Looking For Members to Share their Experience Using Libre

Mazi's Mom

Mazi's Mom

Active Member
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/5-17-24-mazi-amps-148a-87l-frustration-with-libre.290104/

Hello! I'm fairly new to treating my kitty for Diabetes. Since his diagnosis in March, we have been using the Alphatrak. The vet wanted to do a glucose curve test on him so I payed to have the Libre monitor placed.

I'm having a few frustrations with the Libre variations in BG numbers when compared to the Alphatrak.

For anyone that has used the Libre could you share your experience?

In addition, feel free to click on Mazis SS to see his past BGs since using the Libre and Alpha the past 11 days.

Thank you in advance!

My Concerns/Confusion:

Some of the variances between the Alphatrack and Libre BG readings are throwing me off and getting annoying. Mazi is using the Libre per request of the vet because he wanted to do a glucose curve.

It doesn't happen all the time, it spends most time reasonably close to the Alpha. However when the variances happen, its usually a 30 to 50+ point difference. The differences, even happen when Mazi is in the normal range in the Alphatrak. For example, its not like im getting 200 on the alpha and 300 on the Libre, which is when I was warned there might be a big variation in the high BG values.

Anyways, This could result in a missed reduction and possible hypoglycemic event. Or could result in a falsel low and me intervening with higher carb foods. That bothers me.

Mazi's Libre should expire on Monday afternoon. I had hoped to switch over to the Relion Premier meter next week and use the Alphatrak as a back up or something to test the Relion against if I got a weird reading from the Relion. But now I'm not sure if I would like to.

I know human meters can be trusted because many of the members use them safely with success, but now im wondering if its just the Libre. I also wonder if I just got so used to the Alphatrak because thats the only meter I've used since Mazi's diagnosis and have like the numbers the Alpha was giving me and now I'm worried about the results that the Relion will give me.

To be clear, I want to switch to the Relion, but now I worry that it will just confuse and frustrate me and possibly impact Mazis progress. Over the past 30 days using the Alpha, Mazi has gone from a 0.5U dose all the way down to 0.1U. I'd hate to take 3 steps back.

At the very least, by using the Libre and Alphatrak together these past almost two weeks, I learned how important it is to use 1 meter and stick with it. Using multiple meters everyday can cause confusion and chaos.

Not to mention, I have never once recieved a low blood sugar alarm since the Libre was placed. He has had approximately 6 low blood sugar events that lasted more than 20 mins since the Libre was placed 11 days ago. My settings are all correct, the vet tech helped me adjust my phone and I helped adjust the settings on my boyfriends phone. My boyfriend has been able to receive the alarms, but I haven't.

The alarms were one of the things that drew me to trying the Libre, but has never worked for me.

Again, I think most of the time the Libre is consistently close in numbers with the Alpha. I understand one is a pet meter and one is a human meter and you have to expect variation. I also was warned the higher the BG the bigger the variances between both meters, but that has not been happening recently. Please feel free to take a look at the SS and provide any feedback and advice.

I'm not here to say one meter is better than the other. Im just trying to understand the Libre meter and better my skills in interpreting why the variances are happening with lower numbers in the 100s.
 
Last edited:
I understand that one is a pet meter and one is a human meter, both can be used safely and with success.

My frustration comes from the rule, the higher the number on the pet meter the higher the number and wider the variation on on the human. That has not been happening, but only on a few occasions.

I'll give credit where credit is due, most of the time the variation in numbers when comparing my Alpha to the Libre has been great. The differences has only been off a few points and that is expected when in low numbers.

However, like days like this AM when I get 80s on the Libre and 140's on the alpha it throws me off. The reason is throws me off is because ,148, in my mind, isn't a large number, so I wouldn't expect to see a wide variation in numbers between the two meters. To me a large number is in the 200s and that when I personally think you would see the higher and wider variation in numbers.

I'm just trying to understand bc I know there are people who use the Libre on here successfully and would like to know why things like I have been experiencing would happen.

I'm still new, with very little experience, and want to learn more.
 
Mazi's Mom said:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/5-17-24-mazi-amps-148a-87l-frustration-with-libre.290104/

Hello! I'm fairly new to treating my kitty for Diabetes. Since his diagnosis in March, we have been using the Alphatrak. The vet wanted to do a glucose curve test on him so I payed to have the Libre monitor placed.

I'm having a few frustrations with the Libre variations in BG numbers when compared to the Alphatrak.

For anyone that has used the Libre could you share your experience?

