Glucose meters: need advice regarding choosing one

Hello everyone,

I used Accu-Chek Active (manufacturer: Roche) glucometer for testing my Cupkake. I did not liked it because it used 1 µL of blood for testing and I needed a bucket of blood to make one reading ohmygod_smile
I started to use FreeStyle Lite (manufacturer: Abbott) yesterday and was so happy about the need of 0,3 µL of blood only! Till my guardian angel Mel warned me today that these butterfly test strips are quite inaccurrate for cats.
I'm lost and panicking now. We have little assortment of glucometers here in Lithuania (only Roche and Abbott are widely available here).
I've just had a look at a local Roche's site and realized that we have three Roche's glucometers available in my country: Accu-Chek Active (I used it, needs 1 µL of blood), Accu-Chek Performa (needs 0,6 µL of blood) and Accu-Chek Performa Nano (needs 0,6 µL of blood): http://www.accu-chek.lt/produktai/matavimo-sistemos

Can I switch to Performa or Performa Nano? Does anyone use these glucometers here or maybe has any information regarding their accuracy? I dont want Accu-Check Active because of great amount of blood needed.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions and pieces of advice

 

My favorite meters have always been the Bayer Contour and then OneTouch ultra mini as back up.

I don't know the meters you mention but I do know that the FreeStyle with butterfly strips are horrible for cats.

If you want to switch to another meter, maybe you can do a side by side test for a few days..... compare the Accu-Chek to the other meter you want to use. Record the numbers from each meter and it should tell you of any differences at the high or low ends.

Gayle

 

I used the Accu-Chek Nano when I first started out testing. It reads almost identical (within 1-10 points) to my ReliOn Micro. This meter should be fine.

 

I used to use the Freestyle lite but it didn't work well. It would underestimate the blood glucose numbers whenever my cats were over 200. So I switched to the Bayer contour usb

 

Thanks for your replies.
I started using my old Accu-Chek Active again. FreeStyle Lite was not as accurate as I expected and showed lower readings at high BG but was accurate when BG was low. Here are some examples:
Same blood drop:
1) FreeStyle Lite: 286, Accu-Chek: 324.
2) FreeStyle Lite: 272, Accu-Chek: 317.
3) FreeStyle Lite: 68, Accu-Chek: 68.

 

I would keep using the accu-chek. Most meters have a variance of 20% anyway but you can see what I mean about the freestyle underestimating numbers - I found it was ok under 200 but got inaccurate when you went over 200

Wendy