New to forum

Excited to have found this informative forum! My cat Jerry was diagnosed in Aug 2015 and is on Humulin N nph insulin and I am using the Alphatrak 2 glucometer. I have not been able to get his numbers down that is acceptable and after reading some threads I am wondering about changing his insulin and my alphatrak2 to a human glucometer. First question is how comparable to BG numbers are the two? I will post in the health forum but just thought this would be a starting place!
Thank you!

 

Hi VK, welcome to the group! I just asked the same question last week about human monitors, so you can read the responses I got here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/switching-from-pet-to-human-monitor.146376/#post-1520375
I got the new meter on Friday, and I'm trying to keep testing with both (when I get a big enough blood drop for both) until I run out of Alpha strips. So far they tend to be 15 to 20% lower than the Alpha, but I know from my reading on here that there isn't a reliable conversion amount. One of my readings so far was even higher than the Alpha.

 

Hi, I'm not familiar with Humulin insulin, so I can't advise on that, but wanted to welcome you and Jerry. Most of us use the human meters. The numbers are a bit lower than the Alphatrak, but are much cheaper to use and still give us the information we need.

 

Hi there and Welcome! Is that a pretty necklace Jerry is wearing!? Glad you found us too. This forum has been a God -Send to me as I was frantic to learn everything I could to help Bubba. Ask away, that is how we learn.

 

All over the counter meters are allowed to read +/- 20 % from what a lab would get.
If 1.2 * low number is greater than 0.8 * high number, the 2 numbers may be considered equal.
(1.2 * low) > (0.8 * hi)

If your vet is familiar with NPH, you may want to consider ProZinc or BCP PZI insulin, which work similarly and last longer, about 12 hours.
If your vet is up to learning something new, using Lantus or Levemir can really help control the glucose well.

 

Thank you all for the welcome and the information. I have lots to learn!! Yes Jerry's necklace was for his photo shoot!! I have talked with my vet about the Levemir insulin and he would be willing to try it. If it would help to regulate him without such the drop in BG numbers and make his preshot numbers more acceptable it would be great. I just ordered 100 more Alphtrak strips so guess I will stay on that for a while but I do think the human meter will be what I end up using. I can use both for a while to compare readings so I have an idea of the difference right? What is the most popular human meter people use?
I have learned from this forum to feed FF classics. He was on the PurinaDM but I could not tell any difference in his numbers when I made the switch to FF and logged the numbers for a couple of weeks.

 

If you're in the US, the Target Up and Up, or the Walmart Relion Confirm, Confirm Micro, or Prime are all inexpensive choices folks have used here successfully.

 

The Relion Micro strips are $17/50 and the Relion Prime are $9/50, I ended up switching to the Prime for that reason, as I test a lot and don't want the cost to be a factor. Love the necklace!!!

 

I think it is awesome that you are switching to a different insulin. It is obvious that Jerry is responding to insulin so I bet he is going to well on Levemir. Also great job in getting your spreadsheet and signature set up so quickly. When you get a new insulin, I would suggest drawing a colored line across and indicate your new insulin or making a comment in your comment section. That way, you can see if there is any different patterns. I draw a colored line whenever I am trying something new and I want to see the changes such as new insulin bottle, change in food, starting a new med, etc.