first prick

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beccalecca

beccalecca

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It took two of us (one to hold the cat and do the prick, and the other to put the paper thingy in the monitor and hold it up to the blood), but between us we managed to get a count for Star -- it reads 202. She's not on insulin yet, but we did switch her from dry to wet a little less than a week ago. Tomorrow we see the vet again and get insulin started.

Someday we'll figure out how to have just one of us run the show. Baby steps, right?
 
Getting that first drop is a big deal. Welcome to the Vampire Club! :RAHCAT :RAHCAT :RAHCAT

The kitty burrito helped us in the beginning. We put a towel down on the couch next to the arm. Then plopped the cat down and wrapped him up until only his head was showing. It was easy to keep him there because I could gently press him into the couch arm and he seemed to think he couldn't get out of the towel. That might help when there is only one person to do it.

Your 202 is not a high number. Regardless of the insulin type, you will want to start with a very low dose and keep track of her numbers.
 
Yep baby steps, but she is coming down nicely with just the diet change, add a little insulin to the mix and there is a pretty could chance she will go OTJ after awhile, at least we can always hope. :-D

One way that might work is to make her into a kitty burrito if you have only one to test. Wrap her in a large towel like a beach towel so only her head is showing. I also stick the strip in my meter about halfway, just enough to hold it but not turn on the meter, then once I have blood I push it the rest of the way in as I'm picking up the meter. You can also scrap the blood off onto the back of your fingernail and test it from there.

Mel, Maxwell and The Fur Gang.
 
Also, give her a low carb treat every time you test her, even if you are not successful. I realize this is the first time you tested, but try to make testing as less stressful for her as possible. If you do that and also reward her with a treat every time, she will soon associate getting tested with getting treats. Even when you are not testing, try to pet her and massage her head and ears every time you get a chance. Most cats love head scritches. :lol: This way she also gets used to you messing with her ears.

If you put the strip in the monitor just before you test, it will also make it easier. You usually have at least 1 minute from the time the strip is inserted to get the blood. Some meters are longer.
 
What blood glucose monitor are you using From your description is sounds like an old model like the OneTouch SureStep. That one uses a strip that sort of looks like blotter paper. Those take a lot of blood. The newer one take less than 1 ul of blood.
 
It's a Freestyle Lite. It's pretty fast, we just had two of us on hand and so used our people resources. :) The first time it took longer to get blood, but the second time, this morning, it was fast. I'm sure one of us could handle it by ourselves if we needed to now.
 
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