Did I make her ears to sore?

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totallybeachin

totallybeachin

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I have been diligently testing my Callie Mae over the the last couple of days. Tried to get a +9 reading since I just switched her from 9U to 1U, and I want to keep a good eye on her. Before I learned the warming trick, I had to sometimes prick her ear 6-9 times to get a good drop. Was told to try the warming method and first stick, BAM, nice big drop of blood. Second time, BAM, same thing. that was last night. This morning, had a little trouble but finally success. But only from one ear. This afternoon, had to stick a couple times again, but finally, nice big drop. Now, warmed her up, she let out her little "mew" that she uses when she's talking to me to let me know she was bothered. So, I switched ears, warmed it up got the little mew a couple times as well as ear flinching. I gave up. Have I pricked her ears to much? I don't want her to associate this testing as a bad thing, but what can I do. She is generally a good girl all around. If I told her sit there and deal with it, she will. She's that sweet, but I don't want to cause her pain. :YMSIGH:

Oh, I forgot to add, she's not eating. I tried warming it up, adding a little parmesean, even added a teaspoon of real tuna. She looks at it, then up to me, meows and then sniffs her old bowl that had her dry in it. She finished what was left from last night earlier today, which wasn't much. Maybe 10-12 pieces if that.
Should I make her suffer through giving me some blood so I can check her or just wait until pmps? She hasn't even eaten 1/4 of a can of wet and only that little bit of dry.
 
She needs to eat. I would crumble up some of the dry and "dress" the top of the wet to make it more interesting. Or you can hide some pieces of the dry in the wet. Did you try the catnip on it? Sometimes an abrupt change from dry to wet is too much. I would cut her some slack; you do not want a new diabetic not to eat. You can work on getting her completely on wet once you get a handle on the insulin needs.

There is also a product called FortiFlora that sometimes helps with reluctant eaters:

Fortiflora per Dr Lisa
Try a product called FortiFlora. Most cats LOVE FortiFlora and this has recently become my favorite trick. This is a probiotic made by Purina but you are not going to use it for its probiotic properties. You are just going to use it as a flavor enhancer. The base ingredient in FortiFlora is animal digest - the very substance that makes dry food so very enticing to cats. The directions say to use 1 package/day - and you can use this much if you want to - but this amount is not usually necessary. You may only need ~1/4 of a package - or less - with part mixed into the food and part sprinkled on top of the food just as you would use salt and pepper on your own food.

You can buy it on line or sometimes from the vet.

You can put a very light smear of the Neosporin with pain relief on her ear before you poke. That helps the blood bead up and deadens the ear a little. Be sure to hold the ear after you poke to minimize brusing and give a treat, successful test or not. You want her to be willing to put up with a tiny prick because she knows there will be treats. And tell yourself that you are literally saving her life with each poke. A little pain is much better than a deadly hypo.
 
Warm ears are happy ears, and once they get the knack of bleediing it's easier and less stressful for both of you.
I resort to catnip as an enticement on food or fine shredded cheese. I think mixing in some dry with some crumbled on top is probably a good start too.
Love the neosporin with pain relief as an idea. I'm allergic , so never looked in that area. I did try orajel but couldn't get ingredients list to see if sugar in some form was in it, so tended to put it under the ear where I was going to poke.
HUGS to you both.
 
Dear Angela, and, of course, you too, sweet Callie Mae,

Darling girl, please promise me that if it ever takes 6-9 pokes again that you'll do two things, okay? 1. Let Callie Mae go after giving her a couple of treats for a good try. 2. Give yourself a couple of treats for a good try. 3. Tell me you changed the lancet before your collective time outs... Okay, that's technically three things...

And, then, when you've both collected your respective breaths, you can try again with a fresh lancet. Nikki requires kind of Ferrari-like testing speed. I have a very limited window before being nipped on a good day or bitten on a bad day. Sometimes I have to poke twice very quickly in basically the same spot. Okay, rarely do I have to poke three times; but, it has happened. If three pokes are required, my right hand (I'm left-handed) immediately goes into the lancet box and pulls out a fresh one. (I free hand lancets by the way...) It's amazing how quickly your non-dominant hand can work efficiently when you're holding a cat between your legs, a capped syringe filled with insulin in your mouth (Nik's a free feeder so I always know foods on board...), and your meter is timing down... I actually believe home testing a cat could become an Olympic sport!

