my cat Purina DM wet food, per my suggestion to the vet. He wasn't giving me really any suggestions, but I told him I've been doing my research and I saw really really good things about that wet food, and he gave me a prescription for it. Bubbas has been eating it for about a week in a half now and his blood sugar levels have been going down, well up and down, but definitely not as high as it was when the vet tested him a couple weeks ago. Is the Purina DM food not a good suggestion?

What is the Tight Regulation method?

By the way I forgot to mention, bubbas is 12, so a senior kitty.
Click to expand...

Purina DM is fine for many diabetic cats and in fact my boy Hendrick still eats it here and there. The downside is the price, and that it comes in about 10% calories from carbs per meal and most diabetic owners here try to keep that number lower, like under 5-7%. There are also members who have expressed concerns about the quality of the source protein in Purina DM. It is probably fine to feed it for now but you may want to start looking into low-carb alternatives, and you may find many that are far less expensive as well. Given Bubba's age the Fancy Feast varieties may be a bit high in phosphorus to consider.

The main two dosing methods for Glargine users are Tight Regulation and SLGS:

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/
 
Do you recommend any alternative food? Yes, his Purina DM food is very spendy, about $90 a month is what I'm looking at just for his food which is A LOT. I also see often little white pieces of something in the food, that is a little hard, it looks like chipping from paint of something, so I have noticed that in the Purina DM which im not sure what it is. I have just read such good reviews on that food that I figured it was the best.

I will go ahead and look at that information later tonight!
 
Welcome to FDMB.

I agree with Kyle that you have a number of options for the choice of a meter. A great many people here use the Walmart Relion brand meter because the strips are inexpensive. They cost about $0.17 per strip vs an AlphaTrack strip which costs about $1.00 per strip. In addition, the dosing methods were developed using human meters. I linked the information on our two dosing methods for use with Lantus -- Tight Regulation (TR) and Start Low Go Slow (SLGS).

Purina DM canned food is around 7% carb. It's fine. However, many cats get very tired of it and for what the "prescription" food costs, the ingredients are not premium ingredients. This is a link to a food chart containing most of the canned foods available in the US. We consider a low carb food choice to be under 10% carbs. Most members feed their cats somewhere in the neighborhood of 5%. Many people here use Fancy Feast or Friskies as they are at a good price point but you have a wide range of choices. Just one word about the prescription food. There is nothing "prescription" about it. In fact, the pet food manufacturers lost a class action law suit for calling their food "prescription." If you were to compare the ingredients in DM to any other cat food, you would not see a great deal of difference. In fact, there are plenty of other non-prescription foods that are lower in carbs than DM.

Before we completely inundate you in information, please let us know if you have questions. The members here are very generous with their time and knowledge. We're here to help.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Purina DM canned food is around 7% carb.
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I was wondering why this didn't jive with what I remembered -- I was thinking of Purina DM Savory Selects, which is what Hendrick eats now and then. He won't touch the pate lol.

So just to be clear @Kitty Kat if you're feeding the Purina DM Pate that is about 7% calories from carbs and if you're feeding the Savory Selects, that is listed as 10% on the food chart.
 
Kitty Kat said:
Yeah I am giving him the Purina DM pate food. So that’s less calories than you thought?
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It's not the calories but the carb % that you want to watch out for with a diabetic cat. (Though calories are also important if weight is a issue). Purina Pro Plan DM pate is around 7% carbs which is low carbs, but Pro Plan DM Savory Selects is higher at 10% or so.
 
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.
Here is the link on how to create our spreadsheet and it also explains how it works
If you have trouble with it just post here and ask for help.
We track our cats BG on the spreadsheet to see how the insulin is working for them and how low they are dropping . You can look at any members spreadsheet it's attached to our signature. Mine says/Tyler's spreadsheet, look at others only because Tyler is in remission now and I don't have to test that often
If you need help with the spreadsheet ,we have a wonderful member who will help you with it
 
Kitty Kat said:
Yeah I am giving him the Purina DM pate food. So that’s less calories than you thought?
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Sorry for the confusion. It has less calories that are derived from carbohydrates than I thought. It was hard for me to wrap my head around this concept: it's not the carbs themselves that we measure but the ratio of calories derived from carbs in the food as compared to other nutrients and fat. Most members do not bother with this distinction and will just refer to a particular food as "5% carbs" or "7% carbs." And to be fair that approach is far less confusing for most.
 
Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I started bubbas on insulin yesterday morning with blood sugar levels within 330 and dropped down to 208 last night. I woke up today and his blood sugar was 58!!!!!! I skipped insulin this morning and tested him again about 10 mins after he had breakfast. It was up to 83. I give him 2 units every 12 hours. The vet at first told me to start him off with 3 units every 12 hours but I said no. He isn’t acting funny, no lethargic actions, no walking funny, he’s eating and drinking fine. I tested his fee for ketones and it was negative.

I was told to go home on lunch at 12 and test his blood sugar. So I’m praying it goes up and not down. I am starting to get pissed at my vet. I don’t trust what they say at all and if I would have given my cat the 3 units last night, he could have been dead this morning. I am so thankful to god that I didn’t wake up to him dead.
 
Please take the time to set up a spreadsheet and your signature. It's the best way for us to provide you with guidance and support. I'm tagging Bhooma (@Bandit's Mom) who can assist you with getting your cat's spreadsheet set up.

