CVS Brand glucose meter & strips?

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Adlumia

Adlumia

Member Since 2023
Where I live, CVS is the dominant pharmacy, and their CVS Health Advanced Blood Glucose Meter and strips are well reviewed elsewhere, and inexpensive ($9.99 for monitor; strips about 28 cents each). I see no mention of them on felinediabetes.com (although maybe I missed). Anyone have any thoughts or concerns? Thanks in advance!
 
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Adlumia said:
Thanks - I might take a trip to Walmart!
Click to expand...
@Adlumia
I see you put some information in your signature
Can you add more to it
  • Add info we need to help you:
    • Caregiver & kitty's name
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.


When you start testing I see you set up your spreadsheet already great job :cat:

Just to show you about the Spreadsheet
Don't be nervous about the spreadsheet
About the spreadsheet
AMPS - means AM Pre Shot the first test you take in the AM ,you need to withhold food 2 hours before testing so it's not food influenced

Units is where you would put how much insulin you gave
+1 is one hour after giving insulin if you were to test then that's where you enter his _BG number
+2 two hours after giving insulin. ditto
+3 and so on until you get to PMPS - PM pre shot withhold food 2 hours before testing

+1 same as you do for AM cycle

We don't give times because we are all in different time zones that's why we use the + numbers



You can look at any members spreadsheet to see what it looks like, it's at the end of everyone's signature just tap on it
 
In case you haven't seen this
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
c2b8079a-b471-4fa6-ac36-9ac1c8d6dcca-jpeg.57072
fec17d29-5ab4-44a8-912b-3a91944c3954-jpeg.57073

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up
If you look at the lancet under a light you will see one side of the lancet is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with. I have always free handed. On the lancets I don't have to keep looking for the side that's curved because on the plastic on the lancet there are little holes if you want to call it that, the side on my lancets with the part that's curved upward had smaller holes on it, so when I poke I just look at the lancet for them and poke
 
Thanks so much! Am very glad I stumbled on this site before I bought what the vet wanted me to. Plus so much tried and true info and helpful humans!
 
Adlumia said:
Thanks so much! Am very glad I stumbled on this site before I bought what the vet wanted me to. Plus so much tried and true info and helpful humans!
Click to expand...
You're very welcome, just keep asking questions :cat:
This group is amazing , if it wasn't for the experienced members here and me taking their advice I know Tyler wouldn't be in remission since 1-24-21 He is now food controlled

Glad you got Lantus, for the future you can get the generic for Lantus which is so much affordable than the brand name . Did you buy the pens or get a vile?
Do you have the U-100 syringes with the half unit markings?
We use these so we can increase or decrease by 0.25 units when needed
Thanks for adding to your signature
What wet food is Trixie eating?
You might want to read all about Lantus here, read all the yellow sticky's
Especially the 2 dosing methods which are SLGS and TR they will explain when an increase or decrease is needed. You would pick one to follow when you're ready and add it to your signature and your spreadsheet :cat:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/
@Adlumia
 
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I got a pen, with shots that don't have the half-unit readings - I eye-balled it.
Trixie is eating a combo of Fancy Feast and Friskies pate. I feed her 3x a day, total of about 9 oz, and she is ravenous all the time.
It wasn't until today that I could get a BG reading. I did end up using the ear (!). BG = 263, 6 hours after eating. I feel like maybe she is getting better just from eating wet food only - she is not peeing 6-7x per day, but only 3-4x. I just today gave her her first injection (0.5 whatever the unit is! - the prescription calls for 3, but I',m doing SLGS), since I wanted to make sure her BG was in the right zone.
I just have to figure out the spreadsheet...
 
@Adlumia
So since you can only adjust the pens by whole units you need to buy U-100 syringes with half unit markings since we either increase or decrease by 0.25 units at a time
These syringes make it easier to do that
Just take the cap off the pen and use a U100 syringes and pull the insulin out of the pen! You will see a small gray rubber stopper, insert the syringe there
syringe-in-pen-pic-jpg.45006
 
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@Adlumia
You can get the syringes at
Walmart the other box may look like this either one is fine. You can't order the Relion Syringes you have to go into the store. I'm not sure if you need a script for Walmart , call and ask them
upload_2021-9-5_23-18-9-jpeg.62508
 
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@Adlumia
Using syringes with a pen, cartridge, or vial: or any of the syringes that are below in blue
U-100 3/10cc syringes with half unit markings are the best to use for drawing Lantus, Levemir, or the Biosimilars from vials, cartridges, and pens.
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If you can't get the Relion syringes I would suggest getting the Sure Comfort or the Ulticare Vet RX ones
Just call ADW and tell them what you want, they will contact your vet to fax over a script, tell your vet to give you refills also . Give you vets office a heads up to expect a call

https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/1316/surecomfort-u100-syringes-half-unit-31g-3-10cc-5-16in-100ct

https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/5739/ulticare-u100-vet-rx-half-unit-syringes-31g-3-10cc-60ct

adw-coupon-dia10.jpg

10% off your next order!
 
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Adlumia said:
I just have to figure out the spreadsheet...
Click to expand...
I showed you this above

@Adlumia
About the spreadsheet
AMPS - means AM Pre Shot the first test you take in the AM ,you need to withhold food 2 hours before testing so it's not food influenced

Units is where you would put how much insulin you gave
+1 is one hour after giving insulin if you were to test then that's where you enter his _BG number
+2 two hours after giving insulin. ditto
+3 and so on until you get to PMPS - PM pre shot withhold food 2 hours before testing

+1 same as you do for AM cycle

We don't give times because we are all in different time zones that's why we use the + numbers





You can look at any members spreadsheet to see what it looks like, it's at the end of everyone's signature just tap on it
 
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@Adlumia
I was looking at your spreadsheet and saw you said in the remarks section

So excited to get BG reading (263 - 6 hrs after eating) at LAST that I then fed cat and gave very first injection... in middle of day. Aaaaargh

You need to always test the AMPS (AM Pre Shot) to be sure the number is safe to give the insulin, same with the PMPS .

Was that 236 BG 6 hours after you gave the insulin?
If so you need to put that in the cell where it says +6
You gave insulin in the middle of the day? I don't understand why you gave it in the middle of the day what time?
Let's say you gave it at 1:00 PM. You would then have to give the insulin at 1:00AM
Insulin is given every 12 hours
What are your shooting times?
You don't want to feed your cat 2 hours before giving insulin so it's not food influenced for both cycles AMPS and PMPS
You test, feed, then give insulin ,for beginners we suggest you don't give insulin if your cats BG is under 200 since you just started out.
You would put NS (No Shot) in the unit cell , but I would still get some more tests in after that.

We feed our cats the bigger meals at AMPS and PMPS and smaller meals like 2 teaspoons of the wet food you are feeding around +3 and +5 for both cycles
Some members feed more than that

I would suggest you read all the yellow sticky's about Lantus
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/

I would get a +2 test, +4 test and a +6 test both cycles
Then start mixing them up each day
Such as +3, +5 and a +7
Like filling in the pieces of a puzzle
 
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@Adlumia
Do you have your hypo kit in case you need to bring Trixie's BG up
Have Honey in the house
For example
Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Or look at the food chart below and find some Friskies since I see you are feeding that also

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart. Doesn't have to be Fancy Feast just an example about the med and high carb foods


https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

10% and under is low carb
11% -15 is medium carbs.

16- 24 is high carb.
from The Official Lantus, Levemir & Biosimilars Slang Dictionary MC =11=15% and HC is usually 16-24%
 
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