Is Alphatrak really needed?

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Jiolo

Member Since 2011
A friend of mine had a cat that was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Her vet recommended euthanasia as he believed that many owners are incapable of giving insulin injections. She left her vet that day, but she obviously needed another one for insulin, exams, etc. I introduced her to my vet, who not only supports home testing but also supports canned diets for kitties. Only issue is that my vet is really trying to push the Alphatrak meter on her. I have a glucometer from when my sister had gestational diabetes. I intended to give her that (if strips are still available). At the very least, she could probably get a free human meter somewhere through her insurance.

Any thoughts?

I also showed her these forums. She may or may not join. Who knows?

(Note, I do not have a diabetic cat myself. I just lurk around since these forums have a chuckload of useful information for both diabetic and non-diabetic cats.)
 
Nope, the Alphatrak or iPet meters are both unnecessary :) Cat calibration just means the meter reads about 30 points higher, so hypo on an AT is below 80 and so on. The strips are obnoxiously expensive (like $1 a piece) and you can only get them from the vets office, so if you run out of strips at night or on a weekend when the vet isn't open... you have no meter!!!

99% of us here use human meters. However, not all human meters work for cats. You want to avoid anything with "Tru" or "True" in the name, as well as the Freestyle Lite. All of them read very low and have led many people to believe their cats were doing well when they weren't... :(

Walmart USA's Relion Confirm and Relion Micro are 2 very popular meters with extremely affordable strips. However they are not available in Canada (where I am) so I use a Bayer Contour USB. The strips are pricy, but Scooter is a DCIN sponsored kitty so those expenses are covered. The One Touch Ultra is also quite popular.
 
No, the expensive vet meter is not needed.
There is nothing wrong with human meters, and just compare the cost of the vet meter strips to the human meter strips... is the vet offering to pay the difference in cost? I don't think so. The Relion in the US is just fine, and others like Bayer, OneTouch, Accu-Chek are very good.... just stay clear of the FreeStyle meters.

Ask the vet to justify getting the vet meter.
 
No you do not need the expensive pet meter. I have been using Walmart Relion brand meters for years. My vet supports hometesting and gives meters to her clients with diabetic cats. These meters are human glucose meters that have been donated to their clinic.
 
The choice of meter is really personal preference. I have both an AlphaTrak and a Relion Micro. Can I say one is better than the other? No. I've done a lot of comparisons and my Alpha runs an average of 42.5 points higher than my Relion. But this just the way MY meters work. Not everyone's work that way.

I choose to use the Alpha as my main meter because that is what my vet uses and its easier to compare our numbers.

And yes, the strips are stupidly expensive. You can get them online, not just from the vet, but it still takes planning ahead of time.
 
All the vets I go to will let you come in and test your meter against theirs - so at least then you know what your meter is reading. Unfortunately I have the True meter so I'm getting a Relion this weekend. I also go on how my cat is acting and how much water he is drinking as well as his urine output.

I am appalled that her vet suggested she euthanize her cat. If her cat just has diabetes then it is relatively simple to manage. Many of us here are dealing with more challenging illnesses combined with the diabetes. I hope your friend decides to manage the diabetes and dumps her vet.

And thank you for being a good friend and trying to help her and her cat out.
 
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