BG Testing from the Tail?

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Christine & KR

Christine & KR

Member Since 2012
Hello, everyone. My 19-year-old, Kitty Rabbit, was diagnosed almost a week ago. My vet is a firm believer in home testing, but taught me to use the tip of KR's tail (which the vet shaved first) as the test site. To make a long story short, it's not working well at all. After becoming incredibly frustrated and stressed (and making KR the same way), I started reading the posts here and on other sites and realized I've not found one site or post where the cat's getting tested from the tail. Has anyone ever heard of this?

This morning I tried doing an ear stick instead of a tail stick. It was partially successful: I got a decent size blood drop, but KR was so squirmy I couldn't grab the drop before she dislodged it. On the positive side, she didn't react when I pricked her. When I prick her tail there's an immediate "ouch, that hurts!" reaction every time.

Kitty Rabbit is a tiny cat. Most people think she's a kitten simply because she's so small. Most of her life she weighed about 8 pounds; we're down to 6 pounds now. Other than the diabetes she's healthy (and feisty!). She's also a long-hair dark cat, which makes seeing the vein in the ear a little challenging. I'm going to have to do ear sticks from the front simply because I can't see anything from the back.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated by two stressed-out newbies!
 
The only time I have heard of tail testing is with dogs...ears are much easier. Autumn is also a long haired dark kitty and so I know what you mean about testing on the furry side. So with Autumn I do what you are talking about I test on the inside of her ears about half the time...the other trick is to put a small bit of neosorin on the fur just a very thin coat it will help the blood bead up.

Next if she is really squirmy...you can turn her into a kitty burrito, just wrap her up in a big towel so only her head is showing and either gently squeeze her into the arm of a chair or couch or hold the bundle between your knees...and always remember the low carb treats when testing and it won't be long before she is not only not squirming when it is test time but will be waiting for you. Cats are smart, they figure out in a short amount of time, that a quick poke to the ear is worth it for a yummy snack.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
I've never heard of the poke!
If she is squirmy, scoop the blood on the back of a fingernail and use that with the test strip. That is what i do.

Plus, cats ears don't have as many nerve endings as, apparently, the tail does :lol: . They get into fights all the time, those alley cats, and ears get clawed up good. But step on a tail... I can hear the yowl across the yard :roll: !

It is great that you are home testing and taking it in stride.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one a bit surprised by what my vet directed!

I had a branstorm yesterday and bought a new bag of low-carb freeze-dried meat treats. The only time KR gets one of these is during/after testing. Between a yummy treat and the fact that the ear prick (or poke!) doesn't seem to hurt as much, this is starting to get just the slightest bit easier for both of us. I have to admit the glass of wine before testing last night might have helped, too. :)

Christine (and Kitty Rabbit)
 
Christine & KR said:
...bought a new bag of low-carb freeze-dried meat treats. The only time KR gets one of these is during/after testing. Between a yummy treat and the fact that the ear prick (or poke!) doesn't seem to hurt as much, this is starting to get just the slightest bit easier for both of us. I have to admit the glass of wine before testing last night might have helped, too. :)

Christine (and Kitty Rabbit)
Click to expand...

You're getting the hang of this testing malarky really fast, Christine. And yep, a glass of wine (purely medicinal of course :lol: ) can really help the process along sometimes... ;-)

PS. I love your cat's name. That is so cute!
 
To help make sure that the blood flows, make sure the ear is warm before poking. You can do this by massaging the ear or use the warming sock trick.

Take one sock, add 1/4 cup of regular rice, oatmeal or dried beans. Knot the top, put in microwave for about 15 seconds maybe longer (it needs to be warm to touch), then place behind ear and hold there to warm it up.

I also used it as a barrier to ensure that I didn't poke my fingers when testing.

Oh and I always tested Maui on the inside of the ear. and she has black ears so lighting was key.
 
Hillary,

How do you tell the difference between a fur line (black) and the vein (also black)? Do I need stronger glasses (or better lighting)? Maybe BJM's suggestion of a lighted magnifying glass? I didn't see one that attaches to glasses my first time through the site but I'm sure they're out there.

I have to admit that, although we're not always successful (my fault, not KR's) testing has become a lot less stressful since we switched to the ears. I followed someone's advice and set up a "testing station" in the one room of the house KR doesn't normally use. All my supplies are on an end table; KR gets to sit on the footstool. This evening she was actually kind enough to lie down once I set her on the stool! Sometimes she reacts to being pricked, but it's the equivalent of "ouch, that hurts" now instead of "OUCH! THAT HURTS!!!!" that she was giving with the tail testing. I'm finally willing to believe there's hope that we're going to master this...eventually!

