Question about meters

The pharmacy in town has people glucose meter, so I will go today and buy one since my Alpha Trak strips are shipped but now here yet. My question:
The pharmacy has the recommended Freestyle Meter
There are 2 kinds down there
-Freestyle
-Freestyle Precise

I imagine that “Precise” is the more spendy model. Is it necessary? I want to be prepared when I go there

thanks!!

 

I googled Freestyle Precise, I don't see it , do you mean Freestyle Precision?
The other one I see is the Freestyle Lite

I would get the one that has the lowest cost for the strips
Too bad you can't go to Walmart
The Relion Prime is 9 dollars
17.88 for test strips.

Most of us use that one
There is also The Relion Premier

 

I use the Freestyle Lite, and I like it, it uses the same small amount of blood as the AT2 and the test zone is on the side of the strip. I think Freestyle Precision is a newer model.

Here's something that might help, if you have a minute to look, it shows some of the available meters.

http://main.diabetes.org/dforg/pdfs/2018/2018-cg-blood-glucose-meters.pdf

 

Oh my gosh. We are finding a Walmart tomorrow. They wanted $20.00 for the Freestyle but the strips were $100. After the vet bill we just paid I just can’t. I have 20 Alpha Trak strips left and more on the way, so i can get a Walmart one tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

 

Oh my gosh. We are finding a Walmarttomorrow. They wanted $20.00 for the Freestyle but the strips were $100. After thevet bill we just paid I just can’t. I have 20 Alpha Trak strips left and more on the way, so I can get a Walmart one tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

 

Once you find the one you want to go to, you may want to see if you can do order pickup (you'll need Walmart.com account). We have two Walmarts near us and one has a magical tower that gifts me my test strips; a different Walmart that does order pickups in the back of the store. It just saves time and ensures you don't have to ask the pharmacy in case they are closed for lunch or you go after hours - at my Walmart the ReliOn strips are usually on the shelf but if they are out of stock, the pharmacy will have some too. Note that most pharmacy items are non-returnable (including meters and strips).

 

That's because the freestyle lite and alpha strips are the same.

 

And you may also want to grab a box of their 1/2 unit marked syringes. I love them and you can only buy it at the store not sold online

 

No they aren't, but they were originally made by the same manufacturer.

 

Ohhhhh! They sure looked similar on the box. Thank you.

 

I used a Freestyle strip in my Alphatrak 2 and it recorded 173 and I used the same blood on an Alphatrak strip and it recorded 175. I don't know if the range increases at different glucose levels but when I get more Alphatrak strips I'll use both and see how close they are.

 

Y

Yes! Interesting. I was planning to do that comparison also. I’ve been told that they are close. And so much cheaper! I had already purchased the Alpha Trak when I learned of this group. Thank you

 

Folks, just a word of caution, this topic comes up now and again, probably has been discussed even well before I joined this forum. I can assure you it has been well-debated, with some members being adamant that there are no issues with using the FSL human strips in the pet meter. I'm not here to debate it, I just want newer members to be aware, whether they look it or not, they are not the same, they are manufactured by different companies, and even the manufacturers state they are not interchangeable. To me it is too risky. I wouldn't buy strips for a different human meter and use them in my FSL. I need to be able to trust my meter and the readings I get.

 

This question comes up a lot. This post here explains that while the AT and Freestyle strips look the same, they are not. We had a member who used both follow up with the manufacturer. If you read the rest of that post, I agree with the others that I would not risk the life of my cat using a test strip made for one meter in a meter designed to use other strips. If you want cost saving and similar feel, get the Freestyle meter. If you want even more cost saving, that trip to Walmart will help there.

Hmm. Christie types faster than I do.

 

Oops. What I was trying to say is I have a pickup appointment at Walmart tomorrow for both the people meter and the matching people strips. I’ll need to understand the difference on how they compare to each other.

 

All good Shelley, there were a few others in the post who were speculating about using the FSL in AT2 meter. As for the comparison between human meter and AT2, that topic too has been well covered. But here's the thing, all meters have an allowable variance of 20% so even if you tested the same blood drop with the same meter, you can get different results. For what it is worth, people have tried comparisons between two different human meters as well.

I did a lot of comparisons myself in the beginning but what I discovered is that it is best to pick a meter and stick with it. And what you are ultimately looking for when you test Oliver's BG is patterns and trends anyway. Just my 2 Canadian cents

 

Good point about it’s the trend we are watching, so I see why you wouldn’t want to alternate we can have a primary meter and a backup meter. Thank you! What’s the exchange on that Canadian 2 cents?

 

I would say the Zoetis AlphaTrak strips are manufactured by Abbott since the Zoetis strips still have the butterfly logo whish is Abbott's Freestyle logo and booth strips look identical in every respect. The problem with using FS strips in the AlphaTrak is that one does not know what code to input into the AlphaTrak meter.

 

I'm glad you found a Walmart
I meant to put in my post above when I suggested The Relion was 17.88 for 100 strips