newbie here and Non pet specific blood glucose meters | Feline Diabetes Message Board (2024)

Hello

I am a new member who first had my 16 year old cat diagnosed with diabetes about 3 weeks ago. He has been on 2 units of lantus insulin 2x daily for 15 days now per my vet's recommendation. Without casting stones I must say my vet has been less than real helpful through this whole ordeal/learning experience and it has only been my scouring of the internet and reading that I even got the fundamentals down. My vet talked me into the freestyle libre monitor which they insisted they must put on my cat. First monitor- complete failure - I think it was an incorrect install. They removed that one and the 2nd one worked for the 14 days. Changed out the used up monitor with a replacement obtained from Abbie because the first failed and this one was a failure as well. Part of the sticky sides of the monitor were actually installed over some untrimmed fur and I pointed it out before leaving the vets office, but was assured it had been installed correctly. Long story short I almost 100% knew it would fail and when it did and I called the vet about it I got no vet support except to "call the manufacturer." All of this costing me hundreds of dollars . My kitty had a fructosamine test done this past week and it came back at at bit below mid 400's which as I read somewhere here on the forum is close to being unregulated at this point but I am sure is better than it was pre insulin. Gong to stay at 2 units until the vet says otherwise.

So I decided to heck with the freestyle libre and after reading on here yesterday in a thread that someone recommended an inexpensive BG monitor at walmart, I went to WM and purchased the ReliOn platinum monitoring system. Came with the monitor, lance tool, 10 lances and 50 test strips for about $20. I read the instructions, did a test run on myself and then did my first test of my kitty. His reading was 196. My question is that although this monitor is not calibrated for cats or dogs how close to my pets actual glucose value do you think it is? Do you think it will generally read high or low or maybe neither? Any help is greatly appreciated by me and my cat . This is all a lot to take in at once and I have a lot to learn. If I can figure out how to do the spreadsheet I will as soon as I can make the time. meanwhile I have another kitty who mysteriously got violently ill for no apparent reason the night before last, so now I have two sick pets to nurse.

Thank you all for this forum and your help.

Hey, I’m new at all this but here’s my understanding: the lower the number, the more significant the variance between pet and human.

I’ve been using the relion as well, and when I brought it into the vet, with my cat reading in the mid 300’s on it, my vet said it tested to within 8 points of the vet one they used, however, I know the hypo level on human meters is under 50 and on pets, under 80, so it does look like it varies.

Folks who have been doing this dance longer, please feel free to let me know if there’s anything I’m missing!

ps, I also had a struggle with the FreeLibre, so I’m glad you found something that works better for you!

good luck to you and both your kitties!

Welcome , for the record, most Vets are not familiar with FD, they like the Libre, knowing they are unreliable, and yes, the sensor either falls off, stops working before the 14 days, or it reads the low BGs much lower than it actually does, also once the BG reaches more than 360 it will only read HI, to be able to return to the manufacturer, when you call the customer service number on the box(do not throw the box until the full 14 days, they will replace it is guaranteed, but you cannot tell them is for your cat, or it will not be replaced, it is good you got a ReliOn monitor and strips, so much more inexpensive, and quite accurate, this is what most of us members go by, it is very important the food a diabetic cat consumes, diabetic cats need to consume a diet of between 0-10% carbs, wet can foods, kibbles(dry foods) contain approximately between 25-30% carbs do not get sold by your Vet on "Prescribed" food, these foods contain between 20% carbs or more, Vets make commission on these foods, plus the fact that your cat's BG will never regulate because of the high Carbs being consumed, causing for the pancreas not to heal, and more unneeded Vet visits, below is a Drs Food list, here in the Forum like to go by, there are many brands to choose from, the third column contains the % of carb for each food., you should also have handy what we call a HYPO KIT, this should contain KARO syrup or honey, some medium carb foods between 11-15% and some high carbs between 16-24%, this is to be used in a case where the BG goes below 50, but we can help you hike it up with a food protocol, Karo and Honey are only a quick fix, Here in the Forum many of the members enjoy the Fancy Feast Pates, many flavors from 0-10% to choose from and they are US regulated, so no waste goes into their foods, for me the most important factor for a diabetic cats, is the low carb foods, and the dosing, and unfortunately many Vets treat Feline diabetes like they treat dogs, below you will have several links to help us help you, a food list, and how to create your signature and spreadsheet, we need to know more about your fur baby in order to help you, I will also tag an expert on dosing and insulin
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/

