AlphaTrak3 app question

Chapin Klein

Chapin Klein

New Member
Good day,

Our handsome short-haired domestic boy tabby developed feline diabetes last year. He lost a lot of weight, developed aggressive food-seeking behaviors, and started peeing a lot more, so we brought him to the vet and she told us what to do.

Presently we inject him with 2-units Lantus glargine twice daily, which keeps his glucose down in the 100s range. Our vet may change his dose again, but we're still working on that.

I've found the AlphaTrak3 app on my Android phone to be a little fussy, and was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience. The glucose curve reports that it generates for our vet have worked fine, but they don't show meal times or insulin injection times on the graph. I have a copy of our very first report, with the little vertical green and red lines indicating "feeding" and "insulin", but every other report I've generated since doesn't include them. I've tried resetting the app but I think it stores the profile data on the cloud, so it pretty much just goes back to the same settings each time.

I realize this is a pretty minor issue, but it's nice to have a good system for glucose reporting. For anyone who's interested, I have largely had a very good experience using the AlphaTrak3, and would recommend it to anyone in our situation.

Thanks for any help!

Sincerely,
Rufus G.
 
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I've moved your post to the Feline Health forum where we ask people to post first. Plus this is a good question for more than just people using Lantus.

Most of us here use a conventional Google Sheets spreadsheet to record our blood sugar data. You'll see that linked in our signatures. With the spreadsheet we record the units and can put in meal times too. In case you are interested, details on how to set in up are in this post:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
 
Chapin Klein said:
Good day,

Our handsome short-haired domestic boy tabby developed feline diabetes last year. He lost a lot of weight, developed aggressive food-seeking behaviors, and started peeing a lot more, so we brought him to the vet and she told us what to do.

Presently we inject him with 2-units Lantus glargine twice daily, which keeps his glucose down in the 100s range. Our vet may change his dose again, but we're still working on that.

I've found the AlphaTrak3 app on my Android phone to be a little fussy, and was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience. The glucose curve reports that it generates for our vet have worked fine, but they don't show meal times or insulin injection times on the graph. I have a copy of our very first report, with the little vertical green and red lines indicating "feeding" and "insulin", but every other report I've generated since doesn't include them. I've tried resetting the app but I think it stores the profile data on the cloud, so it pretty much just goes back to the same settings each time.

I realize this is a pretty minor issue, but it's nice to have a good system for glucose reporting. For anyone who's interested, I have largely had a very good experience using the AlphaTrak3, and would recommend it to anyone in our situation.

Thanks for any help!

Sincerely,
Rufus G.
Click to expand...
Mine puts the lines on the graph but you’d have to interpret the time (on the graph)—it doesn’t mark the time but it never has. But the lines are there and below (on the printout not on the app as you view it) it prints all the times of meals, insulin, tests etc.

Not to be insulting but if you don’t see the lines at all check the buttons for food and insulin upper right and be sure they’re toggled on
 
I will say that while I love the meter, and see a lot of value in the app, it seems to get more sluggish and more glitchy with every passing day.

since AT users may drop by here, and I’ve told several who had no idea—did you know that anemia can cause glucometers to give falsely elevated numbers, and the AT has a feature you can turn on to let you know if your sample could have that problem? (Default setting is “off” but it’s easy to turn on)
 
Also if you meant the app isn’t marking a test as being post meal or post insulin — you can mark those by going into the test data on the dashboard, select edit (pencil icon) and then toggle on meal or insulin for desired test result.

going to second how excellent the support staff are
 
Sorry for the delay Wendy&Neko and SmallestSparrow for going "dark" for so long, but I'm glad I was able to find this thread to follow up. I haven't been able to "fix" the problem I keep having with the AlphaTrak3, but it's what I have, so I keep using it. I've found that if I wait 24 hours and then repeat the upload/download process, that the last data point is added correctly. I presume it's just the programming of device, and will get ironed out in time.

I'm glad to hear that AlphaTrak3 customer support is helpful. I'll certainly give that a try if the problem doesn't get sorted.

SmallestSparrow, I did not know that anemia can cause glucometers to present falsely elevated glucose levels. I'll check with our vet to see what they think. Ty!

The reason I'm on here again now is because Google search directed me here again. I was trying to figure out if there's a less wasteful way to treat Rufus' diabetes than using Lantus glargine insulin since our first vial seems to have degraded after about 2 months, but it's still 1/2 full. I understand that the proteins eventually break down, and the standards for humans v. felines are different, so I'm just trying to optimize the process, without spending too much.

Thanks,
Chapin
 
Instead of the 10 ml bottle of Lantus, ask the vet for a prescription for the box of five 3 ml pens. The box will last you at least a year. Each pen is good to the last drop so you'll get at least a month of use out of it if not more depending on your cat's insulin dose. Use insulin syringes to draw out the insulin from a pen.

