Hi and welcome.
I have 4 horses (mine mostly old now) and my partner has another 3 so I can understand your concerns about CGM. I have Libre and I love it. Libre is only authorized for use on the back of your upper arm and it is an area when sweaty, itchy horses like to scrub often before you get their bridle off. I invested in an elastic arm strap and it has been well worth while for protecting it. It is basically a 3D printed plastic watch face which fits perfectly around the Libre sensor and an adjustable elastic strap. They come in a variety of colours from natural skin tone to loud and proud neons and everything in between if you want to match an outfit etc. I got mine off ebay.
I use my Libre with a reader rather than a phone app. This means I have to scan rather than get the readings automatically sent to my phone but the reader is really small and simple to use and most importantly it doesn't suffer from software issues especially when there is an update to your phone operating system. I tried the phone app for a few months but was very happy to go back to the reader for overall reliability and ease of use for me. I imagine if you sit at a desk, having it on your phone may be better but for me, the reader is more basic, but I like that simplicity. I can also use the phone app at the same time but I generally only do so when I have had to leave the reader on charge and my reader generally goes a week between charges, whereas my phone needed charging every night and sometimes the signal would drop out even when it was charging overnight on the bedside table next to where I was sleeping. I scan approx 34 times a day and whilst I would not say I a obsessive I like to keep a close eye on things.
As regards which system will suit you best, it can come down to "body chemistry" and some people don't get good results with Libre but they do with Dexcom and vice versa.
Abbott do a free 2 week trial of the Libre, so perhaps it might be worth you applying direct to Abbott for the free trial and see how you get on with it before you decide which you want prescribing. You would not get a reader with the free trial and would have to use the phone app but it is compatible with a very broad range of phones. Then if you find you don't get on with it, you can opt for the Dexcom.
As regards pros and cons, you might do well to read the list of limitations that
@helli composed, which is in the link below...
Moderator Note: This helpful reply was copied from another thread as it details some of the commonly experienced limitations of continuous glucose sensors. My blood sugar has been in perfect range for days now, but although I haven't changed anything, I'm starting to get very short periods of...
forum.diabetes.org.uk
There are times when you will need to finger prick but I can go 14 days with maybe just 2 or 3 finger pricks sometimes and others I might need a few more, but much, much less than before I got Libre and the data it gives you is a game changer both in terms of managing your levels with less variation but also just mentally. I now treat it as a bit of a long running computer game rather than a health concern, where I try to keep my levels in range 3.9-10 as much as possible, using very small carb treats or insulin and just nudge my levels one way or the other to stay in range. I follow a low carb way of eating so I don't generally get large meal spikes and my levels tend to just wander up and down,
Anyway, now that I have covered that.... lets get to the important stuff!
Let's hear about your horses and what you do with them? I am just a pleasure rider and carriage driver, but my partner hunts in the winter and shows single, pairs and tandem at carriage driving with his lads. Do you have any photos?
