New member 8/30/25

[Leopard]

Hi all,

My 11 year old cat was diagnosed as diabetic on July 30th. He was started on 2 units twice daily of Vetsulin on August 2, and after a 1-week and 3-week check-in, his veterinarian has decided to keep him on such and see him again in 2 months.

At my cat's last visit, Wednesday 8/27/25, his blood sugar read 66 on a human meter around 3 PM (he gets his shots at 10am and 10pm). The vet said he was doing perfect but I was a little unsure about this number as it sounded very low compared to his 1 week reading which was 167. He assured me this was normal. Wanting to be sure, I went home, found this board, and ordered a glucose meter for at home. It arrived today some time after his morning injection so I decided to wait until his nighttime dose to test for the first time.

I expected to have quite a bit of troubleshooting to do with the meter, and I did. It's a ReliOn Platinum meter and has thrown me errors 4, 6, and 13 (not enough blood, inserting before ready, and foreign material in the slot). I've poked him about a dozen times and only gotten two readings.
Around 9:40pm it gave me a reading of 77. Since it had thrown so many errors before hand I didn't trust this number and tried to get a second reading, but had no luck drawing any more blood from him. I decided to be cautious and leave him be for a while before trying again. Around 12am I gave it another go with similar results - a slew of error readings before I got it to spit out a number of 74. I, again, would have liked to get a second reading to compare but he was poked up and down his ear at this point and actively fighting so I let him go. I figure missing one dose isn't the worst thing in the world (but correct me if I'm wrong).

But I'm wondering - are these numbers the meter is producing trustworthy at all, or should I not pay any mind to them since they are preceded and followed with so many error codes? I did use the meter straight out the box and it did not come with any control fluid - could this be causing an issue / inaccurate readings? And if so, what should I do from here? I will order control fluid, of course, but in the days it'll take to arrive should I continue with his 2 units or err on the side of caution and hold off? When he was initially diagnosed, he had a blood ketone reading of 3.4 if this influences any decision making (but at his last appointment Wednesday, he had .1 or .01 - they didn't write it down so I can't remember exactly but they said the lowest possible reading).

Thanks in advance for any comments. I'll attempt to set a signature up in the meantime but have no spreadsheet to share as I had intended to start it today.

 

[squeem3]

The meter is accurate enough for a cat. Those error messages are annoying, though. The control solution checks the inner workings of the meter. Common error messages are easily fixed without the need for the solution.

Meters time out if you don't get blood onto the test strip within a certain amount of time. To avoid this, just stick the test strip far enough into the meter so it holds in place but doesn't turn the meter on. Get blood from the cat's ear. When you have the drop ready, then push the test strip all the way into the meter to turn it on and get the ready to test icon whatever it may be. Then touch the edge of the strip to the drop to fill the little area. Set the meter aside to do it's thing while you give the cat a treat and apply pressure to the ear to stop any bleeding.

Not enough blood - get that ear really really warm. Many people use a "rice sock" to warm their cat's ear with. Hold the sock or your method of choice to the ear for a good minute if possible. Then poke to get a nice big drop of blood. Not quite enough blood? You can "milk" the ear to help the blood drop bead up more. You can also try adjusting the depth setting on the lancet device. And don't bre afraid to firmly press the lancet device against the ear. A floppy ear is kind of hard to poke so hold something under the ear to provide a firm surface to poke against - the rice sock, a cotton square, corner of a folded dish towel, etc.

I'm not sure about the foreign material in the meter.

Hometesting tips: Hometesting Links and Tips

Normal blood glucose levels are roughly 65 to 150 mg/dl. A 66 at +5 (5 hours after insulin) is a good number Looks like the 77 was just 20 minutes before the 10pm insulin time (what we call PMPS). Did you give insulin? 77 is too low for insulin. The 74 is PM +2 and not much of a change from the 77.

Vetsulin isn't an ideal insulin to use for cats. There are better choices. Are you in the US or another country?

 

[Leopard]

Just tested - 10:25am got a reading of 110, immediately gave it another go (with a new prick) and got a reading of 114 around 10:30. Seems somewhat consistent, but still unsure if the meter is any good without being calibrated first?

I read on one of the guides that newcomers should not give insulin until cat is at or above 200, so this number would still not be high enough? If the meter is reading accurately. This is his first time missing one dose, let alone two, so unsure on how to proceed with him.

I'm in the US. And believe error 13 was due to the petroleum jelly? I did not use any this go around.