Christine (and Kitty Rabbit)
 
I have always tested on the inside of J.D.'s ears. He has thick black fur on the outside and thin white fur on the inside.
It takes a while to get the hang of it, for all of us. What you want to do is give a treat every single time, whether you are successful in getting the blood bead, or not. Soon, your cat will come to you at testing time, at least most of them do. I'm glad your home testing Kitty Rabbit (what a good name :-D ). Please pass on to your vet how you home test, so that he can teach others to test using the ears.
I use neosporin pain relief cream, and I put it on J.D.'s ear when it gets sore or bruised, and then I switch to the other ear for 5 or so days. You will get better at this, both of you.
 
Christine & KR said:
Hillary,

How do you tell the difference between a fur line (black) and the vein (also black)? Do I need stronger glasses (or better lighting)? Maybe BJM's suggestion of a lighted magnifying glass? Christine (and Kitty Rabbit)
Click to expand...

My cat is black. So I never see the vein. Basically I aim just a little inside the outer edge of his ear (between the middle and the top of the ear). You may find that one ear bleeds more easily than the other too. I use a lancet pen (ear pricking device) and press it onto the testing spot, with one finger inside the ear pressing outwards to act as a 'resist', then 'click'. Some people just use the lancet itself without the lancet pen. You will find - with just a little practice - what works well for you and KR. If you see a tiny bead of blood but not enough for a test then massaging the ear below that point will help the blood to bead up. A teensy smidge of vaseline on the ear before testing can also help the blood to bead up. I used that quite a bit in the early days and...now I think of it...it did also help me to see the bead of blood more easily on Bert's black ears...

Your idea of a lighted magnifying glass may well help initially - if your cat will stay still. My cat doesn't stay still. He noshes on treats while I test and so moves around a little bit. My hands just move with him and follow his ear!

And as someone else here said, yes always give a treat even for a test that doesn't go well. Ideally, you want your cat to want to be tested. It will make your life SO much easier.
 
I am SO ready for KR to want to want to be tested (and we've only been doing this for a week now...). This morning I made the mistake of trying to test while she was definitely complaining about hunger. She chowed on treats while I worked (which was good), but managed to shake off the blood drop before I could grab it. By this point she was REALLY hungry and antsy, so I fed her instead of starting over. I tried again about 20 minutes later. Bad plan. This time she growled through the whole thing (the "I'm not happy" growl, not the "I'm going to bite you growl") and refused to touch the treats...and I STILL didn't get a successful test. We ended up smearing the blood drop. Again, I didn't want to make her more upset so I let her go (I offered treats but she literally turned up her nose and walked away). I'm half hoping my vet tells me to take another week to get the BG testing down before we actually start on insulin (when I can get a successful test, we're in the 390-420 range).

I thought I was imagining the fact that one ear was easier to work with. Thank you, Elizabeth, for telling me I'm not losing my mind (well, not as much as I think, anyway). I'm already using a bit of Neosporin, and I discovered this morning that placing the warm sock on the inside of her ear is a lot less annoying to her than trying to hold it on the outside. I'm trying to tell myself we're making baby steps to getting this down, but it's so incredibly frustrating right now.

Thank you, everyone, for giving me hope that KR & I are going to get the hang of this eventually....

Christine & Kitty Rabbit

P.S. KR got her name not because of her size, but because she went nuts when the wild rabbits were outside our house when she was young. She'd sit on the back of the couch looking out the window and chatter so loudly the rabbits would actually look up at her!
 
Hi Christine and KR,

I think with hometesting so much of the ongoing success of it depends on how you 'sell it' to your cat in the beginning. There needs to be something nice in it for them; treats, cuddles, soft reassuring talk... And then they can soon come to ignore the bit of it that they don't like so much... And I know you probably can't forsee this happening but I bet there will come a time when KR comes up to you and 'asks' to be tested!

You may like to see this recent thread for some hometesting tips:
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=79761&p=862033#p862033

I was a really reluctant hometester, Christine. Thought I could never do it. You're doing way better than I was doing at this stage of the game!
 
