Just Bought Meter

Hi everyone,
I just bought a meter for my baby Eddie. I got the Relion Confirm and all the goodies to go with it. Eddie is currently on Glipizide (which is working very well for him) but I wanted the piece of mind of knowing what was wrong if I thought he did not feel well. I have not done my first test yet becuase I'm afraid to. I'm worried that the test will freak him out and he will run and hide and never come back out if I have the meter in my hand.
How did you guys get your babies to be ok with the testing? Eddie is already a very skittish cat.

I'm not the right person to respond, only because my cat was never too much of a problem as far as tests and shots. He didn't really mind the ear pokes. What he didn't appreciate was being restrained in any way. Once I got him settled, the test only took a few seconds.

Your cat wont hate you, run away and never come back :smile: The first couple of times, you might get a struggle. A lot of it has to do with Eddie not picking up on your anxiety and stress. Here's a couple of tips, and others will be able to tell you how they got "less cooperative" cats to cooperate

1 - practice first without testing. Is he a lap cat? Just experiment with rubbing his ears, all the while telling him in a soothing voice that he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Play up to his ego!
2 - if you are going to use the lancet device, the clicking noise might freak him out at first. See if you can get him used the that. Just pet him with one hand while "clicking" with the other, until the noise isn't going to startle him.
3 - Find and pick one or two good low-carb treats that Eddie loves (Bob's kryptonite was shrimp). That treat will be reserved just for "test time". Every test, whether you get blood or not, give him a treat. He'll associate the ritual with the treat. This might sound like B.S., but in time, Eddie will remind you when it is test time, because to him, it means "treat time". If I get the test kit out, and Bob hears the drawer open or the zipper on the case open, he will run straight to me, sit at my feet, and expect a treat. He's been OTJ for over a year, and gets one test a month if I remember to do it. It still works after all that time.

Others will give you their secret methods. This isn't going to be nearly as bad as you think, and it doesn't really hurt him. It's just something "different", and after a short time, this is something you will literally almost be able to do in your sleep.

Carl

hey there, fwiw i'm a long time board member but due to our crazy california life i'm not able to be on much anymore, just get to check in from time to time is all and happened to do so today. i see you are in placentia. i have a business just down the street in yl. if you find you need help getting in that first test, just yell and i can come help. it most likely would have to be at the end of the day after we close at 6 pm but any night of the week is good.

send me a pm if you want some help. do you know how to send pm's (private message)? if not, look to the bottom left of this post. see the little box that says "pm"? if so, click that and it will open a window wherein you can send me a message. it's like the board's version of email.

Thanks for the offer Cindy. I'm going to try the test at home first and if I cannot get it right, I'll let you know. Eddie is (emphasis) REALLY skittish and has a hard time with people that he does not know. So I'd rather not freak him out with a new person if I can avoid it. Eddie is a very low key, mellow cat and he has been through so much in the last 3 weeks. Poor guy has been to the vet more in these last three weeks then he has been his whole life added up.
I think I just need to build up the courage to do it and just do it. =)

oh i know how that is. most of my cats go into hide mode if anyone even pulls into our driveway. it's like a built in security system. some have gotten better about that over the years but some want absolutely nothing to do with anything new.

l

Hello Erin,

Carl has given you some really good pointers there.

I absolutely second Carl's advice to get the cat used to the sights and sounds of the testing kit, and getting him to associate them with positive happy-making things. And also to get him used to having his ears handled, maybe while grooming him and talking softly to him.

I was slow to start hometesting my cat. And he was on insulin so testing was really important. I was completely convinced that he was one of those that could never be tested. He's a big chap, and very strong, so if he doesn't want to do something we can't do it! But the folks at FDMB kept 'encouraging' me to try to do it. And it was just as well, because Bert turned out to be a tricky diabetic who needs quite a lot of testing (an average of 7 or 8 tests a day). My husband worked out recently that, over the five and a half years that Bert has been diabetic I've done over 17,000 tests.... It was just as well that Bert was a willing participant!

I aimed to make test times a treat-giving, head-scritching, cuddling time that 'just happened to have a test in them'. I never wanted to restrain him, not even for a moment.

