My kitty doesn't seem to be getting better.

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I'm not really sure how to use the glucose pen thing to test Fluffer. I tried using just the lancet before and I couldn't get it in his ear enough to draw blood. I tried his paw and he wasn't happy about that so I gave up. I tried using the device on a piece of paper set both high and low and it didn't make a hole. Is that because you have to press it into the skin so a tiny bit of skin goes into the hole? I didn't want to test it out on my finger since needles like that kind of stress me out. I don't know, maybe I'll try it tomorrow. I think it said it's 30 gauge. Is that the wrong size for cats?
 
I use 26 gauge lancets on Smoky. I tried the 30-33 inch but they were too thin to pierce the skin. It's a holiday so board might not be as busy today. I'm fairly new myself and other more experienced members should be on soon to help you.
Hope this helps.:bighug:
 
Try freehanding with just the lancet. Make sure the bevelled edge of the lancet is facing you (twist it around under a good light to see the bevel).

Smear a very thin film of Vaseline or neosporin over the test site.

Warm the ear really well.

Put a 1" strip of kitchen paper around your index finger then place it under the edge of the ear.

Curl the ear around your index finger.

Hold the edge of the ear a little taut with your thumb and middle finger and prick with the lancet at a 45 degree angle.

Hope some of these tips work for you.


Mogs
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I cant help with blood testing as I'm really rubbish at it - but I do know that when Sky has been in front of the fire toasting herself she is much easier to get blood out of then when I try at other times.
 
Don't bother with the Lancet device... But do get a thicker lancet. 28 gauge works for me... But in the beginning I would often have to poke 2 or three times in the same spot to get a drop. Even this morning I had to double poke because her ear was too cold and I didn't warm it up enough.
 
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Hi--

Just repeating what others have said: the 30 gauge may be a bit too small when you are first starting out with the ears-- if you can, try to pick up some 28 or bigger (smaller number) lancets. Later on, after repeated pokes have stimulated additional capillary growth, the thinner lancets work fine, so don't throw out the ones you have!

It does take a while for the ear pokes to work reliably. Just be patient and keep at it. Don't forget to give treats and pets after every attempt, whether or not it is successful-- the whole process gets a lot easier with a willing patient!
 
Yeah, I'll order some of the 28s later today. Fluffer's a really docile cat. So was his mommy and so is his sister. I give them lots of attention and never ever yell at them for anything and they're super relaxed because of it. I hate the idea of pricking my kitties for blood, but here's a question: when I give him his shots of glucose, couldn't I just use one of those needles to draw a teeny bit of blood? It's much easier to use those. I mean I don't like that idea much either as it involves sticking him more often but I know I can get those needles in no problem.
 
No, I meant with a clean needle, not injecting, using it just to draw. I guess I'll just keep trying with the lancets. At his next vet appointment I'll ask the vet to show me how to do it. I watched the youtube videos, but they haven't helped me thus far.
 
I don't know whether this will help but when I first started to home test I was really nervous about warming Saoirse's ears and it was really tricky getting a blood sample. When I had exhausted all other possibilities I tried warming her ear more, and for a lot longer. The difference it made to getting a blood sample was like night and day! I actually couldn't get over just how long I needed to warm the ear to be able to draw samples reliably; it felt like forever!

As I continued to test and more capillaries formed at the test sites it became much easier to get a sample with the first poke (and somewhat less time ear warming!).

It can be harder to warm the ear enough in the cold months of the year.


Mogs
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I saw a meter for pets on Amazon. it's called Advocate, I think, it wa highly rated and compares with the AlphaTrack. It costs about $20 for the starter kit and the same for the strips. It uses the same number system as the Vet uses I ordered one to keep for a spare. I did a test with both meters using the same drop of blood the result was just a few points differences I‘ve mentioned this before, but no one seems interested. It is accurate, inexpensive and uses the numbers that vets understand. What more could you want? Do you want it to do a dance act?
 
