It worked! 26g lancet device success story

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Mocha's_mom

Mocha's_mom

Member Since 2021
Just wanted to repost this to a new thread. @Judy & Fritz recommended this lancing device. I bought one on Amazon and it came yesterday. My husband used it this morning on Mocha with great success! Previously my husband had been "piercing" Mocha's ears (aka going all the way through his ear when free handing the lancet), leaving a blood trail on the floor as evidence :facepalm:
But this little device worked perfectly! I didn't realize that the box of 100 is actually 100 individual lancing devices. Just twist the tiny blue piece off the top and press it against the ear. A small amount of pressure & boom! A good drop of blood! Next time I think we'll try to get a little closer to the edge of the ear (I think my hubby hit the vein). But either way Mocha didn't even flinch or blink an eye. Success!


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The drama for newbies isn't the shot, it's getting the sample. No one told me about lancing devices and I never looked, mistake one. The second was if I could have found 40 gauge lances I would have tried those too. I was looking for "painless" and started with 32, the hole was just too small and by the third or fourth poke the meter had shut itself off. It's a lot less painless to just have one go with a 26 gauge than repeatedly poke with a 32 and get no blood.
Sometimes they are little people with fur ;). No one likes pain.
 
So far the 26g doesn't seem to cause anymore pain than the 28g ones I was using. And I get a lot more blood each time which is very helpful. I always feel bad poking more than once
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
The drama for newbies isn't the shot, it's getting the sample. No one told me about lancing devices and I never looked, mistake one. The second was if I could have found 40 gauge lances I would have tried those too. I was looking for "painless" and started with 32, the hole was just too small and by the third or fourth poke the meter had shut itself off. It's a lot less painless to just have one go with a 26 gauge than repeatedly poke with a 32 and get no blood.
Sometimes they are little people with fur ;). No one likes pain.
Click to expand...
Does the needle come out of the big side or the skinny blue top part? The issue for me is the side that touches the ear is always too big and hard to aim.
I’m trying to find something as small as the top blue part that’s sticking out so I can see exactly where the needle is going. My cat flinches too much.
If you twist off the blue part and use the white part on the ear, that seems like it would be a bit of guess too. Right? Am I making sense? Sorry I don’t know how to explain it
 
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Lauren & Red said:
Does the needle come out of the big side or the skinny blue top part? The issue for me is the side that touches the ear is always too big and hard to aim.
I’m trying to find something as small as the top blue part that’s sticking out so I can see exactly where the needle is going. My cat flinches too much.
If you twist off the blue part and use the white part on the ear, that seems like it would be a bit of guess too. Right? Am I making sense? Sorry I don’t know how to explain it
Click to expand...
It definitely is sort of a guess at first. Mocha did ok the first few times I did it but now he's getting more fussy. The needle comes out where the white part is. You'll see an arrow on the yellow part that points in the direction of the lancet. So it's definitely not an exact science. If you line up the white part to the very edge of the ear or even if it's half on and half off the ear (but more on) then that works too. You'll get the very edge of the ear. It does take a fair amount of pressure to get the device to work. I think Mocha is getting more fussy because I have to press pretty hard to get it to work. I will admit that sometimes it doesn't work because he'll flinch before I've applied enough pressure. And definitely keep a cotton ball behind the ear so that if he flinches as you are applying pressure you'll lance the cotton ball and not your finger.
I'm finding that the lancing device is better for my husband and I'm better at free handing it. My husband uses entirely too much pressure when free handing it and goes all the way through his ear almost every time. We now have 2 trails of blood on one of Mocha's blankets from my husband pressing too hard. (It bleeds A LOT when you poke all the way through). So the device limits him and prevents him from going all the way through. I'm much more gentle and have never done that. Sometimes I'm too gentle and need to do it twice to get blood. Either way (lancet device or free hand) I've found that 26g is absolutely the way to go. I started with 28g and now use only 26g. Doesn't seem to hurt him any more and I'm much more successful on the first try.
 
I am really good at going all the way through or not enough of a stick to get blood. Read the post from Judy & Fritz, mine are on the way. Tigger flinches and wiggles some, most the time I pin him between my elbowr and body on the countertop. Using a cork behind his ear now, seems to hold the ear flatter, it wraps around the cork. I'll update when the arrive. Thanks for the review.
 
Pattylynne and Tigger said:
I am really good at going all the way through or not enough of a stick to get blood. Read the post from Judy & Fritz, mine are on the way. Tigger flinches and wiggles some, most the time I pin him between my elbowr and body on the countertop. Using a cork behind his ear now, seems to hold the ear flatter, it wraps around the cork. I'll update when the arrive. Thanks for the review.
Click to expand...
Never thought about a cork! I think that would work much better with this lancing device. The cotton ball doesn't seem to have enough of a stable hard surface for the pressure needed to activate the device. I feel like I'm pressing down too hard and that bothers him more than the actual lancet. Having a stable (somewhat hard) surface to lay the ear on would probably make it easier.
 
Ahhh this is a life saver, thank you! Nico hates the testing part, and yes I'm horrible for going all the way thru his ear. :(. Poor buddy tries to get away from me every time now. I was on the verge for asking advice, and voila! This forum has again beat me to it. :bighug:
 
Lauren & Red said:
Does the needle come out of the big side or the skinny blue top part? The issue for me is the side that touches the ear is always too big and hard to aim.
I’m trying to find something as small as the top blue part that’s sticking out so I can see exactly where the needle is going. My cat flinches too much.
If you twist off the blue part and use the white part on the ear, that seems like it would be a bit of guess too. Right? Am I making sense? Sorry I don’t know how to explain it
Click to expand...
Lauren, hi! The blue part is twisted off, leaving the little white circle with a hole in the middle. The needle itself is down in that hole. You will never see the needle. Yes, there is some guesswork, but for me, it was successful from the beginning. I just put the edge of the white circle overlapping the edge of the ear, not quite half of the white circle is over the edge of the ear. It works like a charm for us, I’m able to do a lot more testing and though the blood drops are smaller than what I was getting with the 26 and 28 gauge lancets, they are plenty large enough for my ReliOn Prime meter and strips. Fritz no longer struggles, flinches or yelps. When yours arrive, test one out on a piece of paper, that’s what I did and it helped me to know exactly where to place it on my boy’s ear. Crossing my fingers they help you!
 
Mocha's_mom said:
Never thought about a cork! I think that would work much better with this lancing device. The cotton ball doesn't seem to have enough of a stable hard surface for the pressure needed to activate the device. I feel like I'm pressing down too hard and that bothers him more than the actual lancet. Having a stable (somewhat hard) surface to lay the ear on would probably make it easier.
Click to expand...
Plus the curve of the cork seems like it will help.
 
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