Recommended Glucose Monitor - Toronto, CAN | Feline Diabetes Message Board (2025)

Do you have a Walmart or Walgreens pharmacy in

Do you have Walmart.com online purchase? you can purchase a ReliOn Premier monitor for less than $15.00 and the strips online are $9.00 for 50 strips or $17.99 for 100
I use it and is very accurate quite a lot of members use it. There's also a Foundation that has been helping me with syringes, and strips called D.C.I.N. you might want to give them a hale,<please, no personal emails on posts>. For DCIN, go to their websitel, you might be able to get assistance at least on supplies and prescribed medications, my Corky could have not made without this Foundation or this Forum, Best to you and your beautiful Tabi

Hi Corky's mom I have a Walmart but I'm in Canada and I don't think they sell ReliOn here. The pharmacy down the street sells 100 strips for $120 + taxes which is close to $140 for 100 strips and they'll give me a free Accu-Chek monitor...I can buy it, but it's seems a bit of a pricey device to choose for monitoring. I'm not sure if the Foundation could help me as I'm in Toronto, Canada, thank you for the info though! Best to you as well and your cutie Corky!

Relion meters are not sold in Canada.

What you want is a meter whose strips are reasonably priced and need just a small drop of blood. We have other Canadian members who have used the AccuChec or the Contour. The Freestyle Lite needs the smallest drop of blood. And sometimes comes with a free meter if you buy 100 strips. In BC, the 100 pack of the Freestyle Lite strips is currently $74.99 at one store and meter is $39.99. So the total cost is less than the "deal" you were offered. The most important thing is getting cheaper test strips cause you'll go through lots of those. You also want to easily be able to get more test strips if you are running out.

There are a couple of cheaper on line options, though buying on line means you have to buy more in advance so you don't run out. The Bravo meter and test strips is $31.49 at Diabetes Express (click on the blue to get the link). Bravo test strips are only sold on line. Diabetes Express also has a buy 100 Freestyle Lite strips deal ($79.83) and get a meter for free deal on now. Or a free meter when you buy 100 Contour Next strips ($79.98). You could get one of those deals now and buy more test strips later at a local pharmacy.

Another options some people have chosen is to buy test strips on Ebay - you can sometimes get good deals there.

Some people in Ontario buy at Shoppers Drug Mart with points. I don't in BC because our Shoppers prices are higher than elsewhere and the points just brings the prices down to everyone else's price.

Suzanne does not live in Canada. I do. lives in Ontario, (not Toronto) so may have some local knowledge about best pharmacies to buy meters.

DCIN does help some people in Canada. Tagging who is involved with them.

You may contact DCIN and fill out our application by going to our website. We have two programs, one for people who just need help with the "getting started" expenses and another, our Compassionate Assistance Program, for people who qualify as low income.

I encourage you to apply ASAP.

The Bravo is the most affordable meter in Canada. The big problem is that they are only available online. I usually suggest buying 400 strips (meter is free) and when you open your last box, it's time to order again so if there are shipping delays, you have enough to get through until they get there.

We have a lot of members who use the Freestyle meter and pay about $75/100 strips. If you qualify for the CAP, we will try to help with the expense of the strips.

I'm out of the loop when it comes to cost these days. I haven't had a diabetic cat in a long time.
If memory serves me correctly, one of the Canadian case managers for DCIN lives just north of the 6ix.

The Bravo requires a large drop of blood (0.6).

And in the future, if you have a senior handy (parent/friend/neighbour), you can take advantage of senior's day at Shoppers - 20% off regular priced merch.
Waving from the Kawarthas.

Just a bit of correction here. DCIN is not a "foundation". Using that word generally causes people to think we're a huge organization with lots of support. That couldn't be further from the truth. We are a registered charity that depends on donations to survive and right now, we are barely keeping our heads above water. We are over $10,000 in the red and may have to shut down the CAP program to new applicants soon since we can't keep operating on a deficit.

We wish!! That would be great!

Thank you! We try! We absolutely hate having to turn anybody away. We consider every cat we help as we would if it were one of our own.