Diabetic Koala at the San Diego Zoo Gets Help from the Latest in CGM

Quincy, a diabetic koala at the San Diego Zoo, is rocking a wearable new technology these days that may make his life—and maybe even other animals lives—much easier. Turns out that humans aren’t the only ones that suffer from diabetes. Many mammals also get it. To manage diabetes, patients must monitor their blood glucose closely. Sometimes this means finger sticks multiple times a day to get correct readings and to make sure that insulin doses are accurate. In humans, this is unpleasant. But for animals, it’s worse because of course they don’t understand being disturbed frequently for painful pokes in the toes. So, to minimize the sticks, and better monitor his glucose levels, the San Diego Zoo and Dexcom recently teamed up to give Quincy the company’s latest offering, the G6 continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The monitor does not require confirmatory finger sticks or calibration, which were required in previous generations of the device. It is approved to let the patient (or caregiver in Quincy’s case) make treatment decisions based solely on the readings on their screens. Now, Quincy “only occasionally needs to have toe sticks to check on his blood glucose, mostly during the time between [changing the] monitors,” said Cora Singleton, DVM, senior veterinarian, San Diego Zoo, in an interview with MD+DI. The sensor ca...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Business Source Type: news