AlphaTrak 3, 8 Piece Pet Blood Glucose Monitoring Kit for Diabetic Cats, Dogs, and Horses All-in-One Solution for in-Clinic Or At Home, with Digital Results, Purple

After a month of learning all the in’s and outs after our senior cat said “No more Libre” as it was OK to get a baseline but overall is expensive, lasts only 2 weeks, not for cat (humans) and not supported for animals. So our wonderful vet next told us about the alpha track. It’s easy in principle but execution and use in another thing. Also, Alpha Track does not provide much info on actual lancing for depth, tips or videos. We found our cat would not allow lancing other paw so we were left with her ear option. We later found through research that lancing the is hurtful and stressful. Key take aways. >create a testing station my wife comforts and holds the flashlight while I lance and collect blood Drin test strip. This allows me to focus on getting a good test with fewer pokes. > Look at your cats ear with a flashlight to see vein to pierce with the stick. It is a ring and some parts run right on the edge of ear and some 1/16 to 1/4 inch. The lance springs from the pen stick is difficult to be precise to hit the vein. > Set the depth to higher to start 5 or 6 to start to ensure depth and can always reduce, however if you go from the outer side of the ear, to penetrate through the hair, I use at 5 for best results. I know some say to use the inner side. We prefer the outer side. >Make sure the pen stick is firm against the ear and cotton pad on the other side is firm. I find that helps in the lance springing cleanly to have better success. > Be patient and try again but DO NOTbe like me at first and lose your mind. Your cat feels your stress so better to stay calm and take a break if a few tries don’t get a blood drop. Also, I have had times where I have been too impatient and after the prick, a few seconds later the blood drop starts. I have found through research that blood flows better after more testing. > Be sure to warm the ear. My wife’s hands are always freezing and mine are always warm. I hold a light rubbing and hold for a minute which really helps. > Bruising or what looks like damaged vein is not what is seems. There will show what looks like damage but is not imlacting looking at the vein. Also, cats have very few nerves in their ear and are not impacted. Recovery of what is seen gets faster and faster as the cats system adjusts. ** Remember you are not hurting your cat, on the contrary, you are proving it love and care. The test is not harmful from the poke. > Arnica and Calendula Cream are safe to use on the ear for even faster recovery. Do not use neosprin ever. It is not pet friendly. > Patience again. Keep patient and kind to yourself and the situation. It sucks when you do everything and come up dry. Don’t give up or blame the device or process. Animals feel your emotions. >Have your phone on and ready to sync with the phone app. > If you are struggling and testing multiple times, be sure to reset the test strip so it doesn’t time out and device shut off. > If you doubt the result or it’s been a while, test the device with the test fluid provided. This is the easiest of all things to do. Just place drop on a test strip and then look at the results to see if you are in range with what is shown on the test strip for cats. >Alpha Trac actually has live, supportive call assistance. I don’t normally do a review and this is not as much of a review as it is helping others. I do like the Alpha Track. Is it perfect? Not at all. Is it a huge deal and benefit to help provide a way for us to care and extend the life of our treasured kitty ? 100%. We all need to take responsibility and quit blaming the tool. It sucks more isn’t provided but the hard work to learn, research and get better has been. All worth it, especially compared to the Libre Freedom cost and frustration. It is a cheap and great solution.

Expensive but worth it. I love the Bluetooth feature and being able to look at my cat's results on my phone. The only issue I have is that many of the online diabetes forums base their numbers off of human meters instead of pet meters like the AlphaTrak because the pet meters are so expensive. The test strips are very pricey at $1 per strip. I'd love to see more online help based off pet meters. Some advice for any newly diagnosed cat parents: if this lancet doesn't work out for you, try hand lancing OR try pettest genteel lancet (my saving grace). Also, make sure you wait until the code on screen goes away before applying blood to the strip, usually about 5 seconds. I use a warm rice sock on my kitty's ear and give her some churu while I warm it up, then after testing pinch her ear for 10 seconds while I give her more churu.

After reading several reviews, I decided to buy this on recommendation from my vet. Other systems are inconsistent and unreliable. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Firstly, there is a small learning curve to using this. Second, you do NOT need to calibrate it every time you use it. I worked with tech support and they confirmed it is a simple one-time setup. For a cat, 28 gauge is sufficient to get a tiny drop of blood, and that is all you need. On the downside, the test strips are single-use and expensive. If you mess up (which I did 5x in the beginning), you cannot re-use the test strips. Watching YouTube videos and getting instruction from your vet will help. Once you start using it, once you get a tiny sample, you're golden. It's an excellent system, just expensive.

