New gadget monitors blood glucose for diabetic pets
Posted by Chris Leckness on 02/23/06 in General
Did you know that as many as 1 in 200 dogs and 1 in 400 cats has diabetes? I didn’t know how common it was until last year, when one of my dogs was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, and I was quickly educated. There is no good way to test his blood at home, so we are forced to take him to the vet regularly to make sure the dosage he is receiving in his daily injections is the right amount. He is on a strict diet, but still the amount of insulin he needs can fluctuate greatly. It is very frustrating and I have taken him to the vet as many as eleven times in one week to have blood drawn.
A new product slated to come out in March is a glucose monitoring system made just for dogs and cats. Standard human glucose meters can be off by as much as 39% due to the fact that dog and cat blood is different than human blood. That margin of error can be dangerous when dealing with such a deadly disease and the threat of hypoglycemia. The AlphaTRAK from Abbott Laboratories claims to make accurate blood glucose monitoring for your pet easy and convenient. Anything would be more convenient than driving him to the vet, and testing there costs me $10 each time, so the device would definitely end up paying for itself. I plan to give this gadget a try as soon as it is available.
Source: The Gadget Blog
Written by Chris Leckness · Filed Under General
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