Calibrate your meter!

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Kitties Momma

Kitties Momma

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As a relative newbie to this whole diabetes thing I had not thought about calibrating my meter just yet, I have only had it a month! So I was in shock this morning when after breakfast and a snack my meter said 21! So I called my vet and he said if Julius was that low he should be comatose! well of course he was not.... so I am posting this to all newbies and not so newbies out there... calibrate your meter! get the control solution! I bought a new meter today and ordered the control solution, but I had no idea that in such a short period of time my meter could be wrong. I rushed Julius to the vet this morning, my meter said 43, theirs said 70. Big difference!!! So I wanted to let everyone on here know what I went through and to be prepared. No one here mentioned it to me before and with all that we deal with in regards to testing, feeding, shots and all that other stuff we depend on our meters to be accurate! So... Calibrate your meter!!! ;-)
 
What meter was the vet using? With the +/- 20 error you can get 52 on your meter and 56 on the vet's meter. Almost within +/- 20%. Also, you are not calibrating the meter since there is not way to adjust the meter reading. You are just checking the calibration of the meter.I have received a BG reading at least once in the 20's with no symptoms of a low BG. When you got the 21 this morning did you do another test? Sometime you just get a bad reading. Also, if you need to enter a strip code in the meter, is the proper code entered?
 
Also a 43 on a human meter will be around 70 on the Alpha track. That's why there are two different dosing protocols for Lantus/levemir - depending on what type of meter you are using (human vs AT).
 
Hello! My strips are new, my meter is a freestyle lite that is only a month old. I tested him right after the 21 and got LO on the screen, no #. I bought another freestyle lite meter yesterday and tested him this morning and he was 27, no symptoms. He just ate and I am going to test him again in a little bit. I think it is important to note that meters need to be checked, how and why would my vets meter be 30 points different than mine?? because of the brand? They have a vet meter, which of course you can not buy in at Walmart. So answer me this, why would a vet give you dosing protocol based on a meter you don't have and can't buy? They would dose the cat at the vet based on their meter and send you home knowing your using a human meter??? Glucose reading in a cat are comparable to people.... That honestly makes no sense. They check their meter against another machine at the vets office to make sure its accurate.... so your losing me there. My cat could not have been 21 yesterday because he would have been comatose, he was running around the house acting fine. He was most likely in the 40's.... 20% of 21 is 4..... I decided to buy a completely different meter. I got an accucheck this morning and it said 43 and my freestyle said 27. Same time testing, he had breakfast, new test strips etc. I think that a meter that needs more blood .06 vs.03 is probably going to be more accurate.
 
I do see that it is odd that the Accu check meter says 43 and the Freestyle is consistently saying 20s. That being said though......

The AT meter is calibrated for cat's blood, which has slightly different properties than human blood. Human meters are calibrated my the manufacturers to read lower than actual at the lower numbers in an effort to get the human to hurry and do something about the number. Human meters and the AT are about the same between 100 and 200. Below 100 the human meter will read lower. An Accu-check reading of 50 is equal to an AT reading of 80. Take a look at the Lantus stickies - there are two sets of numbers to go by when lowering the dose based off of what type of meter you are using.

As for the numbers your vet is telling you to go by, that is between you and the vet. They should understand there is a difference between the two when it comes to lower numbers. If not, well, then maybe you can educate them. That 70 on the AT is too low imo to keep with the current dose. Any number below 80 on the AT warrants a dose decrease. The 43 at the vet was after food had some time to hit the system, so it is possible that your kitty could have been down way too low. My Oscar has been as low as 32 and you never would have known it by looking at him. duh.... I just saw you are not on insulin. It is *not* possible to go hypo when Julius hasn't been on insulin for so long. There are OTJ kitties that ride the 20s and 30s on a regular basis with no insulin in their system. I remember seeing two over in the Lantus ISG but I don't remember their name off hand.
 
I worry I don't want anything to be wrong... why is it then that *normal* for a cat non diabetic is 40-120 if 20-30's is ok?
 
Can you substantiate you statement that: "Human meters are calibrated my the manufacturers to read lower than actual at the lower numbers in an effort to get the human to hurry and do something about the number." A couple of years ago a member of this board stated contacted two meter manufacturers who said it would be against FDA requirement to have the meters read low.

