"William Graham" wrote in message
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"~*Connie*~" wrote in message
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"~*Connie*~" wrote in message
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also read up on home testing. it is better if you can test your cats
blood sugar at home.. better for you financially, and better for the
cat for less stress. It was recommended to me to use a human
glucometer several years ago, and many studies have shown it to be
effective and it has saved many cats lives.

As a 15 year diabetic, I recommend the Freestyle "Flash"
glucoseometer.....It uses only .3 microliteres of blood, which is so
small, you can hardly see it. The less the blood, the less traumatic for
the cat.....You should measure your own blood sugar in the cats presence
a few times, so she/he can see that it doesn't hurt you..........
I do use the freestyle flash.. Getting my cat to bleed takes a long time,
she's never liked doing it. There are 'generic' brands out there that
take small amounts of blood as well, and the strips are less expensive.

You can get the flash for free most of the time because they offer a
rebate, but the strips in the store sell for about a dollar each ($50 for
50 etc) I buy mine on Ebay for about fifty cents a strip... but you have
to be careful of sellers and of expiration dates. If you can find a
store brand that takes a small amount of blood, I might recommend you go
that route.

You might also want to buy a pair of baby socks (socks for human babies)
and fill one with some regular rice (not instant rice) so you can warm it
up in the microwave and then place that on the cat's ear to warm it up
and help with the blood flow.

the learning curve for FD is incredibly steep, but very short.



Yeah....I should have mentioned that the test strips are very
expensive.....My wife's endocrinologist gives her the Freestyle Flash
units away for free when he has them, because he gets them for free. The
company more than makes up for it by selling those strips for a dollar
each.....I always thought Polaroid should have given their cameras away
for nothing for the same reason.....Now they are out of business.......We
get our test strips for a lot less, because our health plan includes
prescription drugs, and our doctor prescribes the strips for us......It's
too bad there isn't a health plan for cats.....


That's a bit high. I pay $79.00 for 100 Freestyle strips -- at Kroger's
pharmacy, of all places. I checked every pharmacy in the area, and they
were the least expensive. So, you might want to see if there is a Kroger's
pharmacy in your area. It's still expensive, but not quite as much as you
are paying.

I agree. I really like Freestyle. I have both Freestyle and Freestyle
Flash, and they use a tiny drop of blood and return results almost
instantly. My doctor's nurse was amazed when she saw how quickly I could
get results (and the results were very close to what she got with their lab
tests).

MaryL