Newly diagnosed - Question about pet meters

[lei]

Hello,

My 9 year old cat was newly diagnosed this week. I feel very stressed and overwhelmed, and thinking my vet might not know as much as the people on these boards... confused_cat

He said they would order us a glucose meter specifically for pets...and we would test her next week. I'm hoping I can just pick up the meter so I could test her at home because she is a wreck there (literally panting and burying her head in the blanket), plus we live far from his office.

Does anyone know exactly how much the strips cost for those fancy pet meters? I don't mind paying more for the meter if it's a one time thing. But if the strips are much much more, I don't think we can afford it, and I will have to argue with him that we want to buy the human meter instead. I'd like to test her regularly and will probably be buying the strips often even though he told me "no you only test everytime we change the dose" or something.

I don't trust him 100% now. He gave her a steroid shot for skin allergies/inflammation before checking her complete test results. He said her blood was fine at 120 (which he then gave the shot and sent us home), but the urine had glucose in it and we didn't hear about that until the next day. Now she is diagnosed with diabetes after he had us confirm it again with urine strips at home.

It's very hard to find a good vet where I live, they all have horrible reviews on Yelp too. I'm afraid to shop around and can't afford it (Been to two already locally with my previous cat and would not go to them again).

Thanks for any advice. :smile:

 

[Merlin]

Welcome to the FDMB. So glad you found this place. I am new too and have learned so much these past couple of months. First of all what is your name and your kitty's name?

Regarding vets, if you don't mind sharing your town, there may be some one near you that is on this forum, that can offer a good vet.

Pet meters are expensive compared to human meters. When Merlin was first diagnosed, we did buy a pet meter - AlphaTrak2. I think it was around $100 and the strips are $50+ for 50 of them. This is all compared to a human meter that you can buy like at Walmart. The ones that many use are Relion Micro, Relion Prime or Relion Confirm. There is another widely used model which I think is called Arkray glucometer. I know that I am spelling it wrong but you can buy that online. All of these meters cost about $15 and their strips are anywhere from 8 cents to 18 cents a piece. That is compared to $1 for the pet meter. On some days, I may go through at least 10 of them. So I recently transitioned to the Relion Micro. Not only because of the price, but it was much better because most all the people here that was helping me, was used to reviewing human meter numbers and not the pet meters numbers (the numbers are little higher with the pet meters).

Your vet may not want you to use a human meter because they use a pet meter but it is hard not to argue price plus data is data whether it is pet or human numbers. Fortunately, my vet did not mind at all that I started using the human meter and he likes seeing Merlin's spreadsheet every week. There is a variance between the two but all we are collecting is data.

There is a great spreadsheet on this site that everyone uses. It would be good for you to set that up right from the start. I found it very useful reading everyone else's spreadsheet. The comments were very interesting.

Anyway, you are in the right place. This is a great place to ask all of your questions.

 

[Bisse]

Hi Lei?

Welcome to FDMB. You are in good hands here. I am also new, but will chime in with my two cents and support.
Definitely go with the human meter, you want to start testing as soon as possible. My vet also gave me the "here is your dose, come back in 2 months and we'll do a curve and see if it needs changing".
But since I showed up with the meter, the ketone testing, a cooler for the insulin, notebook etc. after reading FDMB, we worked something out and now she is fine with med changing dose etc. I know she is there when I need it and ready to help but day to day is much easier to handle with the help of FDMB. And much cheaper. Who needs 200$ bills for a curve that is more accurate done at home without higher numbers due to stress?
I guess most people aren't ready for all the work with testing etc. and that's what the vets have to work with, usually.
So read around and ask questions, questions, questions!

When you get the meter and start testing it will be tough and frustrating. Remember you probably won't succeed the first time, the first day, the first week etc. Treats, pets and treats for you too, whether you succeed or not. You can read and Watch youtube's and you'll get there!

What are you feeding? If you haven't started insulin yet and am feeding dry food, you might be able to switch to low carb wet food before you start insulin. Thats what I did and it is so much easier (depending on your cat). My Bisse went from BG 558 when he was diagnosed to BG 432 before insulin after having been switched to low carb wet food on 3 days. It is really important that you feed low carb food, if you don't already. But don't switch if you are giving insulin and not hometesting! Very important, since as you can see they can drop more than 100 points and if you give the same amount of insulin but switch to low carb they might go hypo.

Anyway, you are not alone! You'll feel overwhelmed from time to time, but you'll also get a much closer bond with your sweet kitty.

 

[BJM]

We suggest using an inexpensive human glucometer with pet-specific reference numbers. One many of us use is the WalMart Relion Confirm, or Confirm Micro, which is also sold at American Diabetes Wholesale as as the Arkray USA Glucocard 01 or 01 Mini (same manufacturer - Arkray USA). It uses a tiny blood droplet and the cost is significantly lower for test strips (like $0.36 each).

Comparing a human glucometer to a pet-specific glucometer is like reading temperature in Celsius vs Fahrenheit. Both are correct. You just need to know the reference ranges to interpret what the numbers mean.

[Glucose reference ranges are unsubstantiated and have been removed by Moderator]

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Examples of using the chart:

Ex. You are a new insulin user and you test your cat before giving insulin. The test is 300. It probably is safe to give insulin.

Ex. You are an established user of Lantus, following the Tight Regulation protocol. You've tested around +5 to +7 to spot the nadir. It is 200 mg/dL. You probably need to increase the dose, following the instructions for the protocol.

Ex. Your cat is acting funny. The eyes are a bit dilated. You are concerned and test the glucose. The number is 35 mg/dL. ACK! The cat may be in a hypoglycemic state. You quickly follow the HYPO protocol linked in the glucose reference values chart. (which we really, really, suggest you print out and post on your refrigerator.)