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allycat97

allycat97

Member Since 2022
Hello everyone, my name is Ally. My cat McGee, 10 years old (male), was diagnosed with diabetes on May 27th. It has been quite the adjustment. He originally lived with my Mom, but she travels for work a lot, so he now lives with me. Since he needs to be administered insulin daily in the morning and at night, I decided to take over his care. He seems to be doing okay so far. I have a decent amount of experience with cats (cats of my own and volunteered at a shelter), but no experience with cats that have special needs. I am trying to learn as much as I possibly can so that I can help McGee and make sure he is thriving with this new diagnosis. I welcome any and all advice. The only issue I have been having is with the lancet and glucometer. I cannot get my cat to bleed! I am dying to get a reading on his glucose and really master the art of pricking him. If anyone has any tips and tricks, please let me know. I am very grateful for this community as McGee and I navigate this situation and get his diabetes under control. Thank you!
 
Hi Ally and McGee and welcome to the forum.
What size lancets are you using? Size 26 or 28 are the best to start off with. Also are you warming the ear first with some rice in a sock? Warm it in the microwave but make sure it is not too hot for the ear. Then try 'milking the ear towards the tip.
Shine a torch behind the ear so you can see the vein that runs around the outside of the ear. You want to aim for between the edge of the ear and the vein. You don't want to hit the vein. I will post a picture below for you.
Can you tell us a bit about McGee......what insulin and dose are you giving? weight? what are you feeding him? any other health issues? What type of meter you are using?
I am going to give you a link to HELP US HELP YOU which has the link to the hypo kit, the signature where you can put all the info about McGee into it and it will appear at the bottom of all your posts so we can read about McGee and won't have to keep asking you questions
Once you have those set up we can help you with dosing and getting McGee into better numbers
 
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Hello! I was using a size 30 lancet but will be switching to either a 26 or 28. I was not warming the ear beforehand, but I definitely will be from now on. I wonder why my vet did not tell me to do that in the first place. He is getting two units of insulin twice a day (12 hours apart). I am feeding him the Meow Mix Tender Favorites wet food. What do you mean by meter?
 
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up
A video one of our members posted
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I don't know what flavors of the Meow Mix Tender Favorites you are feeding they could be too high in carbs. I will give you the link to our food chart and you can see if what you are feeding is listed
We try to stay with 6% carbs and under
Most of us feed Fancy Feast Classic Pate or Friskies,
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. He has had the Fancy Feast Classic Pate before and enjoyed it, so I am going to switch back to that.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
You're welcome, if you can try and start testing that would be great ,do you have any tests you did that you can enter
Click to expand...
I just got him home to where I currently live last night. I tried then but could not get any blood. I am absolutely going to try again today when I get home from work with the correct size lancet and warm up his ear. I hope that will give me a reading.
 
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