I use a relion meter but I have an AT2 as a spare to do occasional curves. I was thinking about buying an Advocate meter to use as a spare once my FS light strips run out. Thanks for the info on it.
 
The brand doesn't really matter to me. Just the cost of everything and the reviews. The one I got has great reviews, was a good price and has a really low price for supplies. All I have to do now is figure out how to get a sample.
 
As a new member initially having problems with testing here is what I have found that makes the difference between a good test and a fumbling mess.
1. I get all my supplies out and easy to reach also a second strip handy should the meter read error.
2. I have 1/4 filled a sock with rice per the suggestion and warm it for 40 seconds in the micro wave. Very important.
3. I have found the 'right' place for us
4. I wrap her up in a thick towel and give her lots of love. Very important.
5 . I place a cotton ball in her ear and use my finger to support it whilst finding a good spot using light to see the cappillaries.
6. Prick, test.
7. When finished give a little piece of dried meat cat treat.

After a week of staying with the same routine fern is now purring instead of fighting and or biting me! Big relief......and it does get easier......good luck.
 
Can Fluffer miss one shot? I'm supposed to go to Vermont Monday and come back Tuesday. I can give him his morning shot before we go and come back 24 hours later but getting him the evening shot is the issue.
 
acsmith1972 said:
Can Fluffer miss one shot? I'm supposed to go to Vermont Monday and come back Tuesday. I can give him his morning shot before we go and come back 24 hours later but getting him the evening shot is the issue.
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I've had to do that on one or two occasions. He should be OK. If you have a fur shot he misses a dose so it's no different.
 
What's a fur shot? Anyway, I'm making an appointment with the vet Monday on the way to Vermont for some time during the week after we get back. My wife really wants to go to VT because her mom and sis are here from Peru. They haven't seen each other in 3 years and they want to go see snow....it just snowed 8 inches here today. I don't want to go, especially since I drive for a living but I'll never hear the end of it if I don't. Fluffer has Luna to take care of him, that's his sister. I might ask my sister if she can stop by and give him his evening shot, but you know how some families are, they don't like helping out. Oh, another thing: I know he drinks lots of water because of all of this but is water bad for him because of this? I just got a second automatic water bowl (looks like a toilet, made by Drinkwell) and put it in my room with food up here, too. He goes down a lot for water so I figured this would be better and my other cat Luna loves it.
 
11933475_10153769402124180_2004769892597101612_n.jpg
That's Luna
 
acsmith1972 said:
What's a fur shot? Anyway, I'm making an appointment with the vet Monday on the way to Vermont for some time during the week after we get back. My wife really wants to go to VT because her mom and sis are here from Peru. They haven't seen each other in 3 years and they want to go see snow....it just snowed 8 inches here today. I don't want to go, especially since I drive for a living but I'll never hear the end of it if I don't. Fluffer has Luna to take care of him, that's his sister. I might ask my sister if she can stop by and give him his evening shot, but you know how some families are, they don't like helping out. Oh, another thing: I know he drinks lots of water because of all of this but is water bad for him because of this? I just got a second automatic water bowl (looks like a toilet, made by Drinkwell) and put it in my room with food up here, too. He goes down a lot for water so I figured this would be better and my other cat Luna loves it.
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A fur shot is happens when you think you put the syringe needle into the skin fold properly but actually haven't so you end up accidentally injecting the insulin into the fur. The fur is wet of course and also smells of insulin - a strong "Band-aid" odour is the way some people describe it.

There's no problem letting him drink water whenever he wants. The thirstiness will be reduced as BG numbers come down.
 
