New here, question about at-home testing

[Karen&Rocket]

Hello! My 10-year old cat Rocket was diagnosed in February (his glucose was around 450 when we took him to the vet), and has been on 2.5 units of ProZinc for most of that time period (we started with 2 units and went up to 2.5 a few weeks after he started). Anyway I've been reading so much info on this website; it's amazing to have such a great resource but also a little overwhelming! I have tons of questions but for now my main one has to do with testing. I recently got an Alpha Trak 2 - I might switch to a human meter at some point, but for now wanted my numbers to be close to our vets'. I see most of you do curves - as you all know the AT strips are expensive!!! What are your thoughts on testing once a day, and if so, is there a time that's preferred for testing? I currently feed him several small meals throughout the day. Or would it be better to do a full curve once a week? Our first test today came to 209 (three hours after a small meal), which I think is not bad, and he actually has a checkup scheduled for this evening to check his weight and whatnot.

Sorry this post is a little all over the place... I could write an essay here but I'll spare you all for now. Anyway, your thoughts and advice are much appreciated!!! (signature info coming soon)

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

You want to test before every shot. The reason is that you will be able to determine if it is safe to give the dose. Giving insulin without knowing what the glucose level is puts your cat at risk of hypoglycemia if insulin is given and his glucose level is low. Hypoglycemia is dangerous and could cause permanent damage or worse.

Doing a curve once a week is fine. It will let you know how well the insulin is working.

Wet food is better than dry since it usually have lower carbs. Pate flavors are best since they do not have gravy, which raises the carbs.

 

[Peacock]

Hi and welcome. I am still a bit of a newbie, but I will chime in anyway

Yes, the strips are expensive, but it is safest to plan to test a minimum of twice a day, prior to giving the AM and PM shots. That is how you know whether or not it is safe to give the insulin. One daily test is better than not doing the at home test at all, but I would do fewer curves rather than trying to save by cutting a pretest shot.

The additional testing is helpful when you are trying to find out more information about how Rocket is doing with his dose, especially if you are working out a change of dose, or changing food, etc.

I started with the AlphaTrak2 as well, but switched to the Advocate PetTest glucometer when trying to find cheaper strips still calibrated for cats. I found the numbers to be pretty consistent with the AT2, but the Advocate strips are still pretty pricey, about $35-40 per 50.

Now that I have my cat's dose more or less sorted, I plan to pick up a human meter for everyday use, and once a month I will do one of the weekly curves with one of the cat glucometers to just confirm the numbers and have something for the vet.

Good luck with the appointment

 

[Karen&Rocket]

You want to test before every shot. The reason is that you will be able to determine if it is safe to give the dose. Giving insulin without knowing what the glucose level is puts your cat at risk of hypoglycemia if insulin is given and his glucose level is low. Hypoglycemia is dangerous and could cause permanent damage or worse.

Doing a curve once a week is fine. It will let you know how well the insulin is working.

Wet food is better than dry since it usually have lower carbs. Pate flavors are best since they do not have gravy, which raises the carbs.

Thank you for the advice. Testing before each shot makes sense... hopefully the testing will get easier each time (this first time was a bit of a challenge). As for food, we stopped feeding dry almost immediately, and are giving him a mix of the Fancy Feast Classic pates, Blue Healthy Gourmet indoor chicken, and sometimes the lowest carb Tiki Cat varieties.

 

[Karen&Rocket]

Hi and welcome. I am still a bit of a newbie, but I will chime in anyway

Yes, the strips are expensive, but it is safest to plan to test a minimum of twice a day, prior to giving the AM and PM shots. That is how you know whether or not it is safe to give the insulin. One daily test is better than not doing the at home test at all, but I would do fewer curves rather than trying to save by cutting a pretest shot.

The additional testing is helpful when you are trying to find out more information about how Rocket is doing with his dose, especially if you are working out a change of dose, or changing food, etc.

I started with the AlphaTrak2 as well, but switched to the Advocate PetTest glucometer when trying to find cheaper strips still calibrated for cats. I found the numbers to be pretty consistent with the AT2, but the Advocate strips are still pretty pricey, about $35-40 per 50.

Now that I have my cat's dose more or less sorted, I plan to pick up a human meter for everyday use, and once a month I will do one of the weekly curves with one of the cat glucometers to just confirm the numbers and have something for the vet.

Good luck with the appointment

Thank you fellow newbie I'm going to try to do pre-shot testing (especially when the hubby is around to help keep Rocket calm). It seems so intimidating, but I love the little guy immensely and want to do everything I can, and it's great to find this community that feels the same way and understands.

I hadn't heard of the Advocate meter; I'll definitely look into it!

 

[CandyH & Catcat]

another newbie here who's done a lot of reading (mostly here on the board) -- my thought -- talk with your vet about the Alpha Trak versus a human meter, some of them are knowledgeable, some of them will listen to you -- mine was skeptical until we did a simultaneous test in her clinic with the same blood sample that her techs had drawn, and she had the link to my spreadsheet, had examined it

for *your* knowledge in determining where the nadir (insulin most effective) range is, how low the BG goes, and how it's affected by food, it really doesn't matter which meter you use as long as it's the one you are comfortable with, and the one you will be using most often -- if you are coordinating with a vet who believes that only the results from an Alpha Trak are "real" or consistent, you'd probably be wise to use that for results to share with the vet

for me it was the practicality of less expensive strips, they're still 40-some cents apiece .. I chose these since this meter and strip combo requires only a .3 ml sample, versus the .5 ml sample that the cheapest combo uses (mine is one of those recently discontinued, I'm stockpiling strips) -- I've had difficulty sometimes getting enough of a blood sample even with that smaller amount needed (I understand this gets better with practice)

 

[Karen&Rocket]

another newbie here who's done a lot of reading (mostly here on the board) -- my thought -- talk with your vet about the Alpha Trak versus a human meter, some of them are knowledgeable, some of them will listen to you -- mine was skeptical until we did a simultaneous test in her clinic with the same blood sample that her techs had drawn, and she had the link to my spreadsheet, had examined it

for *your* knowledge in determining where the nadir (insulin most effective) range is, how low the BG goes, and how it's affected by food, it really doesn't matter which meter you use as long as it's the one you are comfortable with, and the one you will be using most often -- if you are coordinating with a vet who believes that only the results from an Alpha Trak are "real" or consistent, you'd probably be wise to use that for results to share with the vet

for me it was the practicality of less expensive strips, they're still 40-some cents apiece .. I chose these since this meter and strip combo requires only a .3 ml sample, versus the .5 ml sample that the cheapest combo uses (mine is one of those recently discontinued, I'm stockpiling strips) -- I've had difficulty sometimes getting enough of a blood sample even with that smaller amount needed (I understand this gets better with practice)

Thank you! I'll probably stick with the AT for a while at least, until I'm more comfortable with all of this. But I'll definitely think about changing to something more wallet-friendly in the future. Luckily our vet is amazing; I just learned yesterday he's been doing research on feline diabetes, and invited us to a talk he'll be giving in a couple weeks. Sorry to hear your strips have been discontinued. Frustrating.