Glucose Meter question and new member intro

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caderoche

caderoche

Member Since 2012
Hi,
My name is Cheryl and my 14 year old cat's name is Dixie. I have been out of work since July, and so have not been able to take Dixie to the vet to have her levels checked. My vet is against doing home testing, but since I cannot afford to bring her, and they will not work with me on any kind of payment plan, I am going to try this at home. She is not doing great at all and I am very concerned about her. She is our baby as we have had her since she was a tiny kitten, and though I wish that I could take her in and have her thoroughly checked at this point I am barely covering my rent so it is not an option.

A friend of mine just gave me a brand new Accu-Chek Nano monitor, but I need to purchase the testing strips. Before I go out and spend the money on them, I wanted to see if anyone here has used one and if they are a viable option for testing glucose levels with kitties. I would much rather find out first, and if they do not work, go out and buy one that does instead of putting money into strips that I cannot use. As I said funds are very, very tight and so if I am going to spend money on this, I would rather spend it on something that is going to help me help her.

Any thoughts, ideas or feedback you can offer on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
 
first, hi and welcome.

i don't have personal experience with that meter but wanted to say that the strips are gonna be pretty pricey. (just looked them up on walmart.com and they are $59.98 for 50 of them there)

if money is real tight, and you have a walmart nearby, i'd actually suggest getting one of their Relion meters. the most economical is the Prime. the meter is around $16.50 and the strips run $9 for 50 of them. i switched to this one a few months ago and haven't had any problems with it. they also have a Confirm and Micro which are both highly used here on the board and both pretty economical too. i'd suggest going with one of these if you can because you're gonna go thru a few strips learning how to do the testing.

when you say kitty is not doing well, what do you mean?
 
Any human blood glucose meter will work :smile: The Nano one is fine to use but the test strips are pricey. You can buy test strips online for less than at a store. Most people here buy from Americandiabeteswholesale.com Use the blue ADW ad link at the top of the board :smile:

The Relion brand of meters is more affordable for many people here. I think you can buy test strips from Walmart.com Use the blue Walmart ad link at the top of the board :smile:

You can request a free starter test kit from this website. Click on the Home test kit button at the top of the page.
 
Hello Cheryl and Dixie, and welcome to FDMB!

As others have said you can save a lot of money by checking Dixie's blood glucose (BG) at home. And I'm sure you'll get a lot of tips here about how to manage feline diabetes on a budget.

This is an international forum and there's almost always someone around if you have any questions.

Welcome aboard!
 
Hi back and thank you!

I do have a Walmart nearby, and as it seems it would be cheaper to go and purchase the meter and strips together than just the strips for the Nano, I will definitely do that, so thanks for the advice there.

As for how she's doing, about a month or so ago she had a hypoglycemic episode. At the time, she was on two units twice a day of Lantus. The vet had moved her up to that after doing her first curve back at the beginning of May, and she had seemed fine. I had not been able to take her in for her second curve because of losing my job, but as I said she seemed well, happy, frisky, eating, etc. A few days before the hypoglycemic episode she had started acting weird, she peed on my bed and the couch, something that she had not done since she first started showing signs of the diabetes. Since I'd had her first bottle of insulin for about six months at that point, I scrapped up and borrowed money so I could go out and buy her a new bottle. It was a few days after starting her on the new bottle when the episode occurred. When I spoke to the vets office, I was told it would be a minimum of $250 to have her tested and try to figure out what was up. There was no possible way I could do that, and they do not do as I said payment plans. To make a long story short there, they weren't willing to give me any advice without seeing her, so I, probably not for the best, decided to give her a day or two off the insulin, and then put her back on one unit twice a day which is how she started. That seemed to go okay for about a week, but then she had another episode, which seemed worse than the first, and so I have not been giving her the shots. She's eating fine, drinking normally, urinating normally, her breath and urine smell normal, but she's getting very thin and her back legs seem weak to me. So from everything I've read, she's sending off conflicting signals as to whether she needs the insulin or not. I had started to try and save change even to get a meter so I could try my hand at testing her myself figuring I would at least know what her levels were and if it was that, or something else that's going on with her.

As I said, she's our baby and we love her dearly. I'm not sleeping at night thinking about what's going on with her, and trying to think of what I can do, but until I get a job again, my hands are really tied financially. It's all I can do at this point to keep a roof over our heads.

That's my and Miss Dixie's story to date. Oh,the other thing I've noticed, she's not really pooping much at all. Which she's never been one to do tons of that, but usually some, and now it's very little and far between.