I brought Fluffer to the local vet we normally use. He switched him from Vetsulin to Prozinc. He said it's a better insulin for cats. He charges the rate he gets it for without marking it up, so it was $85 for the bottle. Seems reasonable since the stuff seems to last forever. I found a mail order company for syringes. $15 for 100. I had to give them the vet's name and all. I had no idea you need a script for syringes. That seems silly. You can buy a machete without a prescription...anyway, go those. Right now he's on one unit of this stuff. I was supposed to do the curve when we switched but I just spent $1200 on vet stuff in the last month so I'm tapped. The vet said a curve would be ideal but we can start low and do the fructose test next week to see where he's at. He said we'll likely have to go up in units. He also gave me a nice list of all the wet foods and things like the carb count, protein, etc. He said ideally all wet food. Having two cats and both of us working twelve hours a day six days a week a feeding schedule is really hard so we have to stick to free feeding them. He kind of implied having some dry food out isn't the worst, but they should really be on wet food. And obviously monitor reactions between a high protein diet and insulin.

The other thing the other vet noticed was Fluffer has several bad teeth. I was just petting him and scratched his chin and he yowled. I've never heard him do that before so obviously something hurts bad. Wt food would probably help with that, too. I have some wet food, and I give it to them twice a day but he still sits in front of the crunchies bowl, too. I'm not sure how he chews hard stuff. I've had a few of my own teeth pulled. Years of neglect, smoking, coffee, lots of junk food. It's weird, I was such a healthy kid. Anyway, eating with an abcess hurts so I feel really guilty about that. I'm going to talk to this vet about that.

Does anyone know if it's safe for older cats to be put under to do extractions? I'm really scared about that procedure for him. Aside from my wife my cats are my best friends. I don't want him to be in pain, but I also don't want anything bad to happen getting it fixed. Also, if he's having teeth removed will he still be able to eat? They other vet said he needs three out.
 
Your best source of advice about anesthesia and dental work on a diabetic cat is your vet. There are many people here who get dental work done on their diabetic cats so it's definitely possible. There are also toothless cats here who manage to eat wet food.

ProZinc is generally gentler in its action than Vetsulin and you vet is starting your cat off at a good low dose. He's given you good advice as well about feeding wet food. It should be low carb - eg. Fancy Feast or Friskies pate (no gravy or sauce types). Kudos to him for giving you the insulin at a very good price!

Would you be willing to set up the spreadsheet we use here? We'd all be able to see it and it would allow us to give advice much more easily as you start going down the ProZinc road.
 
I paid to have a frutosamine test done and all that does is give you a view of his BG levels over the past several weeks. I home test my kitty so I already knew what his BG levels were. My vet basically told me since I am home testing I don't really need to have one done. That's a great price on prozinc, I pay $125 to $130 for a vial of it.
You're right though about it lasting a while. I've had mine for almost 10 weeks now and still have about 85-90 % left yet. Of course, Smoky has been on fairly low doses of it so far.
 
I have to take Fluffer back to the vet for the curve asap. I still can't get the thing to prick his ear no matter how many times I try and I'm sure it's pissing him off when I do. Better to have the vet check than not get it done. Aside from the Diabetes if I read the report from the other place I posted the right way Fluffer seems to be mostly okay. I know he has dental issues, which I'll address when I see the vet. I'm hoping I can drop him off Thursday or Friday. I work 12 hours a day every day but Sunday when I work 6 hours so vet visits are hard to do. I can get out early or go in late if I need to, though, so that's good. I just weighed Fluffer and he's down to 12.4 pounds. For a cat that was 24 pounds it's quite a shock having such a skinny cat. I mean my other cat Luna is 10 pounds but she's always been tiny. Worst timing ever, but I have an abscessed tooth that's three quarters fallen out and I need to get that taken care of myself. I still have some Vicodin from last year's visit, but I'm really trying not to use it unless I need to. I really don't like taking pills other than antibiotics for something like this. Anyway, Fluffer has also started pooping outside the litter box. I'm not sure why. I did change the litter to the pine fluff stuff a few weeks ago but it hasn't been a problem till now. I love the stuff. I can't smell anything and it's super easy to scoop. But since Fluffer maybe hates it I think I'll get a second litter box with regular litter and see if that helps. I'll do the spreadsheet thing once I figure out how to test Fluffer at home. The vet said he'll show me how to do it when I bring Fluffer next.
 
