Ketone + BG tester

[cmw]

Hi,

Just thought I would pass along something that saved my little Dusty from having a much worse DKA episode.

Searched the web for what I thought was "the" blood glucose and ketone tester and eventually stumbled upon the fact that there are at least two on the market.

Couldn't find the Precsion Xtra meter anywhere, but Walgreens carries the Nova Max Plus.

Now, near as I could find no store carries the blood ketone testing strips.

However, the Nova Max Plus meter comes with two ketone testing strips (also a lancing device, but no glucose strips).

These meters are available lots of places online, as are packs of strips. It seems the meter may even be free from the manufacturer's website but I didn't go that route.

For us it was helpful to be able to determine that, yes, Dusty was headed DKA and needed help asap. So $29 well spent. Now it is good to know we've got it if we need an answer and just aren't able to get a urine sample.

Maybe this is old news to everyone else but it seemed worth mentioning.

.

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

Glad the Nova Max helped you avoid Dusty getting really sick!

I found the same thing when I looked for a ketone blood tester - the Precision Xtra was hard to find, The Nova Max ketone strips were hard to find anywhere but online. We got the Nova Max to test for ketones. I'm a numbers person, I want to see a number not analyze a color on a stick :lol: Plus once we started trying to get that stick under the fuzzy tail she wouldn't ever let us see her pee.

I will say - I really don't like that meter. I have, probably 8+ strips out of less than 20 tests, that the meter wouldn't read right and saw it as a bg instead of a ketone strip or just erred out on. That's a high error rate at $2-$3 a strip. I still use my Accu-chek Aviva for BG testing. The ease of testing is a world of difference between the two meters IMO. Even though the Aviva supposedly takes twice as much blood, it takes less blood to get the strip to function correctly and the strip fits into the meter much smoother. My Nova Max is strictly a ketone tester for us.