Beginning Home Testing Meters... and another question!

[SarahNBruno]

I had posted an introduction previously, and wanted to say thank you so much to this community for being so supportive and such a wealth of information.

We took Bruno to the vet again yesterday and his BG levels were only a little high, so we are going to give the diet a few more weeks before taking him back. Because going to the vet may not give us the most accurate reading, we are going to start home testing so we can come up with the best plan for Bruno. I understand how the testing works, but we are confused about what meter to buy! I think we have it narrowed down to 3, but I am nervous about using a human meter because I want the most accurate information with as little human error as possible - and not to mention the cost of the AlphaTrak is not even near comparable to the other two I am thinking of. So, my first question is:

Have you had any experience with any of the following monitors, and would you recommend or not recommend them?
1. AlphaTrak 2
2. Accu-Check Compact Plus
3. Relion Micro


My next question has to do with diet. Bruno's first sign was that he lost weight rapidly 2 months ago. Since switching to his high protein/low carb diet (90%+ fancy feast classics, 5-10% EVO dry), he has lost even more and is now 2 lbs down at 13.9 (he is a maine coon mix that was at 15.9 lbs steadily for over 3 years, so a healthy weight). Is that normal on this new diet? What I have read always indicates that weight loss is associated with high BGs. Everything else indicates that he is much better, but I think I am just worrying!

Thank all of you so much in advance for all of the information I am sure to garner from this post!

 

[Dyana]

I think most people on this board use the ReliOn because of the cost of the strips.

The weight loss is probably because of the unregulated diabetes. Insulin is what helps the food he eats to enter the cells. When his pancreas isn't producing enough insulin and he isn't getting any or enough extra insulin via injection, then the food goes right through him and can not get into the cells, so his body is using the fat he has stored for now and that is why he is loosing weight. Sorry, I'm not that good with talking in medical terms.

You don't want to take away the dry completely, until you start home testing.

The people on this forum will help you with learning how.

 

[SarahNBruno]

The weight loss is probably because of the unregulated diabetes. Insulin is what helps the food he eats to enter the cells. When his pancreas isn't producing enough insulin and he isn't getting any or enough extra insulin via injection, then the food goes right through him and can not get into the cells, so his body is using the fat he has stored for now and that is why he is loosing weight.

Thank you so much! That was my understanding of it, but I wasn't sure if that was a common phenomenon when switching diets.

 

[BJM]

WalMart ReliOn Confrim Micro is also avaliable generically at our shopping partner ADW. It is called the Glucocard 01 Micro, from Arkray USA. The strips are interchangeable.

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

If I was rich of course I would want the alpha trak. But at 4+ tests a day thats a lot of $ in strips that I want to save $ for my vet bills so the relion would be better.

 

[KarensPoe]

I use the ReliOn Confirm, and the strips are interchangeable with the ReliOn Micro. It's very simple and very cost effective, and ordering through the link in this website sends a bit of $ towards it.

I also have a Bayer Contour Next EZ which I got for free when I bought the strips. The strips are pricier, so I only keep it for back up.

 

[Deb & Wink]

I have used the Alphatrak 2 and the Relion Confirm (larger version of the Micro).

They were both easy to use. Small blood drop 0.3 microliters for both. Alphatrak test strips cost $1-2 each depending on your vet markup. Relion Confirm/Micro test strips are $0.36 each so 1/3 to 1/6th of the price of the Alphatrak test strips.

You can look at Wink's SS in my signature. I did some parallel testing between the two meters back in February I think it was. I was trying to convince the cat shelter I was fostering Wink for that the Confirm was accurate enough to use with a cat and the cost of the test strips would save them a ton of money. They finally allowed me to buy the Confirm test strips and it saved a lot of money.

I only use the Relion Confirm now.

At 4 tests a day x 31 days = 124, plus weekly curves 6 tests x4 weeks= 24, plus potential hypos 20 can easily run you 150-200 test strips a month.

So would you rather spend $72 for 200 Relion Confirm/Micro test strips or $200-400 for Alphatrak 2 test strips? I went with the Confirm/Micro test strips.