1/27/20 Io update, vet wants met to get a new BG monitor

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Jazmin

Jazmin

Member Since 2015
Hey! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Io is behaving so much more like himself now it's AMAZING! Our insulin shots are going well, he's a total champ.

We had our first wellness checkup at the vet this morning, and the vet was very impressed with my knowledge and spreadsheet (even asked if I worked in the medical field haha far from it) so thank you all for making me look impressive :smuggrin: He suggested that instead of my true metrix meter I'm using I get the alpha trak meter. What do you guys think? The "smaller blood sample" is VERY appealing to me since that has been my biggest struggle with testing Io is getting enough blood for his strip. Would I have to start a new spreadsheet if I start using a pet based meter?

Also, I just want to thank all of you again, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart. You have all been so helpful and patient. I don't know what I would have done without y'all!
 
Yay- so glad Io is feeling and doing better! The majority of people on here use human meters, and they will probably tell you it's not necessary to switch. The vet probably wants you to switch so that it will match the readings they get on their meter?

The pet meter (AlphaTrak) does use a small sample, although I think there are human meters you can get that use the same volume, but I'm not 100% on that fact. The strips for the AlphaTrak are also more expensive than the human meter strips, so that's something you probably want to consider.

It's totally up to you, but it's not necessary to switch unless you just want to.
 
It’s not necessary at all to switch to a pet meter. I started with the AlphaTrak and it was great, loved the small sample size, but the biggest issues are the cost and availability of strips. The strips are $1 each and have to be ordered online, compared to my Relion human meter, which are 17 cents each and can be bought at Walmart 24/7. Also, the dosing protocols on this board, particularly the ones for lantus, were written using a human meter.

You can certainly switch if you wanted to, just some things to consider :cat:
 
Amy and Socks said:
Yay- so glad Io is feeling and doing better! The majority of people on here use human meters, and they will probably tell you it's not necessary to switch. The vet probably wants you to switch so that it will match the readings they get on their meter?

The pet meter (AlphaTrak) does use a small sample, although I think there are human meters you can get that use the same volume, but I'm not 100% on that fact. The strips for the AlphaTrak are also more expensive than the human meter strips, so that's something you probably want to consider.

It's totally up to you, but it's not necessary to switch unless you just want to.
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Is the meter I have okay, or would it be best to switch to one of the more common ones here? His BG numbers were up at the vet super high from this morning but Im assuming thats just stress and not actually my meter being wrong?
 
Sarah&Soph said:
It’s not necessary at all to switch to a pet meter. I started with the AlphaTrak and it was great, loved the small sample size, but the biggest issues are the cost and availability of strips. The strips are $1 each and have to be ordered online, compared to my Relion human meter, which are 17 cents each and can be bought at Walmart 24/7. Also, the dosing protocols on this board, particularly the ones for lantus, were written using a human meter.

You can certainly switch if you wanted to, just some things to consider :cat:
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I gasped out loud when I looked at the price of strips on amazon just now. Holy cow!
 
Jazmin said:
I gasped out loud when I looked at the price of strips on amazon just now. Holy cow!
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Oh goodness, yes I know.... The ReliOn is light years more affordable for me. There are some people who use the AlphaTrak with other, cheaper strips, but it’s really not recommended to do so and my thoughts on that are if you aren’t going to use the appropriate strips, you might as well just use a different meter

Really the only difference between human and pet meters is that human meters tend to read lower (50-120 is normal for human meter and 68-150 for pet)
 
Jazmin said:
Is the meter I have okay, or would it be best to switch to one of the more common ones here? His BG numbers were up at the vet super high from this morning but Im assuming thats just stress and not actually my meter being wrong?
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Yes, numbers will definitely be higher at the vet from stress, so the difference does not indicate there is any problem with your meter. As far as I know, any human meter is fine, and one is not better than another. I have the ReliOn prime, which I've used some, but I haven't been able to get myself to switch from AlphaTrak, because it's what I've used from the beginning, so I'm just stuck in my old ways! :)
 