You can also free hand the ear prick. You just hold the lancet and poke vs using the auto-poker contraption. You can poke his paw pad too. 24 pound cat! WOW. So he's half the weight he use to be! I feed my cat extra to try to get him to gain weight. He has gained a bit but due to the extra food he needs a higher dose of insulin. He gets 5-6 units twice a day! $85 for a vial of prozinc is an excellent price! My vet sells it for $110 now. First bottle I bought was $140! They usually do blood work to see how his body will do with anesthesia. At least that is the norm in my area.
 
You have 28 gauge lancets? Poking the sweet spot? Put a pad behind the ear and in one determined poke, just go through it until you feel it touch the pad. Then pinch on either side of the poke spot and massage a drop out.
 

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Ear pricking does get easier and it is much easier if the ear is really really warm.

I still struggle with Sky sometimes but she puts up with me as she knows that immediately after the test she gets food.
 
I'll try again tonight. here's a question: can I use the needle to draw blood from the spot I give Fluffer his injections to test his glucose?
 
After I gave fluffer his shot about half an hour ago. He just started walking sideways, lifting his leg and bumping into stuff. I gave him some kitty treats then some honey and am trying to get him to drink water. This is the first time he ate BEFORE his shot. Could that be it? Should I head to the emergency vet?
 
acsmith1972 said:
After I gave fluffer his shot about half an hour ago. He just started walking sideways, lifting his leg and bumping into stuff. I gave him some kitty treats then some honey and am trying to get him to drink water. This is the first time he ate BEFORE his shot. Could that be it? Should I head to the emergency vet?
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Seems like a hypoglycemic event. Test and see the numbers. Do you have high carb food you can give?
 
Get that test with determination...... It could be serious, and if you can't, emergency vet
 
I wound up having to not only save Fluffer but stop my wife from freaking out. It's cool, though, she was expressing how I was feeling inside. She called her mom in Peru who's a doctor who recommended honey. I put honey on my finger and fed it to Fluffer, mostly against his will, but the more honey I gave him the better he seemed to feel. He also ate a bunch of kitty cat treats. Probably not the best idea, but I'm guessing they also have sugars or whatever he needed to some extent. About 15 minutes after the initial signs he was walking fine again. I was scared because at first it looked like he was stroking out. He was lifting his back leg up in the air like he was trying to climb some giant invisible step. Then his front leg. I flew upstairs and got dressed and was ready to go when my wife's om said try honey. I thought I was about to lose my best friend. He has an appointment 8am Friday for the curve so I'll bring it up then. I want to completely cut out the dry food, too, but i want to double check with the vet with the dosage if it's okay to do that. Both cats love the dry food more than anything.
 
acsmith1972 said:
I wound up having to not only save Fluffer but stop my wife from freaking out. It's cool, though, she was expressing how I was feeling inside. She called her mom in Peru who's a doctor who recommended honey. I put honey on my finger and fed it to Fluffer, mostly against his will, but the more honey I gave him the better he seemed to feel. He also ate a bunch of kitty cat treats. Probably not the best idea, but I'm guessing they also have sugars or whatever he needed to some extent. About 15 minutes after the initial signs he was walking fine again. I was scared because at first it looked like he was stroking out. He was lifting his back leg up in the air like he was trying to climb some giant invisible step. Then his front leg. I flew upstairs and got dressed and was ready to go when my wife's om said try honey. I thought I was about to lose my best friend. He has an appointment 8am Friday for the curve so I'll bring it up then. I want to completely cut out the dry food, too, but i want to double check with the vet with the dosage if it's okay to do that. Both cats love the dry food more than anything.
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So glad he's ok. Please follow this link to our section on hypo. Read and print it out. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/


And this is a handy list of things you need to stock just in case.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/jojo-and-bunnys-hypo-tool-box.2354/

This hypoglycemic event calls for an immediate reduction in dose!!! Do not give the same dose or you risk another hypo. Know that for the next 1-3 days the numbers may be elevated because of a bounce.... It's the body's way of protecting itself.
 