Thanks again, so much for your reply, and for listening!
 
yeah based on that i'd be scared of giving the insulin too. but it does sound like something is going on. the sooner you can get a meter the sooner you'll know if it is the diabetes or maybe something else.

have you heard of carecredit.com? if not, check it out maybe. i even got one of these cards for the heck of it here while back for that "just in case" moment. might be worth applying for.

also, perhaps contact Diabetic Cats In Need (DCIN) and maybe they can help fundraise perhaps for a vet visit. although i think i'd consider a different vet too possibly. maybe send DCIN an email at venita @ dcin.info (remove the spaces) and see what she says
 
Since you're uncertain what is going on, please see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools and read over how to do urine ketone testing. While it sounds like her insulin needs may have dropped, you also need to know if she is throwing off ketones, a by-product of breaking down fat for energy when there is too much glucose and the insulin doesn't match up with it.
 
The Relion brand of meters is more affordable for many people here. But you can't buy test strips online.
Click to expand...
I just wanted to add that I use the Relion Prime and I get my test strips online using the Walmart link at the top of the page. :-D
 
Hi again, and thank you all so much for your replies.

I will definitely check out the post about the secondary monitoring tools and see what I need to do there. The plan tomorrow is to go to Walmart and pick up what I need. There seems to be a lot of information about home testing and it's all kind of overwhelming...is there one place that I should go that's good for a new person just starting out with home testing?

I will also check out carecredit.com, though I'm not sure in my current situation if I'll qualify for any type of credit, but its definitely worth looking into, and yes, I have already thought strongly about switching vets once I have the means to do so. I am really unhappy with the way mine, or at least their staff, has handled this whole thing!

Thank you all again for your replies and for making me feel so welcome. I feel better just reading the posts and knowing there is support out there.
 
This should give you a wealth of knowledge on home testing http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

As well as if you would like a little hands on help or even just a good vet recommendation give us a general location (city, state) and we can see if we can round up a member that is local to you to pop over and help get you started. :-D

Home testing can be a bit frustrating at first but once you and Dixie get the hang of it you will literally be able to do it in your sleep. (been there and done that) :lol:
But is absolutely the best way to keep Dixie safe on insulin and keep the costs of treating a diabetic cat low.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
First thing, go to youtube and search for feline diabetes testing. There's a ton of videos out there that will show you how it's done. Your meter should come with a lancet device and a few lancets. You will need to buy more lancets, because you shouldn't reuse them, so one per test. They aren't expensive, and they should be on the same shelf as the meters and strips. They come in various thickness gauges. Sounds backwards, but the higher the gauge number, the smaller the part that pokes. Most meters seem to come with 30 or 33 gauge lancets, which are tiny. Good for human fingers, not so good for kitty ears. You can buy larger diameter ones, like 26 or 28 gauge, and you'll find testing easier, especially when you are first trying to get blood. The longer you do it, the easier it gets, but most people have a hard time the first few pokes in getting a good drop of blood.

Once you get home, look at the videos, and ask any questions that come up.

Carl
 
Frugal Feline Diabetes tips: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/frugal.html

Financial aid: http://www.felinediabetes.com/vetbills.htm

The main expenses for a diabetic cat are insulin and insulin syringes, food, and testing supplies.

Is your cat on insulin yet? It's preferred to use Lantus, Levemir, or ProZinc insulins. These can be pricey, especially Lantus and Levemir, but there are ways to keep costs down and these all work very well for cats so it's worth the cost IMO. Humulin N is cheap but doesn't work for cats.

You don't need the expensive prescription junk food the vet may push you to buy. The food has pretty awful junk quality ingredients that really don't do anything to help a diabetic. And the price is like paying $30 for a bag of cheap generic brand of potato chips. Feed your cat commerical brands of canned (not dry) food. Some popular brands people here feed are Fancy Feast, Friskies, Wellness, and Merrick. Not all canned foods are low enough in carbs for a diabetic cat, though. Use these charts and lists:

Dr. Lisa's new food chart http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf
Binky's canned food charts
Pet Food Nutritional Values list
Hobo's Guide To Nutritional Values

Look for foods under 10% carbs on the above four charts.

Quick shopping lists of suitable foods:
Dr. Lynne's Wet Food list
List of low carb gluten free Fancy Feast
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=84885
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=81687
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=84885

Meters has already been discussed :smile: A meter with affordable test strips will work. Some people here feel that the generic meters with True or Tru in the name aren't very accurate. Buy the test strips online if that is an option.
 
Just so you know, the AccuChek strips are much more reasonably priced on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Diagnostics-Test-Strips-50-strips/dp/B008320DFE/?tag=felinediabetesfdmb-20

I have an AccuChek Aviva and that's where I buy my strips. A little more expensive than the cost of the Walmart strips, but not by too much.

