Help!! Newbie question about gluose meters

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FluffBunny

FluffBunny

Member Since 2014
My cat was diagnosed with diabetes a month ago. It is probably prednisone induced diabetes since he was on 5mg of pred daily for suspected IBD. My vet reduced his prednisone to 2.5 mg daily and told me to feed him only canned food. (She did not tell me what kind of canned food, so I don’t think I did a very good job of trying to reduce his BG via diet.)

I took him in for a retest yesterday and his BG was 425 tested using an Alpha Trak 2 glucose meter. (About the same as it was a month ago.) He also had the Fructosamine test and it came back a little higher than high normal. My vet prescribed 2 units of Lantus twice a day and I thought I started it last night, but I suspect I missed and gave him a fur shot both times.

I took him back in today to get some spots shaved so I can see what I’m doing when I give the shot. (He is long-haired.) While he was being shaved, I popped into the pharmacy next door to pick up his needles and I bought a (very inexpensive) Sunmark Trueresults glucose meter and test strips. I then went back to the vet and had her test him with the Alpha Trak 2 and with my new meter to compare the results. The Alpha Trak read 408 and my new meter read 205. I tested him twice with my meter and it came out just about the same both times. I talked to my vet and asked her if they had used a control solution on their meter recently. I won’t go into all the details here, but she decided to test her meter by taking BG on the office cat using the Ultra Trak meter and then running a blood chemistry to compare the results. Here is her email about the results: So we checked Emma's blood glucose on our chemistry machine and it was 86. It was 88 on the glucometer. Also, I ran the control on the Alpha Trak and it was 137 which was within the range printed on the test strips.

My dilemma – I don’t want to give my cat insulin if he doesn’t need it. But I don’t know which glucose meter to trust. If the Alpha Trak is correct, then I would think his Fructosamine test would have been higher. On the other hand, it seems that the Alpha Trak tested okay when they did their experiment. Does anyone have any advice? I just don’t know what to do at this point. Should buy a different meter? Should I buy an Alpha Trak? I don't want to make my cat hypo because I don't have the right meter. Please help.....
 
I would return your Sunmark tester and buy a less expensive ReliOn from Wal Mart and try testing him again to see what your results are. Many of us use the ReliOn with great success and good accuracy.
 
ReliOn Confirm, Confirm Micro take smallest blood drop.
ReliOn Prime takes slightly larger blood drop and costs less.

Human meters read roughly 30 - 40 % lower than AlphaTrak or lab. Don't convert; we have reference numbers. I'll get them for you in a minute.
 
Thanks. I got a Relion meter and test strips tonight. I tested both meters on myself first and the Sunmark was about 20% lower than the Relion. Then I was going to test both on Oliver, but I had a terrible time with the stick. I tried it multiple times (poor boy) and I finally got some blood to test on the Relion. It was 313. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough blood to test the Sunmark at the same time. And my poor Oliver has a large bruise on one ear now. He didn't seem to mind the sticks but I just couldn't bring myself to do it again.

I did a little reading on the forum and it seems that the Sunmark is notorious for inaccurate readings so I will stick with the Relion. I would be very interested in the conversion to Alpha Trak that you mentioned. Thanks for your help.

Now I am going to have to learn how to do the stick. I can't put Oliver through this every time I need to check his BG.
 
The prime is fine but it needs more blood than the confirm or micro. If your cat isn't a good bleeder you may have issues getting enough blood but give it a try anyway.

Rub a little pain relief neosporin ointment on the bruise, and give him a treat ;)
 
Comparing a human glucometer to a pet-specific glucometer is like reading temperature in Celsius vs Fahrenheit. Both are correct. You just need to know the reference ranges to interpret what the numbers mean.

[Glucose reference ranges are unsubstantiated and have been removed by Moderator]


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Examples of using the chart:

Ex. You are a new insulin user and you test your cat before giving insulin. The test is 300. It probably is safe to give insulin.

Ex. You are an established user of Lantus, following the Tight Regulation protocol. You've tested around +5 to +7 to spot the nadir. It is 200 mg/dL. You probably need to increase the dose, following the instructions for the protocol.

Ex. Your cat is acting funny. The eyes are a bit dilated. You are concerned and test the glucose. The number is 35 mg/dL. ACK! The cat may be in a hypoglycemic state. You quickly follow the HYPO protocol linked in the glucose reference values chart. (which we really, really, suggest you print out and post on your refrigerator.)
 
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