In addition, feel free to click on Mazis SS to see his past BGs since using the Libre and Alpha the past 11 days.

Thank you in advance!

My Concerns/Confusion:

Some of the variances between the Alphatrack and Libre BG readings are throwing me off and getting annoying. Mazi is using the Libre per request of the vet because he wanted to do a glucose curve.

It doesn't happen all the time, it spends most time reasonably close to the Alpha. However when the variances happen, its usually a 30 to 50+ point difference. The differences, even happen when Mazi is in the normal range in the Alphatrak. For example, its not like im getting 200 on the alpha and 300 on the Libre, which is when I was warned there might be a big variation in the high BG values.

Anyways, This could result in a missed reduction and possible hypoglycemic event. Or could result in a falsel low and me intervening with higher carb foods. That bothers me.

Mazi's Libre should expire on Monday afternoon. I had hoped to switch over to the Relion Premier meter next week and use the Alphatrak as a back up or something to test the Relion against if I got a weird reading from the Relion. But now I'm not sure if I would like to.

I know human meters can be trusted because many of the members use them safely with success, but now im wondering if its just the Libre. I also wonder if I just got so used to the Alphatrak because thats the only meter I've used since Mazi's diagnosis and have like the numbers the Alpha was giving me and now I'm worried about the results that the Relion will give me.

To be clear, I want to switch to the Relion, but now I worry that it will just confuse and frustrate me and possibly impact Mazis progress. Over the past 30 days using the Alpha, Mazi has gone from a 0.5U dose all the way down to 0.1U. I'd hate to take 3 steps back.

At the very least, by using the Libre and Alphatrak together these past almost two weeks, I learned how important it is to use 1 meter and stick with it. Using multiple meters everyday can cause confusion and chaos.

Not to mention, I have never once recieved a low blood sugar alarm since the Libre was placed. He has had approximately 6 low blood sugar events that lasted more than 20 mins since the Libre was placed 11 days ago. My settings are all correct, the vet tech helped me adjust my phone and I helped adjust the settings on my boyfriends phone. My boyfriend has been able to receive the alarms, but I haven't.

The alarms were one of the things that drew me to trying the Libre, but has never worked for me.

Again, I think most of the time the Libre is consistently close in numbers with the Alpha. I understand one is a pet meter and one is a human meter and you have to expect variation. I also was warned the higher the BG the bigger the variances between both meters, but that has not been happening recently. Please feel free to take a look at the SS and provide any feedback and advice.

I'm not here to say one meter is better than the other. Im just trying to understand the Libre meter and better my skills in interpreting why the variances are happening with lower numbers in the 100s.
Click to expand...
Maybe @Staci & Ivy can help
 
I used the Libre for the first 2ish months after Tessa was diagnosed (2022 and early 2023 of Tessa's spreadsheet). It's really not very reliable at very high or low numbers. There were times when the Libre said her numbers were in the 40s or 50s but my ReliOn meter said 70 or even higher. Always confirm any potential hypo with a manual test and get a good size blood sample. Small samples can sometimes run a bit lower than the actual number.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that the Libre is not a glucometer and it reads differently than a glucometer. It actually runs a bit behind the blood glucose numbers and tells you what the number was about 15 minutes ago. This video is really helpful for explaining it:


As for the alarm not working, you may want to consider buying one of the Libre readers. I am not sure why your phone doesn't work with the alarms as I never had that issue but I've heard good things about the reader. It's a good thing to keep on hand if you ever need a pet sitter since they could scan with the reader. The reader is expensive but if you plan to use the Libre long term, it's probably a worthwhile investment.

I have some additional info on Libre sensors in this document, not sure if anything there is useful or not: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...f13UiOiEM-6MsrFNpR9ztaPawF6dLk2b906QZ6VP6/pub

As for the ReliOn vs Alphatrak, I would suggest the ReliOn. It's way cheaper and the vast majority of people on here use human meters and will be able to help you out more easily if you run into an issue. The Libre is a human meter so you're already using 2 different types of meters which can be confusing and frustrating and I think you'll have far less confusion if you stick with 1 type of meter. You can keep using the Libre and just switch to the ReliOn as your manual meter. It's a very good meter. I only really switched away from it because I liked that the Contour Next meter allows "second chance" samples meaning if I don't fill up the strip I can try again without wasting a strip. Now that I'm better at testing I could easily go back to the ReliOn but the Contour is nice for when my husband tests her because he's not as skilled at it yet.
 