There's a GoodRX coupon to get the box of pens for $35, although whether the coupon works or not depends on the pharmacy and / or pharmacist. I got my first box for $35 a year ago but the coupon didn't work last week :(

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/sourcing-insulin-more-economically.288053/

You may want to use a Human blood glucose meter if the AlphaTrak is glitchy. Some Human meters also have app features for tracking purposes. Most people here just use a spreadsheet and share it with their vet.
 
If you are keeping the Lantus/glargine in the fridge all the time, it should last longer than 2 months. A lot of people get 5-6 months out of it. But I second the suggestion to get a box of pens. They can be used to the last drop. I've used them for 90 days - depends on the size of dose. They stay in the fridge too.
 
When you go to the Glucose Reports tab,you have to click on "create glucose curve" NOT "view glucose trend" in order to see the lines for feeding and insulin.

I find the app pretty glitchy on my Android, but my husband has no problem on his iPhone. If you have access to an Apple product, you may want to try it on there.
 
Rae's Family said:
When you go to the Glucose Reports tab,you have to click on "create glucose curve" NOT "view glucose trend" in order to see the lines for feeding and insulin.

I find the app pretty glitchy on my Android, but my husband has no problem on his iPhone. If you have access to an Apple product, you may want to try it on there.
Click to expand...
It’s an absolute mess on an iPhone 14 Pro and has been since October
 
Rae's Family said:
When you go to the Glucose Reports tab,you have to click on "create glucose curve" NOT "view glucose trend" in order to see the lines for feeding and insulin.

I find the app pretty glitchy on my Android, but my husband has no problem on his iPhone. If you have access to an Apple product, you may want to try it on there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! Yes, I think that was part of what ultimately got it working for me on Android. Now that our vet trusts we're accountable about administering proper doses and whatnot though, I'll likely take squeem3's advice and begin using a spreadsheet instead. I really liked the formality of the AlphaTrak3's graph in the beginning, but a spreadsheet is infinitely better long term, so I guess the glitchy software won't really be a problem anymore.
 
squeem3 said:
Instead of the 10 ml bottle of Lantus, ask the vet for a prescription for the box of five 3 ml pens. The box will last you at least a year. Each pen is good to the last drop so you'll get at least a month of use out of it if not more depending on your cat's insulin dose. Use insulin syringes to draw out the insulin from a pen.

There's a GoodRX coupon to get the box of pens for $35, although whether the coupon works or not depends on the pharmacy and / or pharmacist. I got my first box for $35 a year ago but the coupon didn't work last week :(

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/sourcing-insulin-more-economically.288053/

You may want to use a Human blood glucose meter if the AlphaTrak is glitchy. Some Human meters also have app features for tracking purposes. Most people here just use a spreadsheet and share it with their vet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your recommendation. It turns out the Lantus was still good after all. I was convinced it had degraded because Rufus' glucose levels started spiking again, and then I realized I wasn't injecting him properly - sometimes the needle would bend over and the insulin would squirt onto his fir, instead of beneath his skin. I was quite embarrassed to make this discovery, but I've mostly altered my technique and fixed the problem.

Now that human insulin prices have leveled out, and I've figured how to use it better, I may stick with the Lantus for now, but my wife and I really want to try the 3 mL pens next, both for ease of use and shelf-life. Ty!
 
rufus glucose.jpg

Sent this to the vet and they said we can stick with 3ml. Perfect, now we can upgrade from using a vial to using 3ml pens! I missed his morning injection on December 21, which may explain the glucose spike. I thought I'd administered it, but then realized I had been missing with the needle sometimes. I think I've fixed my technique/learned to be a little more careful. For this graph, feedings & insulin are generally at the same time, between 7 and 9 am in the morning, and 4 or 5 pm in the evening.
 

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squeem3 said:
Instead of the 10 ml bottle of Lantus, ask the vet for a prescription for the box of five 3 ml pens. The box will last you at least a year. Each pen is good to the last drop so you'll get at least a month of use out of it if not more depending on your cat's insulin dose. Use insulin syringes to draw out the insulin from a pen.

There's a GoodRX coupon to get the box of pens for $35, although whether the coupon works or not depends on the pharmacy and / or pharmacist. I got my first box for $35 a year ago but the coupon didn't work last week :(

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/sourcing-insulin-more-economically.288053/

You may want to use a Human blood glucose meter if the AlphaTrak is glitchy. Some Human meters also have app features for tracking purposes. Most people here just use a spreadsheet and share it with their vet.
Click to expand...
Just so it’s clear for anyone deciding on meters, the AT3 METER is not glitchy. It’s fine and is more accurate than any human meter. It’s the app that has significant problems (which is a shame because it has useful features). I’ve stopped using the app to record anything except his BG and insulin (because it makes graphs that I find useful or I’d stop using the app altogether)

but the meter is fine and again is more accurate than any human meter, plus alerts if the blood is so anemic that the values will be falsely elevated. I know people prefer human meters here because they are so much cheaper which is fine.
 
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