New member: monitors

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Natalie Jones

Natalie Jones

Member Since 2024
Hi all
First post for me and Romeo (13 year old male oriental). Romeo was diagnosed with diabetes in May and luckily is doing really well atm. He had been due for a dental but we had to postpone this when we found out he had diabetes as the vets wanted to get his levels under control first. He had his dental at the end of October and not long after had his first hypo (end of November). We’ve since lowered his ProZinc dose from 1.5 to 0.5 iu (on advice from the vet) after his blood test and fructosamine test showed his levels are nearing ‘normal’. We think and hope that he might be going into remission! The vet has asked me to start monitoring his levels at home so I was hoping for advice on the best monitor to buy. Currently looking at Alpha Trax 3 or Accu-Chek Instant. Would anyone recommend one or the other? Or is there another good alternative available in the UK? Also working my way through the forum posts which are incredibly useful!! Apologies if this has been answered in other threads already - I’m playing catch up!
 
I do know that most here use a human meter and all of our information here is based off of human meters.

I'm not sure about prices in the UK, but here the test strips for the pet meters are over $1 a strip. Another great reason to use the human meter. Hopefully someone will know the type of meters you can get in the UK.
 
Natalie Jones said:
Currently looking at Alpha Trax 3 or Accu-Chek Instant.
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Hi Natalie (and Romeo), waving to you from Surrey! :bighug:

You can use either a human meter or a pet meter. Both are fine. ...People were using human meters for cats long before pet meters became a 'thing'.

Advantages of human meters include that they tend to be much cheaper to use than pet meters, and the supplies 'may' be more widely available.
Pet meters are 'usually' more costly to use (the main cost of testing is the test strips), with the Alphatrak probably being the most expensive (perhaps not an issue if insurance is covering the costs, though...)

Currently the most popular meter with UK folks is the (human) Gluco Navii. It's also one of the cheapest to use.
Other human meters are fine too, and the Accu-Chek meters have been used for diabetic kitties for a long time.

The most popular pet meter is the Alphatrak.
People have reported some accuracy issues with the Cera-Pet meter, so that may be one to avoid...

Note: Just so you know, human meters and pet meters read the blood slightly differently. Human meters tend to read a tad lower than pet meters, and vice versa. Both are 'correct', but it's just important to understand that they have slightly different ranges.


Eliz
 
Hi @Elizabeth and Bertie! Waving back at you from Cambridge :)
Thank you so much for your help with this. Luckily the insurance is paying for everything (minus the excess) so that makes things a lot easier. I've just had a look at the Gluco Navii and it's definitely a lot cheaper than the Alphatrak. If cost isn't an issue would you tend to go with the pet specific meter over human or does it really not make too much difference as long as you understand the different ranges?
Thanks again for your help with this.
Natalie (& Romeo)
 
Many of us lean in favor of a human meter for a few reasons. Our dosing directions and most of our other support materials are based on how human meters are calibrated which makes navigating dosing instructions much easier. Test strips for human meters are readily available at pharmacies. This is often not the case for the strips needed for pet meters -- they are available online. It goes without saying that the point where you're running out of strips is never when you predict and there's no place locally to track down strips for a pet meter if the need is immediate. And, as you've noted there's the cost.

All of that said, many vets prefer a pet specific meter. I find their preference perplexing since it's only been relatively recently that vets pushed their clients to use a pet meter. It's even more perplexing since many vets are now suggesting cat owners use continuous glucose monitors . The CGMs are calibrated for humans only.
 
Thank you all for your help with this! I've opted for a human one for now while I get to grips with things. I thought if needed I can always get a pet specific one at a later date. We're going to attempt our first curve tomorrow so hopefully it all goes well.
 
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