Mazi's Mom said:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/5-17-24-mazi-amps-148a-87l-frustration-with-libre.290104/

Hello! I'm fairly new to treating my kitty for Diabetes. Since his diagnosis in March, we have been using the Alphatrak. The vet wanted to do a glucose curve test on him so I payed to have the Libre monitor placed.

I'm having a few frustrations with the Libre variations in BG numbers when compared to the Alphatrak.

For anyone that has used the Libre could you share your experience?

In addition, feel free to click on Mazis SS to see his past BGs since using the Libre and Alpha the past 11 days.

Thank you in advance!

My Concerns/Confusion:

Some of the variances between the Alphatrack and Libre BG readings are throwing me off and getting annoying. Mazi is using the Libre per request of the vet because he wanted to do a glucose curve.

It doesn't happen all the time, it spends most time reasonably close to the Alpha. However when the variances happen, its usually a 30 to 50+ point difference. The differences, even happen when Mazi is in the normal range in the Alphatrak. For example, its not like im getting 200 on the alpha and 300 on the Libre, which is when I was warned there might be a big variation in the high BG values.

Anyways, This could result in a missed reduction and possible hypoglycemic event. Or could result in a falsel low and me intervening with higher carb foods. That bothers me.

Mazi's Libre should expire on Monday afternoon. I had hoped to switch over to the Relion Premier meter next week and use the Alphatrak as a back up or something to test the Relion against if I got a weird reading from the Relion. But now I'm not sure if I would like to.

I know human meters can be trusted because many of the members use them safely with success, but now im wondering if its just the Libre. I also wonder if I just got so used to the Alphatrak because thats the only meter I've used since Mazi's diagnosis and have like the numbers the Alpha was giving me and now I'm worried about the results that the Relion will give me.

To be clear, I want to switch to the Relion, but now I worry that it will just confuse and frustrate me and possibly impact Mazis progress. Over the past 30 days using the Alpha, Mazi has gone from a 0.5U dose all the way down to 0.1U. I'd hate to take 3 steps back.

At the very least, by using the Libre and Alphatrak together these past almost two weeks, I learned how important it is to use 1 meter and stick with it. Using multiple meters everyday can cause confusion and chaos.

Not to mention, I have never once recieved a low blood sugar alarm since the Libre was placed. He has had approximately 6 low blood sugar events that lasted more than 20 mins since the Libre was placed 11 days ago. My settings are all correct, the vet tech helped me adjust my phone and I helped adjust the settings on my boyfriends phone. My boyfriend has been able to receive the alarms, but I haven't.

The alarms were one of the things that drew me to trying the Libre, but has never worked for me.

Again, I think most of the time the Libre is consistently close in numbers with the Alpha. I understand one is a pet meter and one is a human meter and you have to expect variation. I also was warned the higher the BG the bigger the variances between both meters, but that has not been happening recently. Please feel free to take a look at the SS and provide any feedback and advice.

I'm not here to say one meter is better than the other. Im just trying to understand the Libre meter and better my skills in interpreting why the variances are happening with lower numbers in the 100s.
Click to expand...
Hi Teresa, I understand you are frustrated by the Libre and trying to compare it with your other meters. I also use a Libre. I started with a Libre 2 and I’ve been using the Libre 3 for about a year now. I have it sync up with Libre Link Up and you can have it sent to as many phones as you want. So yours and your boyfriend’s would be fine.
I also find that there is a large gap typically between the Libre numbers and my Contour Next handheld meter.
I typically ear prick Ivy when she is in low numbers. Most especially when the Libre reads LO which is the lowest reading it gives you.
I’ve gotten readings anywhere from 50 to 150 on the handheld meter.
Sometimes what I find is even though the meter reads Lo, I’ll do an ear prick on the contour and say I get 160 and then a couple seconds later The Libre bumps up to read 65. It was probably in transition as I was doing the test.

However, yes, there can be a wide span and it probably has to do with the time lag difference between the 2 meters.
However, I have read on the forum some people get much closer readings, maybe within 10 or 20 points of each other, but that’s not typically been my experience.

I don’t really test the high numbers. Personally, I’m more concerned about the LO’s and making sure Ivy is not going too low into hypo territory.

The only reason I use the Libre is Ivy is not a good patient and does not tolerate being poked many times per day.

I hope this is somewhat helpful to hear from someone else using it. It’s not just you and it is a challenge for those of us who just can’t poke all day long. It’s a tool to use to the best of your ability.

If for some reason you are able to only ear prick, then definitely go with that if your cat will tolerate it. Wishing you lots of good luck. :bighug::bighug:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top