diabetes monitoring

Re: diabetes monitoring

salome2001 — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:25:01 GMT

I believe the RVC did a study using the "minimed" continuous glucose monitoring machines a few years ago. Maybe ring them and find out about the unit

Re: diabetes monitoring

Bob Russell — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:12:17 GMT

Nice idea but expensive. In time I am sure they will become more practical for routine use. We considered buying but decided to wait. Glad I did!

Roll on the microchip version!

Re: diabetes monitoring

Andrew Kent — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:56:01 GMT

Hi Dan,

I have one but on the whole I think they are a bit of a gimmick except for in a handful of cases. They work by measuring something like electrical current under the skin which can then be calibrated to blood glucose. The downside is that animals wearing them still require blood glucose to be measured by the traditional route at least every 12 hours (but preferably more often) and the calibration recordings have to be within a set bracket so they are no good for animals with v high or v low blood glucose.

They are also over-priced - initial purchase price is I believe £1000 or so and each disposable electrode is something like £50.

The 'second generation' ones look a little better as they have a kennel side unit that gives a continuous read out whereas the original ones have to be downloaded to the computer for analysis.

I also find it quite a temperamental unit to use and frequently get failures of set-up or reading. Dogs seem to tolerate it pretty well but the majority of cats find it heavy and uncomfortable to wear.

I use it from time to time but I am still yet to be completely convinced it offers anything major over other monitoring methods.

Hope that helps,

Andy

Re: diabetes monitoring

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:43:58 GMT

Does this work for you? You may need to log in

http://www.vetsonline.com/consultation/download.php?pub=vt&doc=2010/VT40048010.pdf