Christine

You CAN DO THIS!!!! You have something going for you with KR that I didn't have going into this whole home testing thing with 3 of my diabetics...You see KR already knows and loves you...I adopted Maxwell, Musette & Autumn as diabetics to keep them from being put down by their former owners. Because they were already on insulin by the time they came to me (well everyone but Autumn but that is a story for another day). I had to test almost the moment they walked in the door. So here is a cat that doesn't know me from Eve, that has been uprooted from everything he or she knows..in Maxwell & Musette's cases flown half-way across the country and arriving in a house with 13 other cats, one large drooler and a crazy lady with a sharp pokey thing wanting to stick them in the ear! :o

Now you would think after all that none of these cats would have anything to do with me..right? Wrong in fact Autumn is sitting here right now wondering what the hold up is on her test because it is lunchtime and she knows she only gets to eat after mom pokes her ear...10 minutes ago she was sleeping on the couch next to me purring her brains out. All 3 learned to not only be tested but to love their new family, sadly we lost Musette this past May but to anemia that was misdiagnoised at the ER vet not to diabetes. Maxwell will have been insulin free for 2 years on November 1st and Autumn just got here in late April and she has already gone from 1.5u of insulin to .25u so I have every hope that she too will go into remission as well but if that doesn't happen that's okay too, she is still my precious tortie girl even if she is a little extra sweet.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Thank you both for the words of support. You don't know (or maybe you do) how much it helps to know someone thinks we'll be able to do this eventually.

I discovered tonight that this morning's fiasco did a lot more harm to our progress than I first thought. I had decided earlier in the day it didn't matter when I got the next successful test; my goal now is to recondition Kitty Rabbit to enjoy testing. Good thing I'd made that decision because when I set her on the footstool with the treats this evening she ate just a few (rather than the entire pile, which is what she would have eaten yesterday at this time) and went to jump down. I'd been petting and praising her while she ate, so as soon as she made to go I let her. We'll go through that little drama again later tonight when she decides to wake up from her nap.

I created KR's spreadsheet tonight with the few values I've managed to get since her diagnosis. All that red is making me slightly panicky that we're not farther along in the testing. On the other hand, my vet and I missed each other today and I have strict instructions not to start the insulin until she tells me to do so. The earliest I can speak to her is Monday. I'm hoping I have at least one successful test by then so I have some ammunition to convince her that cats are not tested using the tail!

Thank you for all the support you're providing. It's absolutely priceless.

Christine (and Kitty Rabbit)
 
Christine....BREATHE!!!!!!! Okay now breathe again. Feel better?

Remember I said I adopted my sugarcats as sugarcat? Well Mz Autumn went 10+ months without any insulin at all before I adopted her....High bloodsugar does kill but it kills slowly...Low bloodsugar can be fatal very very quickly. Better to get a handle on diet and testing before adding the insulin if you can. A few days isn't going to matter a whole lot in the scheme of thing. There are two phrases that you are going to hear a lot around here....1) It is better too high for a day than too low for a moment..and 2) KR didn't become a diabetic overnight and he isn't going to be in remission or even regulated overnight either...this is a marathon, not a sprint.

You will also see that we call this a dance...and there is a reason for that...because that is what you and KR are going to be doing...but like learning any dance first you got to know 3 things..the steps to the dance, the music you are going to be dancing to and your dance partner. Right? Well KR is your dance partner...we can teach you the basic dance step..how to test, when to test, what those numbers mean, etc..but unfortunately only KR can hear the music you are dancing to. :lol: That is where the home testing comes in, it will show you the patterns that KR dances too so you can react to where she leads. But also just like dancing you are just going to have those days that it feels like you have two left feet and just aren't learning that step fast enough. Or your mind goes blank about the next step...it happens. Heck some of those of us that have been around awhile will have one of Those Days...lol. But and here is the best part....you've found us! :-D

When ever in doubt about something, whenever something just isn't working the way it should and just to have a good old fashioned meltdown...All you have to do is jump on here and ask for help...There is almost always someone around that can either answer that question, give you tips and points on how to make a step easier, or just be a cybershoulder to cry on. Because everyone here...has been right where you are now, scared, confused and wanting our baby better NOW! We will hold your hand and KR's paw the whole time. From the moment you first post here you are family....and we will fret and worry over KR and you now as if you were part of our family and we will cheer your successes.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Mel,

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. The meltdown was last night; I cried so much my eyes are still swollen 24 hours later. At least I feel better now. :) I know KR's happier today, too; she's more her normal self than she was yesterday.

I chuckled at the though of dancing with Kitty Rabbit. If ever there's an animal who dances to her own tune.... Now I have to try to hear the music? Argh! I was joking with people at work Friday that this testing thing was going to drive me to drink, and you just confirmed it. ;-)

We managed a successful test tonight. I nearly jumped for joy: 183! Then I realized I was holding the meter upside down; it was actually reading 381. I laughed, KR growled (she was still in my lap waiting for me to let go of her ear), and I decided we're on the path to figuring out this dance even if it feels like between us there's six left feet.

Christine (and Kitty Rabbit)
 
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