Canadian beans

Hey Canadian Folks,
I just thought I'd mention that last week my vet recommended I get a Costco membership to get Odie's prescription because it was so much cheaper -- a 2 week supply of Cyclosporine at the vet was $91 and at Costco it was $33!!! All other prescriptions (Odie's and mine) that I've checked are considerably cheaper too (not quite that extreme).

But the other revelation was that they have a TrueTrack glucometer. Test strips are $43 for 100.
I had been using the OneTouch Ultra (strips are $73 at Costco, up to $85 elsewhere). I asked how much the TrueTrack glucometer was and it was free with the purchase of strips! I switched. (We can't get the Walmart Relion one in Canada)
Lantus is $95 for the 5-3ml vials.

I've been double testing each time I draw blood, to see the comparison. The TrueTrack is consistently lower than the OneTouch by between 0.1 and 1.5 (too tired to do the math for you US folks )... but I guess as long as I start accounting for that, we should be ok.

Odiesmom

 

Thanks so much for the info! It may be worth looking into for sure!

 

In the US you do not need to be a Costco member to use the Pharmacy...it may
be different in Canada.

Call Costco and find out before spending the money for membership.

 

I got my insulin at Costco too, the 5 pack for $95 with no prescription.
My brother works for Costco up here in Toronto, you dont need a membership to buy prescriptions/insulins or a prescription.
I asked him for a discount, but he always tells me, "the discount is in the price" blah blah blah :lol:

The True Track is pretty much the cheapest meter/strips up here, I bought one too in our early days of DX...but as I found out thru this board, the True Trak rated lowest in the Consumer Reports review of meters, a few years ago. see link: http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dd5ck ... on=_latest
so off I went to buy the One Touch (and watched the $$ fly out of our bank account) :lol: but it was worth it, in the end :mrgreen:

Odiesmom, thank you for the info! Good stuff to know for Canadian newbies!

 

Huh. Too good to be true I guess.
Now I don't know what to do. In the 8 comparisons I did (before I ran out of OneTouch strips), the TrueTrack seemed consistently lower but not wildly inaccurate. Maybe I'll keep it for day-to-day, but get some OneTouch strips and if I see a weird reading, I'll double check with the OneTouch. Between his diabetes supplies, all his prescriptions, and all the expensive food he's refusing to eat, he's costing me a small fortune each month. (never mind the vet bills).

 

hey it's still good to mention about the cheaper rx, even if others may not want to switch their meter.

 

I used the TrueTrack meter when I first started testing... it was ok, but I kept ruining test strips due to "error"s. (too slow to sip up the blood, not enough blood, etc)

I tried the MAXIMA AST from www.hocks.com, and have been very pleased with it.

 

Interesting. I have not had any "error" messages or ruined strips yet.
Maybe it's because I was already used to testing with the other glucometer?