This is how we did it: I started out by getting Bert to jump up onto a table, grooming him, and then getting the whole test kit out, clicking the lancet pen (away from him at first, but later next to his ear), rattling the test strip vial, and then giving him a treat. Then I'd do the whole sequence again, and include rubbing or holding his ears, and then give him a treat. We even did a couple of 'dummy tests' where I crumbled a few treats to keep Bertie occupied and then pressed the lancet pen (ear-pricking device) on his ear, and then gave him a cuddle and another treat. He'd got so used to it all that when we actually came to do a real test (and even with my hands shaking and my palms sweating) he didn't even notice that he'd been tested!!! You could have 'knocked me down with a feather'......

Now, I only need to rattle the test strip vial or click the lancet pen and he will come running.

Now our tests typically go like this:

I go into office. Bertie follows (if he isn't already ahead of me) and jumps up on desk. I make a fuss of him and then set up the test kit. I crumble a few no-carb treats and Bertie starts to gobble them up. I scratch his head, move my hands across to his ear, prick his ear, scratch his head, take the meter reading, scratch his head, press a little cotton wool on the test site, scratch his head. Then give him a cuddle and lots of praise. The entire test takes place while Bertie is eating the treats. If I'm feeling slow, or the meter is having a bad day, I just crumble a couple more treats to keep him occupied.

I can also test him if he's dozing in his basket just by scratching his head to soothe him, and talking to him softly, and he'll generally purr through the whole thing.

You and your cat will work this out together. It would be so useful to know what is going on with his BG's now. But if he goes onto insulin it could become crucially important.

When I learned to hometest the difference it made to my understanding of Bert's diabetes was phenomenal. It was as though I had been trying to find my way around an unfamiliar house in the pitch dark; and then someone switched on the lights... It was that profound...

Good luck. I know you can do this!

Hi Erin!

There are a couple things that I saw in your post that might complicate treatment for your cat, so I wanted to give you some information.

First, canned W/D is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat. The only prescription food that is appropriate for a diabetic is canned Purina DM. However, you don't need to feed a prescription diet. There is nothing special about prescription diets except the label--they are overpriced and have poor ingredients. Here's a link to the cat food nutrition chart: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf. You just need to pick a food that is under 10% carbs.

Second, Glipizide is not a recommended treatment for diabetic cats, and I would strongly urge you to stop the pills and get a script for insulin right away. Here's a link to the American Animal Hospital Association Diabetes Guidelines for you to print and bring to your vet: http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/AAHADiabetesGuidelines.pdf. Note p. 218, where it states:

Oral hypoglycemic drugs, combined with diet change, are only indicated if owner refuses insulin therapy or is considering euthanasia.These agents are not considered appropriate for long-term use.

Click to expand...

Glipizide does not work well in most cats (which is what I think you'll discover once you start home testing), and can end up causing permanent damage to the pancreas, which would mean your cat will still likely end up on insulin, but for the rest of its life instead of temporarily. On the other hand, 86% of newly diagnosed cats go into remission with the right insulin (Lantus or Levemir), a low carb canned diet, and dose adjustments via daily home blood glucose testing. Here's another article for you to bring to your vet that discusses this in more detail:


There is a window on remission, so the longer you wait, the harder it is to obtain. I would urge you to be proactive with his treatment because even though it seems scary at first, insulin therapy is easy once you get the hang of it. And it's the best thing for Eddie's health.

Eddie was only diagosed 2 and a half weeks ago. We are still working on what treatment is best. I read so much (online and from everyone here) and I think that insulin is best for him. His neuropathy is pretty bad and I want to get that helped as soon as I can. According to his tests, he seems to be responding well to the Glipizide.
9/08/12- BG 430
9/15/15- BG 337
9/22/12- BG 285
And these figures were from the vet so obviously they are a little higher due to the added stress. I am a bit reluctant about going to insulin (scared mostly) but I know it is a better treatment. Also, I have altered his diet a bit. He is currently getting Fancy Feast (90%) with a little W/D mixed in. I'm not going to buy it anymore, just using up the little bit that I still have left. After the W/D is gone, I'm only going to give him Fancy Feast or something of the like. We have removed all dry food as it's too high in carbs and he would not eat all the canned food he was given because he was not hungry enough after munching on dry food all day.
Thank you for the resources for more info on Glipizide. I will read through all of this, inform our vet and see what she has to say.