Okay, now he's MAD!

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Djamila

Djamila

Member Since 2015
So this is a long message. If you're in a hurry, you can skip to the italicized question towards the end :-)

Samir has been getting his ear pricked for the first time today so I can have some information when I go to the vet on Tuesday to get his insulin. Honestly, his numbers so far haven't been all that awful. They do seem to be getting a little higher though. He was hungry a bit early, so I just gave him some food.

Sam was not socialized as a kitten. Instead he lived on the streets as far as anyone can tell. By the time he was picked up, the vet guessed he was about two years old, he was under-nourished, mean, hadn't been fixed, and had a BB pellet in his butt. He tends to sit on windowsills and yowl in the middle of the night, so it's not hard to figure out why someone might have taken a shot at him ;-)

Anyway, all that to say, humans aren't really his thing even when all I'm doing is giving him treats and love and catnip toys. He will occasionally let me scratch under his chin, and he likes to come up and crash his head into me, but he's not much of a snuggle-and-love kind of kitty. Now that I've held him down and poked his ear four times, he's getting mad. Just a minute ago he walked up to me and just bit my leg. Not totally unfair since I've been extracting blood from him all day, but still -- OUCH!

So I'm thinking maybe I don't really need to do this every single hour. My question is, if he just ate, when would be a "must-do" time to take his next BG test? How long after eating is he likely to spike? I know that all cats are different, so I'm just looking for a ball park on this. And if I really do have to keep at this every hour, you can tell me that too. I'm just afraid I'm going to make him revert to this lean mean wild cat ways if I make him too mad.

And yes, he's been getting his favorite freeze-dried salmon treats as a reward to each BG test. Apparently not enough to make him forgive me though.
 
Hi Djamila! I'm super-new to this, so don't have much advice to give but I feel for you! We've had the toughest time trying to get enough blood to test out of our little guy and I still feel awful everytime I have to prick his tiny ears.
 
There's no reason at all you have to get tests every hour, especially since he's not on insulin yet

Just get a test in the morning, one mid-morning, evening and "before bed"....that's more than enough right now
 
Chris & China - THANK YOU! Sometimes there is nothing better than to find out you've been doing it wrong! I'm so glad to hear that! And Sam will be glad to be left alone!

Melly - Thanks for the empathy! Thankfully Sam pretty much always has warm ears and isn't too hard to get -- but whoever said they barely feel it knows some magic trick I haven't discovered yet! Hang in there -- everything I read here says it gets better...
 
Most cats are just touchy about having their ears fooled with...there aren't many pain receptors in the edges of the ears, but cats are notorious for just not wanting anybody touching their ears.

Any time you have a chance, give his ears a rub and reward him with a treat...hopefully he'll learn to stop paying attention to what you're doing with his ears
 
Testing (when on insulin):
1) Always test before giving insulin to make sure it is safe.
For now, your no shot level is 200 mg/dL on a human glucometer (230 for pet-specific); this will lower as you collect data around the middle of the cycle to know how low he is going.

2) Mid-cycle tests between shots - whenever possible, test around the nadir (lowest glucose level between shots) for your insulin, to see how low he's going. For Lantus, this often falls between +5 to +7 hours after the shot. Some folks do this on weekends or set a clock for the middle of the night to get this test done as it helps determine dose adjustments. This number should be at or above 50 mg/dL on a human glucometer (68 mg/dL for pet-specific).

3) A before bed test is helpful in determining if you need to break out some higher carb food and steer the glucose level or go to bed with some peace of mind. Steering means giving 1-2 teaspoons of high carb gravy, waiting 30 minutes, and re-testing (repeating as needed) to make sure the glucose stays above 50 mg/dL.
 
A pheromone collar, or spray or Rescue Remedy may help to calm him. I had to use a pheromone on Squeak. For the first month he was fine getting his insulin going into the second month he got hissy/growly about it. Third month he would purr. That's how well the products and repetition of the process, either injections or testing, conditions them.
 
I used a spray with lavender oil in it and sprayed it on the towel I put my cat on for testing and insulin shots. I sprayed it about 15 minutes before testing time. I think it made both of us feel better. :)
 
Thanks everyone!

BJM said:
200 mg/dL on a human glucometer (230 for pet-specific);
Click to expand...

BJM- Can you explain a little about the difference in numbers? When people are talking about BG on this forum, are they usually giving the numbers they read on the meter, or the converted numbers? Is there a thread I can read about how to do the conversion? I searched but didn't find it. Thanks!
 
We report the actual numbers we get and put the meter in our signature, so that the interpretation will be correct. There's no need to convert the numbers.

See also the Secondary Monitoring Tools in my signature link for additional ways to monitor your cat's health.
 
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