** After buying an expensive refill, because half the strips tested in error. Then to have bew test strips reading error as well. Either this machine is faulty or the test strips are. It's been terribly inaccurate. You can test 3 times in a row and get 3 very different answers, even with the testing liquid. This could prove very dangerous for an animal getting the wrong dose. We had ranges of 700, 652, and 421. All in a minutes time span. Testing fluid ranges were 140, 176, and 180. It was set to feline. Original Review: It will not sync to the app. I've tried and tried. I have to manually enter it. The idea was for simplicity to be able to share information with the veterinarian. The app does not have a note/s line or section, which would prove helpful. The other issue was with the test strips. Half of them have read as an error. At the cost of $50+ to buy more for 50 testing strips is very off putting. For the expense of this, I'd expect to not need to throw half away. I've used other blood glucose testers, this has been annoying, and it's not user error. Annying is an understatement. Trying to wrangle an animal to test their blood is never easy. On a cat with mur der mitts, it's really not easy. Mostly, I'd consider using a human version if it'll work. Going through an insulin curve using 4 to 6 strips a day is hard enough, half not working, awful, and $50 for a weeks worth, is really awful. We love our animals like family. Companies know this and honestly, it feels like you're being taken advantage of. I still have to buy a refill, but I'm also looking at other options.

I read all of the reviews and so did NOT want to buy this product. But I confirmed with my vet that this was the only reliable brand out there and they use AlphaTrack3 in house as well. So I caved and bought the thing so I don’t have to drop my newly diagnosed diabetic cat at the vet for 12 hrs and be charged $200. Last night I prepared the glucometer w/ the Quick User Guide they provided. I followed step-by-step, set the sound/date/time/species and performed a control test …. no issues. I set up the lancing device (highest setting 6) and even tested on myself since so many reviewers pointed out it’s ineffectiveness = 100% agree; it was not strong enough to pierce anything or draw blood so manually holding the little blue disposable lancet is the only way to go. I also downloaded the phone app and set up my account and device - directions were not hard to follow. Today I began the 12 hour glucose curve testing, with the help of my kids and a flashlight to see the marginal ear vein, and being a total newbie I have been successful in getting 2 readings thus far. I keep the monitor with the test strip inside, but not all the way to start the machine, and after I successfully see a tiny blood drop form I push in the test strip (wait a few secs to see the expected icons) and get the sample. Super happy it works with such a tiny sample because my cat’s ear is not a big bleeder (more like a tiny dot sample). After the 2nd reading I decided to see how the phone app worked. Just keep the Quick Users Guide handy (those were the only directions I read) and be sure the glucometer bluetooth is ON = I was able to easily upload the two readings into the app. And when I am done with all 7 readings over these 12 hrs I can create a curve report and share these readings with my vet. So being new to diabetes, I didn't think I could overcome giving insulin twice a day let alone perform glucose readings on my cat’s tiny ears but here I am and wanted to share my success.

I didn't post my first review, below, regarding difficulties during setup. Now, after using it a few months I am thoroughly impressed. Love how the strips "suck" up the blood, and the unit gets ready to test quicker than the 2 model. They are sturdier than the strips for the 2. I really like the lancets (don't use the pen), just ordered more. I still don't have the date set up properly, but bought some cat logbooks for each of my 3 diabetic cats that I prefer to use to keep records. There is always an adjustment period for a new model of something, and this is no different. After working through that, I am very pleased with this meter and accessories. I, perhaps like others, bought this because the AlphaTrak2 test strips are ridiculously expensive now due to phase-out of the unit. I didn't want to buy it due to its variable and often unfavorable reviews. I am a 79yo woman, with a Masters Degree, retired business executive. I am not suffering symptoms of dementia, nor experiencing loss of mental capacity. Yet, I found setting this unit up quite challenging. The manual was so tiny on my phone that I retreated to my PC (what if I didn't have a PC?) and finally got the job done. Wasted 4 test strips testing the control solution. The first 2 readings were out of range, the third one barely in the required range for a cat. I gave up trying to set the date beyond the year, and didn't set the time. I have no plans to set up the app right now (have plenty of those for other things), although can see that the history on the device would be handy to share with my vet. I will do spot tests monthly on my 3 diabetic cats, and will report back my review of its actual performance while doing what it is intended to do (test cats' blood). It may be sooner, as one of my guy's regulation came unhinged when he was dx'd with heart disease, so he has been unstable. I honestly wish there had been another choice that was highly rated. I don't think the online manual data is organized well (took me forever to find the actual control solution procedure), and there are a lot of screen symbols and bits of info to process. Just making time for basic care of diabetics is challenging, much less having time to spend with the technology features built into it. I won't be surprised if I discard it after a few weeks, and try to find the next best alternative that is more user friendly. Obviously, price isn't a consideration. If it were, I wouldn't have bought this one in the first place. What was a consideration was my successful use of the AlphaTrak 2 for several years. I will write another review to append to this one in a month or so. Good luck to all who think "I got this" when they start to set it up. No doubt younger techies would have better luck, but I feel many diabetic cats are seniors, as are their parents, so something simple and straightforward would have been preferable. I am happy for the horses, but have to wonder what horse owners wouldn't want to purchase a separate meter for their animal, then have to spend time jockeying between the three species to test.