Kelly & Oscar said:
I do see that it is odd that the Accu check meter says 43 and the Freestyle is consistently saying 20s. That being said though......

The AT meter is calibrated for cat's blood, which has slightly different properties than human blood. Human meters are calibrated my the manufacturers to read lower than actual at the lower numbers in an effort to get the human to hurry and do something about the number. Human meters and the AT are about the same between 100 and 200. Below 100 the human meter will read lower. An Accu-check reading of 50 is equal to an AT reading of 80. Take a look at the Lantus stickies - there are two sets of numbers to go by when lowering the dose based off of what type of meter you are using.

As for the numbers your vet is telling you to go by, that is between you and the vet. They should understand there is a difference between the two when it comes to lower numbers. If not, well, then maybe you can educate them. That 70 on the AT is too low imo to keep with the current dose. Any number below 80 on the AT warrants a dose decrease. The 43 at the vet was after food had some time to hit the system, so it is possible that your kitty could have been down way too low. My Oscar has been as low as 32 and you never would have known it by looking at him. duh.... I just saw you are not on insulin. It is *not* possible to go hypo when Julius hasn't been on insulin for so long. There are OTJ kitties that ride the 20s and 30s on a regular basis with no insulin in their system. I remember seeing two over in the Lantus ISG but I don't remember their name off hand.
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There are no written studies on the matter, but I remember reading a post on here from someone who contacted their meter manufacturer and that is what they were 'unofficially' told and that they couldn't put that out in writing due to FDA legal crap. I'll try to find that post later today. No time right now. There are several others on this board that have always posted the same info.
 
My vets wanted to sell me the Vet meter - $240.00 and their "selling point" was that you push the button once for dog and twice for cat and it comes with this "cute" case that holds the meter and lancet. I said NO WAY! I don't mind someone getting a reasonable "mark-up" but if the vets want us to use their style meter they should make it closer in price to the Human ones- $9-$40. I am capable of adding on the 20-30% , to equalize the low numbers, in my head.
 
what is normal cat range on a relion human glucose meter? my tiger was diagnosed a week ago and i'm already $500 in so i had to go with relion/walmart to cut down expenses. tiger is almost 13 years old and i'll do my best to get him better but expense is a factor. i ordered insulin from 1800petmeds but they're taking their sweet time processing the order. my vet didn't even tell me how many units to give (humulin n) and i've been back there to pick up hills w/d and on the phone to inquire about gliposide tablets.

if someone could help:
what is normal on a human meter?
should i start with one unit and increase if needed?
do i glucose test before or after insulin?
how many minutes before/after?

thank you for any help. also, i can't really afford the strips to be able to test twice a day unless i really need to for the first week or so while i'm getting the hang of it
 
Tiger's Mom said:
what is normal cat range on a relion human glucose meter? my tiger was diagnosed a week ago and i'm already $500 in so i had to go with relion/walmart to cut down expenses. tiger is almost 13 years old and i'll do my best to get him better but expense is a factor. i ordered insulin from 1800petmeds but they're taking their sweet time processing the order. my vet didn't even tell me how many units to give (humulin n) and i've been back there to pick up hills w/d and on the phone to inquire about gliposide tablets.

if someone could help:
what is normal on a human meter?
- about 40 to 130 or so. It varies
should i start with one unit and increase if needed?
- Yes, most caretakers start at one unit twice daily
do i glucose test before or after insulin?
- You test before injecting insulin. If you get a an abnormally low BG you would want to either reduce the dose, not give insulin or est again 30 minutes later or so and then determine if yo should give insulin. If you tested after insulin and the BG was low, the cat BG could go too low. You also want to give insulin avter eating since if the cat does not want to eat the BG could go too low if a full insulin dose is injected.
how many minutes before/after?
- see above about giving insulin after eating

thank you for any help. also, i can't really afford the strips to be able to test twice a day unless i really need to for the first week or so while i'm getting the hang of it
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Hi Tiger's mom,

How about starting a new thread? I am thinking you will get lost at the end of this one. choose New Topic.

Btw, if you want to save money, you can feed regular food like lo carb fancy feast or friskies rather than the RX food. Just as good or better - lots cheaper.
 
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