Home testing is actually the recommended method of testing, not office testing, so your vet is either misinformed or not following current feline diabetes treatment recommendations (see p. 218). Office curves are inaccurate because stress causes inflated BG, which often leads to chronic overdosing. Also, vet testing is too infrequent to be effective. With Lantus, you want to test at least 3 times a day--once before each shot to make sure it's safe to give insulin, and a test about halfway through either cycle. When you get these daily tests, you have a clear picture of how the insulin is working, and you can control blood glucose really well. When you test less frequently than that, you (and your vet) are guessing at what the correct dose should be, and that's like throwing a dart with your eyes covered and trying to hit the bullseye. Cats on Lantus or Levemir that that have dose adjustments based on testing 3 times a day have an 84% remission rate, where the remission rate using the same insulin and testing less than 3 times a day is 26%.
 
Another option would be the Arkray brand of meters. I found them at American Diabetes Wholesale online (they have a clicky in the banner above) The Arkray Glucocard Vital is the same thing as the Relion Ultima. And right now ADW has a deal where you get the meter kit and 200 test strips (4 vials of 50) for something like $44. You'd still need lancets, but they sell those too. In theory, the Vital uses the same strips as the Relion Ultima, so if I ever run out and don't have time to order online I can swing by Walmart. I've been using the AlphaTrak2 which is a special pet meter, but I'm not going to be able to afford the strips for that very long. So I ordered the Vital and we'll see how it goes.
(I love shopping online)
 
MbMinx said:
Another option would be the Arkray brand of meters. I found them at American Diabetes Wholesale online (they have a clicky in the banner above) The Arkray Glucocard Vital is the same thing as the Relion Ultima. And right now ADW has a deal where you get the meter kit and 200 test strips (4 vials of 50) for something like $44. You'd still need lancets, but they sell those too. In theory, the Vital uses the same strips as the Relion Ultima, so if I ever run out and don't have time to order online I can swing by Walmart. I've been using the AlphaTrak2 which is a special pet meter, but I'm not going to be able to afford the strips for that very long. So I ordered the Vital and we'll see how it goes.
(I love shopping online)
Click to expand...

Also, the Relion Confirm and Relion Micro both are the same as the Arkray Glucocard 01 and Glucocard 01 Mini...both take the same strips (blue bottle).
 
Okay, so I went out and got all the stuff at Walmart, which included the Relione Prime meter, 50 test strips, lancets, the lancet pen thingie, and some urine test strips. Overall it was a bit over 40 dollars for all of it, which is still a bit less than it would have been to get just the strips for the Nano.

We did our first glucose test this afternoon at around 3. She was curled up on my lap and I had all the stuff on the couch next to me as I was reading about it all and watching the videos. I thought what the heck and went for it. The first stick got a drop of blood but it was tiny. So I moved the lancet stick setting up one notch and tried again a little ways up from the first spot. Bingo! Got a good droplet, it filled the strip and I got a reading of 128. I have not had a chance to test her urine yet, but that is next on the list of things to do.

I fed her at around 7ish this morning, though she eats from her bowl all day. She is definitely a grazing kitty so she nibbles all day long. I feed her the Fancy Feast Classics, generally the chicken feast, as Miss Pickie turns her nose up pretty much at all the other ones.

So, I guess my question is, is 128 good, bad, okay? She is not having any insulin at all right now and hasn't in close to two weeks. I also don't know how often I should test her blood and if I do a curve, do I continually do it every 2 hours for 24 hours, so meaning do I get up throughout the night and test her? I have no clue how to do a curve at all, so any help you can give in that area would be greatly appreciate. Also, as I've read, it seems that when vets do curves they keep the kitty for the day and test every however many hours. My vet did not do this. When I took Dixie in for the curve, they checked her over, weighed her, drew a vial of blood and sent us on our way. I'm going to guess that they tested that vial throughout the day? Which seems weird with all that I've read.

I'm still a little confused by all of it, but feeling better that she and I did well with the first test, which I think is because we had been doing the shots from April to November. She didn't even blink, in fact, the hardest part was keeping her from twitching her ears, which she does all the time when you touch them.

Again, thank you to all who have posted with thoughts, help and comments. You have helped so much already, and Dixie and I greatly appreciate it!
 
128 is OK when giving insulin new peoplw don't shoot under 200 so this is good. To do a curve you do a test every two hours for a 12 hour period. Congratulations on testing it's the first step for sure.
 
Well your Vet is useless when it comes to the treatment of diabetes. OMG They owe you the price you paid for that curve. I'm sorry, dont mean to bash but that is just plain robbery. Good God.
I know there are people here who can post links or guide you on doing your own RELIABLE curve. I havent had a diabetic kitty in a long time but even I know, you dont do a curve from the same vial of blood.
Good luck and best wishes,
jeanne

edited to fix typo :/
 
Congrats on getting your first test.

128 is a good number, especially if you aren't giving insulin. When Dixie was on insulin, what kind was she on and how big was the dose? Did she ever have a hypoglycemic incident that you know of? Did you eliminate dry food recently at all? Some cats will go into remission the moment all the dry is gone.

