Accuracy of human meters on cats??

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Blue and Freddies Mom

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hello,

I have been using the Freestyle Light for the past year and it's been working pretty well for me. I had a visit to the vet the other day and he was wondering about the accuracy of a human meter versus a meter made for cats. Does any one of any knowledge about this?? My vet doesn't have much experience withe people who home test :? , so I think he was just kind of throwing it out there. From what I have seen most people use human meters on this site quite happily. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!
 
Your vet is at least open-minded. For years, veterinary researchers used human glucometers because that is all there was.

Current research shows that human glucometers are very accurate for animals except for very low blood sugars and extremely high. You might want to take a look at the information here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/glucometer.htm

Of course, once you have been testing, in many cases you are just interested in relative blood glucose trends, not actual numbers. I'm sure others will chime in here.

Best,
Rebecca
 
Hi Blue and Freddie's mom,

Great question! And, I'm liking Blue's vet for his wondering...



Okay, so back in the day when Giz was DX'd... It's a l-o-n-g story involving DKA and a truly wonderful ER hospital vet who saw her every Sunday afternoon at 4:00 for a plus 6 check for months and only charged me $18 even though it was emergency hours (normally back then it would have been $125 to walk in the door...), because she called it follow-up...

I confess. It took me one month and 28 days to start hometesting. Just trying to give you a time line...

So, after I started hometesting, I'd write down Gizzie's numbers and take them to her ER vet every Sunday. She looked at them and then just handed them back to me. I was a little crushed...

So, one Sunday afternoon at 4:00, I was packing my meter in one jean pocket, a couple of test strips in the other pocket, and, of course, Giz's weekly numbers from home... When the wondrous ER vet and the extraordinary vet tech, Kathleen, did the weekly leg draw, I just whipped out my meter and pulled out a test strip and asked, May I have a bead of blood, please? The vet looked stunned. Kathleen was still doing that hold they somehow manage on an extremely ornery cat with a lot of warning labels on the front of her chart.

It was kind of like emotional chaos... Proactive mom. Wondrous vet. And, extraordinary vet tech, still doing that very brave grip thing on Giz...


The vet's meter read 495. My meter read 487.



The wondrous ER vet suddenly scooped up my weekly numbers and put them in Giz's file; and said, how about we see you two in a month? Said, great!

Took a couple of months more, and this wondrous ER vet said, you and Giz have taught me a lot, and we were free from those visits... Kathleen looked relieved!




I used an Ascencia Elite meter back then. It's no longer either made or has test strips available. Rebecca's right. It's the trend that's important.


Bless you for hometesting, Blue and Freddie's mom. (See how nicely your name would fit in right now?)

Love and hugs,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever whispering in my heart...
 
As a person with every glucometer perhaps known to man (newbie kits) i have given each one a test run and tested it against my original accu-check. On the same drop of blood, at the same time. What I found was no two meters read exactly the same...some were as much as 40 points difference.
Then I found on lower numbers they were MUCH closer in readings than in higher numbers. Very little difference, within 5=7 points.
So.......... I think what we are really looking for as you get going is the patterns. They will remain true to the same meter.
The gradual or rapid increases or decreases will become important
As well as the momentum
And when treating low number I feel secure that the meters read accurately and the same.
 
I did a comparison with OTU meter and IDEXX labs......tested Hope, vet took blood, retested Hope and waited for lab results. 8 point difference and that was not on a machine at the vet, that was blood sent out.
 
My vet was sceptical. I think I may be his only patient's mom who home tests.
First he asked me "where to do you test him?". I said in the ear, and showed him the inside of J.D.'s ear. He took a syringe and poked J.D. right in the center :shock: of his ear, and got a big blood droplet, so we both dipped and checked our meters. The next time, I did the poking (at the edge of the ear) and we shared the blood droplet and checked our meters. We compared meters, one other time (so three times in total). Each time our meters were within 8 or 9 points.
This was over three different vet visits, so not the same day.
He doesn't even bother to test J.D. with his meter anymore, he just goes by whatever I tell him J.D. numbers have been.
 
I have an AlphaTrak and a ReliOn. I used the AlphaTrak for about 6 months. Strips are extremely expensive, available only through a vet and you need a calibration solution (expires after 28 days) to calibrate the meter with new strips. I got the ReliOn. The first week I used both. I never experienced the large difference reported here between the 2 meters. There is more of a variance in the higher numbers 10-15% sometimes but in the lower numbers only 5-6 difference in the numbers.
 
Hi all! this is my first post! Been doing random home testing on my cat for about a week. He's been crying for food all evening...only stopped for one hour after eating and having his jab (6pm) - checked his blood at 2130 and my freestyle freedom lite measured 3.2 - the lowest ive ever seen. but i dont understand cos he's acting starving, like he does with high BG. going to check him again in an hour, which will be 6 hours after his jab so should be at his lowest. I don't know whether to trust the reading when his behaviour is as if he's high??
 
Hi Carman,

You have posted at the end of someone else's thread. Copy your post and then go back to the Health forum and choose New Topic. Copy your post into that box and submit. That will give you your own thread so that people can reply to you. They won't find you down at the bottom of this thread.
 
Hi all,
Not sure how to post on a specific topic. A feral black cat adopted my Minnesota porch the past two winters. he wouldn't let me trap or touch him until I found him near coma. I rushed him to the vet and his BG was 568 with 8% dehydrated. After one week on 2 units of Lantus and fluids I read this site and bought a Relion meter. his BG in the morning before insulin after a week was 55. I freaked and called the vet and he said no insulin if the read was below 85. After 4 days without insulin his levels on this meter are between 69 and 79. Is this too low and inaccurate? other than a voracious appetite, he seems alert and much much better. I am wondering if Anyone knows if the Relion reads lower or higher when the bg is low? I am nervous that his readings of 55 are dangerously low.
 
You have posted on the end of another thread and people won't see you here. I have reposted for you Newbie Stray Michael. I'll answer there.
 
Thank you so much everyone, this has been tremendously helpful!! How simple is that to go into the vet when they are doing a test and taking a little bit of blood for my home meter. Great idea! I have two diabetics and they have benefitted tremendously from this site with all sorts of advice. Thank you all! :-D
 
Phoebe_Tiggy_NortonGA said:
My vet in a cats-only practice uses a human glucometer to test all the diabetic cats in her practice.
Click to expand...


My vet is the same way and they are also a cats only vets office. In fact, they gave me my first meter and originally taught me to hometest years ago.
 
That's what we did; I took the meter with on the first test day after I bought the meter and tested along side their meter. My Accucheck said 54, their meter said 61 and that was the last time we took Smokey in to be tested. After that I dropped a copy of the spreadsheet off weekly and the vet would call me to talk about reductions.
 
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