Freestyle Freedom Lite Strips - low reading???

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carmen

carmen

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Hi everyone!
I posted for the first time yesterday cos i was worried about the low readings i was getting for my cat Mithras. He was diagnosed late Nov 2010 DKA, since then he's been DKA again and is now on 2 x 4 units of Canininsulin. He seems to be constantly hungry and cries all the time for food, yesterday he seemed worse than usual so i tested him and it said his BG was 3.2, dropping to 2.9 forty minutes later. So i fed him. At 0020 his BG was 4.4. I just got up this morning to feed him - again he seems hungry as normal - his BG is 9.6 which is too low for a dose, but i'm a bit paranoid about trusting my meter, so i did some research and is seems other people have questioned getting low readings using a FREESTSYLE FREEDOM LITE meter?? The strips are butterfly edged. I'm so worried and now don't know what to do about his injection as im so scared he goes either DKA or hypo, and of course it's a Sunday...

Thanks :)
 
Hi Dyana, I just did!! it was 5.6. Also just managed to catch him peeing, so no ketones! I think i may test him again as i didnt get much blood. he's going to learn to run away from me at this rate!
 
I guess, I would go with, if your cat is hungry to feed him (small meals at a time), if you are uncertain. Especially if the BG numbers are low.
Did the meter come with a control solution that you can check it with?
 
carmen said:
Hi Dyana, I just did!! it was 5.6. Also just managed to catch him peeing, so no ketones! I think i may test him again as i didnt get much blood. he's going to learn to run away from me at this rate!
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I don't know what 5.6 is. Is that good? YAY for no ketones!!!
And always give a treat for every testing attempt, whether it is successful or not, and lots of gentle good boys (or girls) and lovins. My cat comes to me about 95% of the time, when he hears me getting the glucometer ready.
 
Just tried testing him again and got 19.6! this makes no sense. I know he hates me doing it and was poss stressed but such a difference??! i don't know what to do now - may reduce his dose to 3 units instead of 4?? i just cant get a full drop of blood, i only get a little tiny bit but the machine bleeps, but this is what is making me worried it's not accurate.
 
Is it a 24 hour phone service? Don't say it's for your cat, just say it's for you.
Otherwise, can you maybe, get another glucometer, tomorrow? Maybe the service people will tell you to take it back to the store and exchange the one you have. Just a thought.
 
i bought it online - couldnt find a place that sold glucometer's on the high street. argh, don't know what to do! if i hadn't checked his BG yesterday i wouldn't be thinking twice about giving him his insulin now! im worried if he misses one he'll get ketones. plus i have to go to work this evening so will be very worried leaving him. His second injection has to be given at 1645 at the latest (ive already missed my window for number 1..)
 
i'm going to risk it and leave him, then check again at midday and hopefully can give him his jab then, which means i'm around for the next 4.5 hrs to watch him before i go to work, then he can get his second jab when i get home at 0100/0130. surely even if his blood is high that gap won't harm him??

i wish you could just do all this thru their fur - there's enough of that! no needles, no blood, easy!

thank you for replying!!
 
I'm going to bed, because it's 2:00am, here. I wish you the best of luck. And No Ketones!
 
yeah the reading on yourself would be considered in the normal range for humans so i'd say the meter is working ok. with the huge discrepancy though in the cat's number i would have gotten one more test to compare with as one of the two you got on the cat had to be a bad test. when there's that big of a discrepancy i would do one more and go with the two that are most alike.

fwiw, i've used the freestyle meters for over 4 years now and don't have a problem with them. i have figured out though that if i drown the strip in blood, the reading tends to be high, like out of the norm for Mousie high so if i get a fountain of blood, i actually wipe it away and take up some of the residual with the strip. feel i'm getting a more accurate reading that way.
 
When I switched to their new strips I noticed that my readings were going considerably lower than they had been previously...very nerve wracking at first. Someone said that the new strips are interfered with by fewer things so they may be reading more accurately?? Anyway, had to get comfortable with the new numbers.
 
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