Just remember, a fresh lancet is much kind to Callie Mae's ears... And, yes, she sounds like a really sweetie!



On to my main concern here because I know you'll get the whole home testing tempo/temperament down...

totallybeachin said:
Oh, I forgot to add, she's not eating.
Click to expand...

I want you to know, Angela, I started reading your 9 units to 1 unit PZI journey before responding here. Got as far as 6 units before coming back to this post...

Giz, who taught me volumes about dancing with a sugar cat and was definitely and easily in the top three of picky FDMB eaters of all time (and that's probably being humble...), taught me diabetic, insulin-dependent cats need to eat. Period. While Giz wouldn't even be in the same room with W/D, the only cat food she'd actually eat was DM (canned briefly, and dry for four years). Cats. Sheesh... Sugar cats... Double sheesh... Giz? Exponentially sheesh!

I'm therefore, going to humbly suggest you feed Callie Mae whatever she wants to eat for now. You can start to transition her diet slowly when things settle down for you both. You just make sure she eats now, okay? And you keep home testing, okay? That way, you'll know how to shoot around her diet until you can change it. That way, you'll also be armed with knowledge when Callie Mae is ready to change it...

I sincerely hope I'm not out of line here...

Love and big hugs,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, who taught me to be her food-bowl/saucer advocate...
 
Definitely get some neosporin to put on her ears after. that will help with the soreness.

I had to teach Maui to eat wet food and had to coax my others to eat only wet, I counted the kibbles I put on top and reduced by one each day. I also crumbled it on top of the wet to encourage eating wet. You may have to give her some dry to help coax her into learning that wet food is really food.

Also, get her some diabetic friendly dry crunchy treats that you could put on top of the food - and by this I mean - freeze dried chicken or beef

http://www.kingwholesale.com/Shopping/i ... fm?id=5994

http://wholesalesupplementstore.com/liv ... reats.html

You can find the halo at local pet stores as well as Vitamin Shop. The other brand or something similar may be available at Petco or Petsmart - look in the dog section. You can also get Halo from their website and if you sign up for the newsletter, they will send you coupons.

If you have an Asian market near you, you can check their freeze dried section for stuff - mainly there it would be fish products.

The point is whatever you can find with crunch, make sure it is 100% meat only and you should be good to feed.

My girls go nuts over the purebites and when I used Halo - they would eat their wet food with that sprinkled generously on top.
 
Thanks guys, for all your responses. Kinda slipped off for a nap. This is stressful!
I did manage to get a good sample for her pmps, but she let me know she wasn't very happy about having to sit there. :sad:
I tried putting a little crunchy on top of the wet.
I tried giving her a different flavor.
She wasn't having it. I know she has to eat, so I gave her some dry.
Not a whole lot, she never eats much at a time anyway. Just a little handful. That's all she wanted. She ate it and is laying in front of the screen door now, slowly wagging the tip of her tail. I still have the wet out. Both flavors. Maybe she will pick at it some later.
Man, last night when I gave her some with supper you would have thought she was at the lobster buffet! She gobbled it up. Then today, nothing. Humphhh, and all this time I thought she wasn't a picky eater.
Guess she showed me. :lol:
 
You just have to find the right brand and flavor. Baby(GA) would walk over and sniff and if it wasn't the right flavor, she would walk to the glass door and sit down looking out towards the hallway with her back to me. I learned quickly....get something else, MOM! I don't want that flavor right now.
 
Well that just goes to prove she is still a cat afterall...lol.

I so know that look with 11 it has been a balancing act from day one, some days you would think they had just stumbled in on a lobster buffet, other days...same flavors, same brand and they give that "Oh mom this again?" look. But the other advantage of having the hairy herd is that they eventually learned that if they wanted to eat they better to it quickly or one of their housemates will. I've been pretty lucky with my bunch they actaully perfer the lower priced Friskies over things like Fancy Feast or Wellness, and my diabetic isn't picky at all. The funniest cat here is our newest family member Lady Jane Grey, when her previous owners kicked her out in minus 22 degrees below weather and moved leaving her behind, she was only use to dry food. When we first switched her over to canned she would sniff it and walk away with a look of "You can't possible want me to eat THAT!" now I take her bowl in to her and she dances all the way to the feeding spot she is so tickled to get her canned food. So it can be done you just have to convince them that it really is tastier than the dry junkfood.

Mel, Max and The Fur Gang
 
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