Jazmin said:
The "smaller blood sample" is VERY appealing to me since that has been my biggest struggle with testing Io is getting enough blood for his strip
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It's really not that big of a difference. The AT requires 0.3...the Relion Prime requires 0.5....I'm not sure how much the True Matrix requires though.
blood drop size.PNG
 

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Amy and Socks said:
Yes, numbers will definitely be higher at the vet from stress, so the difference does not indicate there is any problem with your meter. As far as I know, any human meter is fine, and one is not better than another. I have the ReliOn prime, which I've used some, but I haven't been able to get myself to switch from AlphaTrak, because it's what I've used from the beginning, so I'm just stuck in my old ways! :)
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I see youre using plaque off, how is that?
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
It's really not that big of a difference. The AT requires 0.3...the Relion Prime requires 0.5....I'm not sure how much the True Matrix requires though.
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I got the name of my own reader wrong :facepalm: its true metrix but yeah it's a .5 sample size, but I have a really hard time trying to get that from Io's ear and am usually having to use 1-4 strips
 
Jazmin said:
I see youre using plaque off, how is that?
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They eat it.... haha With Socks, I just sprinkle it on top- he'll eat anything. I also give him Cosequin in capsule form, which you're supposed to open and sprinkle over his food. I just throw the capsules on top of his food- he doesn't notice.

With the other three, I mix the plaque off in their food or they wouldn't eat it. I've only been using it for a couple months, and I don't really have a way to tell if it helps or not. I just figured it couldn't hurt at least. Could be a waste of time though- I don't know! :)
 
Please tel us the steps you are using when you are trying to test. In detail.

Are you getting error messages as you try to test?

You could have a bad meter or are using it incorrectly.

I think we had someone else new from California with the same meter. Let me go and try to find that post.
 
It was @Mo & Colby having the same problem. About a week ago.

Take a look at this thread here and see if any of this sounds familiar.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/brand-new-and-completely-overwhelmed.224394/#post-2512746

My suspicion with 2 members having the same meter and the same problem is that meter is not a good one to use. Try the Relion line from Wal-mart.

Or you need to try bigger lancets. The 26-28 gauge ones. Boxes are labeled 'For Alternate Site Testing'. Try that first before you buy a new meter. But it doesn't hurt to have a backup meter, in case your other one goes wonky on you.
 
Deb & Wink said:
It was @Mo & Colby having the same problem. About a week ago.

Take a look at this thread here and see if any of this sounds familiar.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/brand-new-and-completely-overwhelmed.224394/#post-2512746

My suspicion with 2 members having the same meter and the same problem is that meter is not a good one to use. Try the Relion line from Wal-mart.

Or you need to try bigger lancets. The 26-28 gauge ones. Boxes are labeled 'For Alternate Site Testing'. Try that first before you buy a new meter. But it doesn't hurt to have a backup meter, in case your other one goes wonky on you.
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Oh that is super familiar, I get the E-2 message ALL the time, unless Im able to get a pretty good amount of blood. I usually am trying to go for the outer part of the ear with the lancet. and the hold the meter with the strip in it up to the blood
 
So Io’s BG test came back surprisingly low before his second insulin shot. 135... do I give him his shot or no?
 
OK...how long ago? Next time you're not sure about it, stall, don't feed and test again in 20-30....if the number goes up, it's usually OK to go ahead and give the scheduled dose but the first few times you shoot a lower number, we want someone with experience to watch out for you.

If it's been less than 20 minutes, the food probably hasn't had a chance to get into the bloodstream so test again
 
Surprise!!! from Io to you this evening.
Live and learn. You are really new to all this and don't know about the "Stalling technique." Impossible to learn everything in the short time you have been posting here.

Bron answered her same question over in the lantus forum. And talked about stalling. Didn't know about the ketones though.
 
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