I strongly suspect that 2u of insulin is way too much. We generally start new members on a dose of 0.5u. (The dose may be a bit larger if you are following Tight Regulation since the starting dose is based on your cat's weight but unless your cat is BIG, the dose is generally not more than 1.0u.)
 
Yeah I am sorry, I have been meaning to set up the spreadsheet as of yesterday but work got busy and I forgot too after work. I’m not too sure how much information I can put on the spreadsheet since he’s only been on insulin one day. But I will try my best to do that today. My cat was 21 pounds for a while, then after he got his teeth cleaned in January, he dropped down to 17. Then dropped to 15 a month and a week ago, now he’s down to 13.6. So he’s technically not HUGE anymore. But when when he was diagnosed (last week) he was still about 14 so I’m not sure why they said 2 units every 12 hours. I distrust this vet so much that I am going to make the decision to only give him 1.5. The vet told me in the beginning that 1 unit is useless and will do nothing, that’s why I suggested dropping it down from 3 to 2. But clearly, as I thought, 2 is a lot.
 
For med and high carbs foods you can pick up any Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart. Doesn't have to be Fancy Feast just an example about the med and high carb foods

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.

If you can set up your signature that would be helpful it's information about your kitty
It's at the end of every one's posts
Here is a link helping us to help youlink.
Just tap on your name up top then tap on signature and add all the information that asks you in the link I gave you above
Also when someone responds to one of your posts can you tap on the word like that's to the right when a member replies back to you just so we know you have read it :cat:
@Kitty Kat
 
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Yeah I know @Hendrick Cuddleclaw isnr that nuts? I am so glad that I stuck to my gut and told the vet there is no way I’m giving my cat 3 units every 12 hours. I even tried to ask the vet if I can go down to just 1 unit every 12 hours but they said no because “3 units were already pretty low”. They are idiots and I determined I am just going to use my knowledge and research I’ve done, plus ask any questions on here, from here on out. The Veterinarian place I go to seems nice, they are all super friendly, but the main vet is all about $$$. He’s also nice, but clearly I know more of what I’m talking about than him which is sad.

I didn’t give him ANY insulin yesterday. His blood sugar went up to 183 when I got home, even though that’s still considered higher I guess, I still didn’t wanna give him insulin. This morning, about 30 mins ago, I tested his blood first thing in the am and it was 310. So I gave him food, and then only 1 unit if insulin. We will see how all that goes over for the next week or so. I will continue to check his blood sugar EVERY TIME before eating and insulin, twice a day despite what the vet said. Those idiots actually told me “no you don’t need to test his blood sugar unless he’s lethargic or walking funny”

Imagine if I didn’t test his blood sugar yesterday morning? I would have given him 2 units when his blood sugar was 58. I feel SOOOO happy and blessed from god that he didn’t have a hypo fit Wednesday night and I didn’t wake up to my cat dead yesterday morning. Even more thankful that he’s such a champ and didn’t show any signs at all of having low blood sugar.
 
Kitty Kat said:
1 unit if insulin. We will see how all that goes over for the next week or so. I will continue to check his blood sugar EVERY TIME before eating and insulin, twice a day despite what the vet said. Those idiots actually told me “no you don’t need to test his blood sugar unless he’s lethargic or walking funny”
Click to expand...

Yes my vet and almost every vet we hear about said the same thing. No need to do home testing. "Just bring him in for a curve once a week and pay us $300!" uhh, how about &#$% no?



I agree that 1 unit is a good place to start insulin therapy. .5u might even be a better number and here's why: you need to find a dose that works in such a way that you don't have to skip. Glargine works best with consistency in dosing, the same unit every 12 hours day in and day out. It's good you skipped as he was so low, but even better if you can find a dose where you don't NEED to skip because it is the right amount.

on the positive side, it is clear he responds to glargine therapy very well. Some cats, people increase and increase and it seems to not help or lower numbers. At least you don't have that problem!
 
Yeah I was honestly thinking about doing 0.5 units, but I decided to do 1 unit. I will see how it goes with him in the next couple days. I am overall really just praying for fast remission. All of this is sooo stressful on me and it does slightly suck that I won’t be able to sleep I’m on weekends anymore lol I have Celiac Disease which comes with chronic fatigue, badly. So the only times I feel well rested are Saturdays and Sunday, so bye bye to that lol but most importantly I just want my baby to feel better. I hope he takes to the insulin well and goes into remission within 6 months.

But yes, even tho he’s only had 3 doses so far, he seems to be doing well on it. I’m a huge hypochondriac when it comes to me and my health, but when it comes to him, it’s even worse. So I was afraid that he was going to be allergic to it or something, so I’m glad that he’s not. It clearly seem to work because it lowered his blood sugar so much haha. But yeah, I will see how 1 unit goes, and if it’s still too much, I will gladly go down to 0.5 units. And it’s a nice piece of mind to know that I have keto urine test strips to test his pee. I’m on the keto diet, so I test my pee at least once a day. Whenever I can hear him P, I run over and try and test it. It was negative as of last night so at least there’s no ketones in his urine, which is another thing that I am obviously super afraid of overall.
 
we used a blood ketone meter and would use the same droplet of blood to test his BG. But the strips are very expensive, not sure if that's really an option for you
 
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