Generally in a non-anemic cat the human meter will give a reading that is lower than the actual true number as measured in a lab (let’s call that “real number”). This is because each meter (human and pet) were designed to undergo an electrochemical reaction on the strip that then produces a number based on algorithms developed for species-specific blood—humans, dogs, cats, horses and cows (as far as I know those species each have meters) each carry glucose differently in their blood so using a cross-species meter will result in algorithm error.

in addition, each manufacturer meets different standards for how accurate a meter must be (how far off from the real number). One common pet meter (AT3) has a 10% for readings above 100, and plus or minus 15mg/dl for under 100. I don’t know human variance but have read others say up to 20%. So the bigger the number, no matter which meter, the more the number may vary. You can test a sample with a real number of say 300 and get readings as far apart as 270 and 330 using the same meter or meters of the same brand. So you can see it’s not really possible to correlate one meter to the other and dangerous to try.

that said: good news because this forum prefers everyone use the human meters since they are familiar with them, they have many years of experience with them, and their dosing guidelines are written based on using human meters on cats.

as long as you know which type of meter you are using, and use it exclusively, it should be fine. Since it tends to read lower than the real number it may actually give you a little safety cushion with hypoglycemia, which is much more dangerous than hyperglycemia.

edit: SAFETY NOTE: in an ANEMIC cat the human meter may come closer to a real number than a pet meter. This is because each meter is based on a certain amount of red blood cells in the blood sample, so a pet meter may read higher than normal in a cat with less rbcs than usual. A human meter will essentially correct for this, the algorithm error based on wrong species cancelling out the algorithm error based on less rbcs. So if I had an anemic cat and were using a human meter I’d probably be more cautious with low numbers and treat them like I would an Alpha Trak number

First off, thank you to Ailish's Brother and Corky for the quick informative replies already ! Just to let you both know a bit more about my cat, I am in a bit of a bind on what food will be able to be fed because he has feline triaditis as well as chronic kidney disease. He is currently eating a mix of Royal Canin Feline multi function renal support plus hydrolyzed protein kibble and Hills food sensitivities Z/D kibble just to keep him interested in eating, but still have the hydrolyzed protein for his triaditis. He is on 7.5 mg of prednisolone every other day to control his triaditis ( which I know could have caused his diabetes and is not helping with regulation of it ) but I feel it is important to keep him on it - I thought he was going to die with his last bad bout of the triaditis about 3 years ago before going on the prednisolone. He and my other cat do get canned wet food in the evening as their main meal and since this diabetes started I have put my diabetic cat on the Fancy Feast pate canned food just because he seems to like them more than the previously eaten friskies and his eating seems to have slackened off and it is more work to get him to eat. Interesting that Corky mentioned the Fancy Feast and I am already feeding it ! I do have my hypo kit ready to go- karo syrup and needleless syringe - I will look more into the high carb vs low carb food to have on hand as well. I am guessing his usual kibble is all pretty high carb.

Most of us use the human meter, that's what our numbers are based on. The Relion is fine to use

Can you set up your signature
Your signature should be in gray letters, do you see mine at the end of my post
This is where you can set up what we call your signature, it's at the end of everyone's post in gray letters. Just tap on your name up top then tap on signature and add this information. You will link it to your spreadsheet

• Add info we need to help you:
  • Caregiver & kitty's name
  • DX: Date
  • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
  • Name of your meter
  • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
  • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
  • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
  • Bexacat or Senvelgo (if applicable) and dates
  • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
  • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
  • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.

Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

Make sure you have plenty of tests strips on hand

Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 10 or 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand notthe lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Look at the lancet under a light and you will see one side is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with

Try putting a thin layer of Vaseline on the ear so the blood will bead up

Be sure you have the U-100 syringes with the half unit markings since we adjust the dose by 0.25 units at a time .
If you don't have them I can tell you where to get them

Ailish also was put on steroids, ZD and limited proteins after a trianidtis diagnosis. I’m also struggling to figure out what to feed her.

Here’s a link to one of the low carb kibbles people have mentioned to me, it is pork based and claims to be limited ingredient having only one proteins source. It is also low phosphorus.

https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/products/lid-zero-mature-health

I’ve ordered some and am waiting for it to arive, you I’ll let you know more once I’ve actually tried it.

Just to let you both know a bit more about my cat, I am in a bit of a bind on what food will be able to be fed because he has feline triaditis as well as chronic kidney disease. He is currently eating a mix of Royal Canin Feline multi function renal support plus hydrolyzed protein kibble and Hills food sensitivities Z/D kibble just to keep him interested in eating, but still have the hydrolyzed protein for his triaditis. He is on 7.5 mg of prednisolone every other day to control his triaditis ( which I know could have caused his diabetes and is not helping with regulation of it ) but I feel it is important to keep him on it - I thought he was going to die with his last bad bout of the triaditis about 3 years ago before going on the prednisolone. He and my other cat do get canned wet food in the evening as their main meal and since this diabetes started I have put my diabetic cat on the Fancy Feast pate canned food just because he seems to like them more than the previously eaten friskies and his eating seems to have slackened off and it is more work to get him to eat. Interesting that Corky mentioned the Fancy Feast and I am already feeding it ! I do have my hypo kit ready to go- karo syrup and needleless syringe - I will look more into the high carb vs low carb food to have on hand as well. I am guessing his usual kibble is all pretty high carb.

You are already on a great start, but always remember, high carbs is high carbs even if it’s “prescribed” you still want to keep low BFs to heal the pancreas, the quicker you create your signature and spreadsheet with the he links I send you the faster we can help you regulate your precious Fur baby, may you have a Blessed Thanksgiving Day

Hello and welcome. Good for you on getting your first blood test done. 196 is a pretty good number for early on in the diabetes journey.

Adding onto what was said about human meters and their benefits. First, the cost of the test strips is way cheaper. That way you can get more tests for less money and not feel to you have to limit the number of tests you do. Second, the test strips for human meters are much easier to obtain. Especially those days (or nights) when kitty is going low and you need to test lots try to prevent a hypo. Chances are the Walmart is open late, but your vet office or the online order for the pet strips won't be there for a day or two. Especially on a long Thanksgiving weekend! Which reminds me, no matter what type of meter you have, always have a backup pack of test strips in your hypo kit.

Not exactly. We don't want cats under 50 on a human meter when on insulin, or under 68 on pet meter when on insulin. We want a margin for error for cats on insulin. Cats not on insulin cat be under 50 on a human meter. The one just whining at me to make a lap has tested in the upper 40's.

As a cost savings, once you are more comfortable home testing, you won't need to pay for fructosamines again.

You might wish to have a discussion with your vet about using budesonide instead of prednisolone. Budesonide is a steroid that is more locally acting in the gut. For the majority of cats, it doesn't impact their blood sugars. It made no difference to Neko's blood sugars. She was pretty regulated at the time she started it, so I would have noticed it.

IBD is definitely a challenge. Sometimes you can treat with a low carb novel protein diet, and there are some options out there that are also lower phosphorus for CKD. Those options are typically in cans, freeze dried raw or raw foods. You want to pick a protein he might never have had before, such as rabbit, lamb, venison etc. A good probiotic, such as Visbiome, can help.

Thanks to all of you for your help and advice. A lot to process and as I am sure you all know, it can feel overwhelming when added to the other unexpected chaos that life seems to bring sometimes. I will try to get a sig done today.

Oh- one further question- is there a quick link to the abbreviations I see posted here on the forum ?

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all.

Lokewise

Glossary of jargon:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-glossary.194472/

Happy Thanksgiving!