New Member 26/12/25. Looking for advice on best home monitoring kits for blood glucose & ketones. Is blood or urine best? Any recommendations?

[Michelle.R]

New Member 26/12/25. Looking for advice on best home monitoring kits for blood glucose & ketones. Is blood or urine best? Any recommendations? My 13 year old boy has just spent 3 days & nights in the vets & has stopped responding to his Caninsulin today but is too stressed so been sent home & told to home test his urine but I have his sister too & they share a litter tray, I don’t know what the best option is. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you

 

[CORKY]

Welcome to FDMB
home testing is very important, although you do not test thru urine but with blood, most of the members use the ReliOn Premier Human monitor and strips, or any other human monitor, that's how we base our numbers although some members use a Pet monitor, which some vets want to use, but they do read a bit higher and the strips are outrageously expensive, if you are in US Walmart has the ReliOn Premier for $19.99 and the strips are$9.00 for 50 or $17.99 for 100 is always good to have extra strips handy. Caninsulin is a Dog insulin, it reacts hard and fast in a cat, the best insulins for a cats and ProZinc and Lantus they are a 12-hour insulin and soft in their system, for Ketones, you can also purchase any ketone inexpensive kit, also at Walmar, Ketones Are tested with urine, but not from the litter, it would contaminate the urine, you need to catch your cat urinating place the strip under him as he urinates,
There are many sticky notes in our Main Forum with valuable information, please keep posting any other concerns you may have,
Also a diabetic cat needs to have a diet of wet can food or raw between 0-10% carbs, most members use the Fancy Feast Pates between 0-10% most feed 5% and testing before each shot with several meals or snacks during the day to keep the insulin in check
let us know where are you and we can send you food lists and more tools to help you in this journey

 

[squeem3]

What country are you located in? Since you mention Caninsulin, I'm guessing somewhere in Europe?

Any Human blood glucose meter will work. A basic meter is all you need. A pharmacy will have at least a few different brands. Or buy online if that's an option. Testing blood glucose levels daily is imortant. Urine glucose testing is not as accurate.

Ketones can be tested either by urine with test strips or by using a special blood glucose / ketone meter which is expensive so few people use that. You'll need to separate the diabetic cat from the other cat until you get a fresh urine sample. Some people stalk their cat to the litter box, others get a brand new box and fill it with clean fish tank pebbles.

Catching and testing urine
Best way to collect urine?
2/10 - How to collect urine from your cat using saran wrap
Make your own litterbox to obtain urine sample

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

There is no question -- monitoring blood levels for glucose is best. I would be very hesitant to make any decisions about dose based on urine glucose levels.

In general, it's rare that urine levels are used. We tend to be more liberal about urine testing for ketones but blood ketone measurements will be more accurate. With both glucose and ketones you get a number vs with. urine levels, you may get a description (e.g., urine ketones as trace or large). The other issue is cost. The strips for ketone meter testing are more expensive than for urine testing.

Also, you need fresh urine samples for testing. Urine that's been sitting in the litter box will not be helpful especially if you can't tell which of your cats made the deposit!