12/30 Ruby calipers save the day PMPS 81/+2 77/+3 77

Katherine&Ruby

Katherine&Ruby

Member Since 2020
Yesterday ended with a little pajama party that ended at a reasonable hour with no evidence of carb hangover. It was "polite". :p

Shocked this morning though to see how badly my syringe was printed. I measured out the dose with the calipers to the syringe on the left and then flipped the needle around to check it up against the lines and it was at least .25 units, maybe even .5 units out of wack. Could not believe me eyes until I compared it to another syringe (right). If I had drawn that to the .5 unit dose for Ruby, I would definitely have low numbers (or worse!) on my hands.

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Sending warm healing light to all of the sick kitties and hugs to you beans who love them so. Have a delightful day, everyone.
 

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Nice surfing Ruby! And yes once you see the differences on syringes you can't unsee them! I just turn mine over to the side with no lines now.

Have a wonderful day, Katherine!
 
Hi @PerfumedCatMom!

I am glad you caught the misprinting!

I think I recognize you syringe as a BD microfine demi? If so, I was wondering if I coud ask from where to where do you meassure with calipers? I have been trying to use calipers and use the BD's, but it has this outer ring at the top is giving me trouble....
 
Hercule's mum said:
Hi @PerfumedCatMom!I think I recognize you syringe as a BD microfine demi? If so, I was wondering if I coud ask from where to where do you meassure with calipers? I have been trying to use calipers and use the BD's, but it has this outer ring at the top is giving me trouble....
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OMG, the outer ring on the BDs is the bane of caliper measurements! I just started using calipers because Ruby is sensitive to reductions below .5 units and I wanted to be able to shave her doses, but these BD syringes made it so hard for me to learn. I would not even bother with it if I didn't have 150 of them still to go through. There are other syringes like Carepoint that are cheaper than the BDs and don't have the lip, but these were the ones prescribed to me by the internist who treated Ruby's DKA and initial diabetes diagnosis so I ordered a lot of them before thinking about using calipers.

I've been using the little arms on the flip side of the calipers to measure under the syringe lip. I have a head-mounted magnifier used by jewelers to help me see the tiny edges of the arms to get them lined up to the top plastic bit where the plunger stops and the top of the plunger itself. It's taking me an extra 5-10 minutes each time to dose but this morning's experience taught me that it's worth the effort.

See the photos I've attached for you below. Thankfully this syringe had the lines well-lined up to where the dose should be. Hope you find them helpful @Hercule's mum !

1. Syringe measured by little arms:
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2. Measuring unlined side of the syringe with little arms (did these photos quickly, not very accurately lined up!):
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3. Measuring the syringe using little arms with the lines showing:
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@PerfumedCatMom you are the best! Thank you! First, to assure me I wasn't crazy (I also take 10 minutes and am still unsure...but everyone else makes it sound so simple)! Second for helping me figure out how to do it! I have 300+ syringes in the cupboard....
 
Hercule's mum said:
@PerfumedCatMom you are the best! Thank you! First, to assure me I wasn't crazy (I also take 10 minutes and am still unsure...but everyone else makes it sound so simple)! Second for helping me figure out how to do it! I have 300+ syringes in the cupboard....
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Everyone DOES make it seem easy! But between the lip on the syringe and being able to see those tiny arms, using the BD syringes makes for a challenge for caliper dosing. Getting the proper strong magnifier that has a light attached helps me so much because my eyes are getting old and I have trouble seeing up close, especially before my morning coffee! I also find the plungers on the BDs don't move very smoothly so I've had to spend time adding insulin to the syringe after inadvertently pushing out too much. It's been a real learning experience, but I've learned so much about using calipers from so many in this forum, especially @Butters & Lyla , @JaxBenji and @Wendy&Neko. I was feeling tons of angst about it until they helped me to take the plunge, so to speak!
 
Once you get used to calipers you become lost without them for exactly what your syringe pictures confirm. For a human those differences aren’t a problem. For a cat it can mean low numbers or a hypo.
 
Adrienne & Molly said:
I couldn't get use to the calipers. I stopped using them maybe I should try again
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I had to be convinced! I bought the calipers months ago and played with them a bit before giving up. They were too fiddly, it took too long, I couldn't see, etc. etc. Then Ruby was getting low numbers on .5, and when I went to .25 she stayed up in the blues a lot, so I had to figure out how to dose .375 units, which is not easy to eyeball using the lines. Having a bright lightbox and the right magnifying gear really helps. I also upgraded to a more expensive caliper ($30 version versus $15) that seems more stable going between hundredths of a mm and will lock in a measurement well.
 
So if you don't mind me asking another question....are you meassuring from under the ring or the "zero" line? I was thinking I couldn't trust the zero line, or is that one more trustable?

and is there a syringe that is better to use for caliper meassuring?
 
Hercule's mum said:
So if you don't mind me asking another question....are you meassuring from under the ring or the "zero" line? I was thinking I couldn't trust the zero line, or is that one more trustable?

and is there a syringe that is better to use for caliper meassuring?
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I am measuring from under the ring (or the place where the plunger can go no further) as the zero line is not trustworthy as you can see from the syringe on the left in the first photo in my thread today.

It looks like you are in Europe, @Hercule's mum? I'm not sure what is available to you, but Monoject, Sure Comfort, and Carepoint are brands I know of that have half unit markings and do not have the lip to get in the way of the caliper arms.
 
It is so nice to see Ruby doing well! I gave up on my calipers, it wasn't as important for us, so I just do it old-school, like in the old days before calipers were invented :p, I compare the new syringe with one I like as my "reference syringe" which has coloured dye in it.

Sadly that's quality control for you. I guess since humans take much more insulin than cats, fussing about what would be "small" variances is allowable. I've had syringes that I swear had no lubricant in them, I can barely move the syringe up and down so I end up tossing it.

Happy New Year :cat:
 
Hercule's mum said:
I was thinking I couldn't trust the zero line, or is that one more trustable?
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The "zero" line is absolutely untrustworthy. For quite a while, on a particularly badly marked box of syringes, Neko's dose was under the zero line. :eek: I figured it was about 0.5 units under there.

If you invest in calipers for use with BD'sm it's essential to get those small arms as skinny as possible. Sort of like these ones, though those aren't the ones I have. You want ones with the ability to lock in the measurements.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
If you invest in calipers for use with BD'sm it's essential to get those small arms as skinny as possible. Sort of like these ones, though those aren't the ones I have. You want ones with the ability to lock in the measurements.
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Is it me or would measuring any doses under .25 be impossible on BDs even with the small arms of the caliper? I have two different calipers and the arms don’t line up properly on either pair when the measurement gets very small, ie .1 units. I might have to change syringes when the time comes for smaller doses.
 
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