Another question--how much does she weigh, and how much should she weigh? If she's overweight at all, getting her down to a healthy weight with a safe weight loss plan is usually enough with the numbers you're seeing to keep her in a normal BG range on her own.

caderoche said:
I have no clue how to do a curve at all, so any help you can give in that area would be greatly appreciate. Also, as I've read, it seems that when vets do curves they keep the kitty for the day and test every however many hours. My vet did not do this. When I took Dixie in for the curve, they checked her over, weighed her, drew a vial of blood and sent us on our way. I'm going to guess that they tested that vial throughout the day? Which seems weird with all that I've read.
Click to expand...

To do a curve, you test every 2 hrs for a 12 hour cycle. That can be in the AM or the PM--you start when you would normal give the shot (even if you aren't shooting currently), and end when you would normally shoot again.

What your vet did was definitely not a curve. What sort of results did they give you--was it a single number or several different numbers? You're right that when a vet normally does a curve they keep the cat for 12 hours, and test every two hours. How much did your vet charge you for this "curve", and is that what the vet specifically called it? I'm wondering if maybe they did a fructosamine test instead(which gives an average blood glucose number for the past few weeks).

Either way, your vet is not giving you the current recommendations with home testing anyway, so I would probably find a new vet that is more supportive. If for whatever reason you are unable to find a new vet, print this out and give it to your vet: http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/AAHADiabetesGuidelines.pdf. Point out p. 218, under Precautions and Details, where it states:
Home monitoring of BG is ideal and strongly encouraged to obtain the most accurate interpretation of glucose relative to clinical signs. Most owners are able to learn to do this with a little encouragement, and interpretation of glucose results is much easier for the clinician.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Julia,

Dixie was on Lantus and at first she was on 1 unit twice a day, and then after they did that second test she went up to 2 units twice a day because they said that her numbers were high, and yes we did have two hypoglycemic episodes. I wrote a bit about all of it in the very first part of this thread when I first posted.

I did go back to look and the receipt does say it was fructosamine that was done, though I swear and so does my son who was with me, that she called it a curve.

She is not on any dry food, though the vet did say that I should put some dry in a bowl so that she could nibble all day and therefore not have spikes up and down of glucose I assume.

As for her weight, she is getting very skinny, which is why I'm worried about her. The last time I took her to the vet she was at about 12.5 pounds. The only way that I have to weigh her right now is to pick her up with me when I'm on the scale. She's around 10 pounds now, so she's definitely lost weight.

I'm going to do a curve on Saturday just to see how we are through the whole day and then go from there.

Like I said before, I answered a lot of your questions in a bit more detail in the first part of the thread, so hopefully that will answer them a bit better.

Thanks for all of your input...I really appreciate it!
 
Just a reference for your numbers. We generally consider a cat in remission if, off insulin, they range from 40-120 with the majority of the time in double digits, for two weeks. We do suggest that new diabetics not shoot under 200. (you can shoot at lower numbers, but best only after you have enough data to predict how the cat might react.)

If I were you, I could get some numbers, before and after eating, be sure to only feed the wet low carb and see where she is.
 
I agree, continue to test and see what type of numbers she is ranging on her own.

Does increases should be made in .25u-.5u increments, not a whole 1u increment like your vet did. Sometimes (and we certainly don't recommend doing this on purpose) if a cat hypos they become sensitive to insulin and it can push them into remission. Just keep an eye out so that you can give insulin if needed--usually cats do best if weened off it with very low doses (.1-.25u).
 
So I should have known the first day when the first test went so easy, that it was too easy! I won't say that I didn't expect it, but yesterday's try at getting readings were not successful. The first time I tried, I couldn't get a drop of blood out of either ear, then when I tried again later in the day, I got a drop but it wasn't enough as I got an error on the machine. Today went a little better. I rubbed Dixie's ear quiet a bit and then used a moist heat thing I have for the microwave, and tad da...two sticks and a nice drop of blood. I can honestly say that I never thought I'd be as proud as I was over drawing a drop of blood! Today's reading was 131 so up 3 points from Thursday's but still below the 200 mark. I'm going to try again later tonight, maybe about an hour after she eats dinner and see what it is then.

I was going to try and do a curve tomorrow, but I think now that I'm going to wait until she and I are both more comfortable and in a groove with this thing. I don't want to stress either of us out. I'm anxious though to try and figure things out because she's thin and that's worrying me. I may try the kitten food suggestion that I've seen in many other threads. I swear I've been reading so much, my eyes hurt, but I'm so glad that I found this place.

Thank you all for being here!

Cheryl & Dixie
 
Welcome to the Vampire Club!!!!!

Bet you never thought you would be so proud to be a card carrying member...Yep heating the ear is often the magic bullet in the beginning.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
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