I was just watching tv with him and he had another episode. I don't know what to do. I can't get him to the vet today, we have a big snowstorm. He has an appointment Friday at 8 am but how do i manage this till then? Now I'm wondering if this happened every day on the new medicine. I usually give it to him before work so I'm not here right after that. The vet said this insulin is better than the other one he was on but maybe not?
 
acsmith1972 said:
I was just watching tv with him and he had another episode. I don't know what to do. I can't get him to the vet today, we have a big snowstorm. He has an appointment Friday at 8 am but how do i manage this till then? Now I'm wondering if this happened every day on the new medicine. I usually give it to him before work so I'm not here right after that. The vet said this insulin is better than the other one he was on but maybe not?
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Did you give the same as yesterday? How much vetsulin is this? How long ago was the shot? Do honey, give high carb food. Wet food hots the system faster than dry, but do hc dry if that's what you have.
 
Have you gotten a test done? Knowing his number would help. Keep offering food. They can go higher from honey then go back down after a bit.
 
JanetNJ said:
Did you give the same as yesterday? What insulin is this? Do honey, give high carb food. Wet food hots the system faster than dry, but do hc dry if that's what you have.
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He was on the Vetsulin, but now he's on the Prozinc. I just read the possible side effects of Prozinc and it's kind of scary. I just assumed that they always work like they do when people have this issue. Now I'm afraid to sleep.
 
You are going to want to get a test and then keep getting bg in him and test every 15-20 min
 
StephG said:
Have you gotten a test done? Knowing his number would help. Keep offering food. They can go higher from honey then go back down after a bit.
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He's ignoring all his food. He doesn't want wet or dry, he's even refusing kitty cat treats. I'm gonna see if he'll eat one of those licky things. The pouches with the pieces of meat in the sauce. I think it's Fancy Feast.
 
JanetNJ said:
You are going to want to get a test and then keep getting bg in him and test every 15-20 min
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I haven't been able to test him once yet. I still can't get the thing to prick his ear. I'm wondering if his ears don't have any blood in them. Warm or cold nothing happens. I tried his paw pad and that didn't work, eitther. Maybe the lancet is the wrong size. I think they're number 30.
 
acsmith1972 said:
He's ignoring all his food. He doesn't want wet or dry, he's even refusing kitty cat treats. I'm gonna see if he'll eat one of those licky things. The pouches with the pieces of meat in the sauce. I think it's Fancy Feast.
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Good idea. If nothing else keep putting honey on the gums.
 
acsmith1972 said:
I haven't been able to test him once yet. I still can't get the thing to prick his ear. I'm wondering if his ears don't have any blood in them. Warm or cold nothing happens. I tried his paw pad and that didn't work, eitther. Maybe the lancet is the wrong size. I think they're number 30.
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Yes that's the problem. Size 28 or 26 is bigger and will work easier. Listen, don't use the device.... Hold it in your fingers. Put a cotton pad or tissue behind the ear and just POKE THROUGH THE EAR ON THE EDGE until you feel it touch the tissue. Do this with determination as you are trying to help him here.
 
Did you give a reduced dose? How much compared to last night?

What time?

Which insulin. This is important so we know how much longer until he reaches the lowest point.
 
JanetNJ said:
Did you give a reduced dose? How much compared to last night?

What time?

Which insulin. This is important so we know how much longer until he reaches the lowest point.
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The Prozinc. He gets 1 unit twice a day. I'll try the ear thing in a few hours. I'm so tired I can barely type. I still haven't gone to bed, been watching him all night.
 
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