UPDATE: I may have figured it out. The AlphaTrak2 strips timed out quickly so I'd have to get the device to the ear right away. This one has to cycle through all these numbers and symbols on the screen before it is ready to accept the blood, which may have caused the errors I was getting. Little things like that make a lot of difference. I prefer lancing the ear and then getting the blood, without a delay, because the cat doesn't always like hanging around and sometimes flicks her ear which throws the blood dot. I have used the AlphaTrak 2 for a number of years with relatively few problems, AlphaTrak no longer makes the test strips for it, and every glucometer is proprietary-- no strips are interchangeable or generic. I set this up today and hate how hard it is to push the highly sophisticated strips with all their circuitry and electronics into the device and I got 3 error messages in a row... and it surely wasn't that there wasn't enough blood. It's not like I haven't been doing this for years. I have no intention of setting up the Bluetooth or any of that other unnecessary B.S. If I need to record readings before a vet visit, I'll write the numbers down. All I want is to test the blood, and then give the right amount of Vetsulin. I don't need the bells and whistles. I've ordered another, less expensive, less fancy device- Pet Control HQ and have every intention of returning this device as soon as the other arrives. I dread having to deal with it for the next 2 days. I was stupid to let brand loyalty guide me. This device is both too much, and not enough. KISS= Keep It Simple Stupid. I just want simple and reliable.

I recently set up my AlphaTrak 3 meter and began using it and so far so good! The “Quick User’s Guide” was helpful with initial device set-up, control testing, and Bluetooth set up. The app was easy to download onto my phone and pair with my meter as well. The tricky part, as others have suggested, is using the lancet and lancing device and getting a blood sample. It definitely took me a couple of tries on my first attempt to get a sample from my pet, but once I did my meter read the result quickly once I pushed the testing strip into the meter, waited for confirmation (the correct pet code to show and a beep) to apply the blood, and then let it read it. I’ve since gotten better with getting a blood sample, shining a light behind my pet’s ear and memorizing where I need to stick is very helpful before I place the lancing device. Having a cotton ball behind my pet’s ear before I lance seems to help too. Keeping my pet’s ear still has become more important than trapping their whole body and keeping that still as well (this seems to create more stress for the both of us). The only time I have received an error message was when not enough blood was available for the test strip; I haven’t received that message since. Level 6 has been working so far for me, though I may dial down on this setting as I continue to be more comfortable with the lancing device. I appreciate that the app has the ability to allow for blood glucose curve mapping, viewing of glucose trends, adding of miscellaneous activities (water intake, insulin type/dose/syringe/time given, feeding info, weight and exercise trending, urination tracking, and comments related to any seen illness(es)). I also like that it has a “Help” section which has multiple user guides, FAQs, resources, and a customer support number. Cons that I have heard regarding the AlphaTrak 3 are that the replacement test strips and lancets are expensive, so I’m not looking forward to that.

This kit has everything you need to get started.

Works as advertised

I have tried MULTIPLE times and it just won’t read. I do his paw because he has too much hair on his ears. It worked ONCE the first time I tried it, and ever since the lancing needle doesn’t draw enough blood for the strip to be able to detect. It has been beyond frustrating, causing me so much more anxiety. For the EXPENSIVE price of this thing…it should work better.