Switching to a human glucometer in Canada

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Drew Morey

Drew Morey

Member Since 2021
Hi - I haven't been on the forum for some time, because Gary has been so well stabilized. 18 months ago we got the bad news that his kidneys were not functioning, and that we had to start saying goodbye. Our vet told us that we couldn't manage both his diabetes and his kidney disease at the same time, so we should just focus on keeping his BG stable.

Gary is a miracle kitty, and he's still going strong as he approaches his 16th birthday.

A big part of that success (we believe) is attributable to the advice we received here on the forum years back to keep him (and our other 2 cats as well) on a strict diet of wet food, and more particularly, the reasonably affordable Purina Fancy Feast Pate (as it's called in Canada).

That's a long preamble to my question for the forum: what is the consensus on using a human glucometer for cats? The cost of the AlphaTrack system has become prohibitive, especially because we can't get compatible third party test strips in Canada.

Is there a conversion of any kind that is necessary? I think we use the mmol/L scale (the 0-40 range unit of measurement).

Thanks for your help :)
 
Drew Morey said:
Hi - I haven't been on the forum for some time, because Gary has been so well stabilized. 18 months ago we got the bad news that his kidneys were not functioning, and that we had to start saying goodbye. Our vet told us that we couldn't manage both his diabetes and his kidney disease at the same time, so we should just focus on keeping his BG stable.

Gary is a miracle kitty, and he's still going strong as he approaches his 16th birthday.

A big part of that success (we believe) is attributable to the advice we received here on the forum years back to keep him (and our other 2 cats as well) on a strict diet of wet food, and more particularly, the reasonably affordable Purina Fancy Feast Pate (as it's called in Canada).

That's a long preamble to my question for the forum: what is the consensus on using a human glucometer for cats? The cost of the AlphaTrack system has become prohibitive, especially because we can't get compatible third party test strips in Canada.

Is there a conversion of any kind that is necessary? I think we use the mmol/L scale (the 0-40 range unit of measurement).

Thanks for your help :)
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Tagging Bhooma and Bron for you
@Bandit's Mom
@Bron and Sheba (GA)
 
Most of us use a human meter and our dosing methods are based upon them. Do you gave a spreadsheet? If so it can be converted to using a human meter.
 
The conversion between metric and Imperial units is the same, regardless of whether you are using a pet meter or a human meter. The conversion from metric to imperial is to multiply by 18. There is no specific conversion, however, between pet and human meters. The human meters sold here in Canada will already be in the mmol/L which is the same as pet meters sold in Canada.
 
You can swap to using a human meter without any problems, it will still read in mmol/l in Canada. Don't try and compare the BGs with a pet meter...it will drive you crazy...just be aware that the human meter reads a bit lower than the pet meter. As Elise said our dosing methods are based on the human meter.
 
I'm very grateful to everyone for the input. It looks like we've been paying 3X what we need to, because we went out of the gate with Gary's diabetes treatment several years ago assuming that the pet meter was necessary. As a result, we have kept our testing to a bare minimum. As for spreadsheets, no, we've never made one. We've just been monitoring the low end of the curve to avoid the danger of a hypo crash. Now we can make a spreadsheet and keep better track of Gary's levels. Thanks again to everyone for your helpful advice.
 
Waving at you from BC. :) We have lots of people here with kitties with both kidney disease and diabetes. Just pick a low carb food that is lower phosphorus. Unfortunately the Fancy Feast tent to be higher in phosphorus, but there are lots of other options out there. The CKD Diabetes Food list in this link has a list of foods available in the US, and many are also available in Canada.
 
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