New DX Question about meter

Hi all-- we have a 10 year old full bred Maine Coon, Elliot. Just diagnosed last week and his first full day of Lantus 1 until every 12 hours was Thursday. He has responded nicely, in the 200s when I decided to get a meter over the weekend. So I only have 2 days of data. I pulled all dry food, he is eating Fancy Feast classic pate twice a day, sometimes 3. His water chugging has improved immensely as well as urine output. You can tell he feels better. He was 18 lbs last year, and is currently 12.5-- vet wants him around 14ish.

OK.. so human vs pet meter. Guys I am LOST. I bought the Relion Prime meter on the advice of the FB support group and that I cannot stomach 1.00/strip given how much testing I am doing. Please do not say I am a horrible cat mom- our cat is family and we recently adopted a kitten and lost him a few weeks ago to FIP. Never had a cat with FIP so needless to say I was shocked this was devastating news as I prayed for it to be a parasite or just an infection. He was in the final stages after a lot of tests to rule out the cause of his rapid breathing and anemia. He was starting to suffer and we had to let him go. He was barely 5 months old and only with us for 8 weeks. Now the news of Elliot-- I am reading researching and testing.

So I asked our vet if the Relion Prime was ok to use. She says to use the AT and she has not heard of anyone having inaccurate numbers. My husband and I agree of course the vets will say use the AT, but my aim is to do curves at home and I am very scared of hypos which is why in my mind I would rather have a low reading and add 30 points, then have a high number and they keep increasing his insulin. I have read both sides of the debate. She says all their pet owners use the AT and have not had issues using the AT strips.

I flat out do not know what to do. I have read what each meter does. I just need some support on how to proceed-- I have found less than 5 people who believe in the AT-- most people are using the Relion and are happy with the readings.

Know that we have NOT done his first curve yet. I plan to do one here at home on day 10 of treatment and then, take him in on day 14 and let them curve him. I respect our vet, but I want to do what is best for Elliot-- the more I read, the more anxious I get about which meter to use.

If you all are 100% no doubt pro AT, please tell me if you use the Free Style Lite strips and how to calibrate your meter correctly and do you have comparisons of the AT vs. Relion Prime.

 

If your vet is willing to provide you with AT strips (free of charge), then go for it! (but that ain't going to happen!!)

Yes, the AT is supposed to give the closest readings compared to "professional" equipment, but what we really look for are "trends", not individual numbers.

Is the cat getting into the numbers we want them in? That's the question you need to answer.

With the human meters, you just need to understand the "take action" number is 50....on the pet meter, it's 68....those are the only numbers that we really concern ourselves with because that's the point where you need to intervene with some high carb food.

Too high is too high, no matter which meter you use

All our protocols here were written using human meters and tens of thousands of members here have used them with great success.

There's no reason you can't use the AT if you can afford it, but there's no real reason you need to. You can keep your dear Elliot safe using a human meter....and you won't have to cringe every time you take a strip out of the bottle!!

 

Where I live we do not have AT so both me and my vet use human meters and we are just fine with it

 

OMG I want to cry-- Chris this is the most logical response I have read yet. I know they can handle high... he was 470-something!! Now he is reading 200-250s. I got a 186 this amps-- but then I gave him Beef classic fancy feast and I suspect that kept his numbers in the flippin 300s. All weekend he had chicken and liver FF, at midnight he was starving and I gave him turkey FF pate. He is due for a read and dinner and shot. I will continue to test until I go to bed.

Thank YOU I feel better.

 

I'm happy I could ease your mind!! There's enough stress around this disease as it is!!

It will be really helpful if you'll start using our spreadsheet to keep track of his numbers. There can be all kinds of reasons for numbers that you might not understand yet and it's really great to have the people here with lots of experience to help explain things to you until the "light bulb" goes off for you!

Here are the Instructions for getting the FDMB spreadsheet but if you have any problems, feel free to send me a private message and I can set it up for you. Only takes about 30 seconds so it's no problem. Just click on my name and choose "Start Conversation".

Also, if you could go ahead and fill out your "Signature" it'll help too. That way people don't have to keep asking the same questions over and over. You'll see my signature under my comments. We like to have:

Your name/Cats name, age, sex, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of meter, type of food, any other health problems? and maybe a general location where you live.

To do that go to the top right of the page and find your sign on name. There's a drop-down menu that has "Signature" as a choice. A new box will pop up for you to add the information.

And Welcome to the FDMB!! This is the best place you never wanted to be!!

 

Thank so much. I have started a spread sheet and have data since I got the metor saturday. He had great numbers.. 200s over the weekend. amps both yesterday and today were really good, yet 300s all day yesterday and today until evening shot. I know he is using the previous shot from before and the insulin is not fully in his system. I also know we're headed for a insulin increase. I'd like to go ahead and get some needles and syringes, but everywhere I have gone, they have wanted the doctor instructions. Locally, cost is killing me.

 

As Chris said most people on here use a human meter for cost reasons. I use an Alphatrak because it's my personal preference to have the same readings as my vet, but at $48/50 I get why most people don't.

The meters are similar at low numbers but far apart at high numbers, but either will tell you if your cat is too high or low.

For lancets and syringes I like to order from Adwdiabetes.com. Great prices and they always have discount codes for them on Retailmenot.com. They will contact your vet for you to get the perscription ok. Easy ordering.

 

I have looked and looked, but can someone who uses the AT AND the Free Style Lite strips tell me how to calibrate those strips to the meter? Are those accurate?! I hate this, I like the Relion, I actually trust it because I see how Elliot is acting, but the vet really recommends the AT, and has not seen crazy numbers between the two. My guess is owners are not testing at home or if they do they are not doing it very often. I was honest, the strips are too expensive for us right now, we have a lot of bills to pay from losing our kitten. There is nothing I would not do for my cats, so I am hoping she will get where I am coming from.

 

If you like the relion then use that, but do weekly curves for your vet with the Alphatrak.

 

Is it possible that you can bring your meter into your vet's and then compare BG readings from their AT with your Relion? That's what I did with mine (I have a Relion Micro) and the difference between the readings between the AT and the Relion was very slight. They didn't even need to calibrate my meter with their AT as a result.