Help with getting enough blood for a sample

Status
Not open for further replies.
GraceAndAngie

GraceAndAngie

Member Since 2013
Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get in touch with some other Australians on the forum to find out what blood glucose meters you use, what food you give your cats, and any other local advice that you have. I've been reading a lot but most of the advice is North American and I feel a bit lost.

My cat Angie (16 years old) was diagnosed with diabetes last year. The vet put her on Hills m/d dry food and insulin. It took quite a while for her to stabilise and she was in and out of the vet to have glucose curves taken. She's now on 1 unit of insulin morning and night. When she was diagnosed I asked if I could monitor her blood glucose from home and unfortunately our vet said that it wasn't possible. Angie is fed up with the vet and my once well behaved kitty is now "fractious" (as the vet put it) and she won't let them do glucose curves properly. Also, I've spent close to $2000 on vet stays, emergency hospital visits, expensive food, insulin and medication and can't afford much more.

Over the last few weeks I have been reading a lot on the internet. I particularly like the info on http://www.catinfo.org/. I'd like to start testing Angie's blood sugar and then transition both my cats onto better food. Angie is not a fussy eater so that shouldn't be so hard. I feel a bit scared changing her food with out the support of a vet so I want to make sure I get used to doing blood glucose readings and get a good understanding of what her levels look like before I attempt it. My other cat, Jetzin, doesn't have diabetes.

If there are any other Australians on the board, could you tell me which blood glucose meters you use and what you feed your cats?



Thanks,
Grace
 

Attachments

  • Ang.jpg
    Ang.jpg
    17.5 KB · Views: 873
Re: Angie - diabetes in Sydney, Australia

I am in Canada but I believe you can get the bayer contour meters in Australia which I use.

Fancy feast pâtés are low carb in both the US and Canada although some flavours are different. Many people feed those on this forum. You could contact Purina and ask if they are in Australia too.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Thanks for the tip Wendy!

Fancy Feast is in Australia. It only comes in little tins though and it's a bit expensive. Jetzin (non-diabetic cat) is huge and a big eater - I'd go through 5 tins a day for the two of them. Jetzin isn't fat by the way just naturally 5.9 kg and very long and muscly! If Fancy Feast is the best ready-made option, it's better than feeding Angie food that's keeping her sick. Jetzin also had bladder crystals a few years ago so it seems very beneficial to both of them.

I've had my own health issues at the same time and I've ended up having to quit my job. I'm running out of savings and can't keep spending money on Angie the way I have been. I really want to do the right thing by her though. I'm really scared to end up with her sick and me not be able to pay for her.

I am interested in making my own food - it seems lower cost, if I can get the cats eating it happily. I've found this recipe http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood by Dr Lisa Pierson. I can't find a source of ground rabbit or chicken with bones in Sydney and was a bit scared to purchase a grinder without knowing if the cats will eat food with ground bones in it. They are always very excited to get raw meat snacks so I don't think that would be hard to transition them to - but it needs to be balanced.

I am so relieved to find this site. I've been worried about Ang and not really sure how to help her.

Grace
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

I had a go at raw food for my 3 cats - I wanted my hyper-T cat to get more protein to help with his muscle wasting.
But, I had the same concern that they may not like it.

I bought a pre-mix http://tcfeline.com/ - just partly cook turkey thighs, take off the meat (a bit time consuming but there you go...) blend or cube it and mix in the pre-mix.
I don't think you can buy this one in Australia but you might find something similar.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Thanks Denise. I can't find anything like that available in Australia. Because our population is much smaller and more spread out there are just a lot of things that are not available here - the market is too small.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

you do not want to feed the Australian version of fancy feast if u look on the label u will note cereal as an ingredient - u want to avoid cereal - who ever thought it was a good idea to put cereal in a carnivores food anyway! suitable food is whiskas LLOAF VARIETIES ONLY, natures gift, ultimates (except for the one with rice), the premium woolworths select and ziwi peak (this ones expensive but probably the most appropriate canned food for cats in existence). you want to avoid giving fish varieties more than a couple of times a week.

I don't think you can get the bayer meters here. I use the freeystyle excel which also can test for ketones. found it to b a great meter. DO NOT GET the freeystyle lite. there is a problem with it reading lower in higher numbers which can cause u all sorts of heartache - dka in vyktors case.

good luck with the testing I think u will find angie much happier about that than vet curves! I felt sick the first time I tried it but we both got used to it in no time.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Hi Vyktor's Mum,

Thanks for your help. I'll try out those different cat food brands. That's a great start!

I ended up buying the Optium Xceed blood glucose meter. It uses the same test strips as the FreeStyle Optium so hopefully it is just as good. It also does keytone tests. I couldn't find the FreeStyle one so I had to make a guess. The pharmacist was very helpful anyway.

I'll be doing our first blood glucose reading tonight and I'm a bit scared. I got used to giving her insulin injections though so I'm hoping that we'll manage this too. Reading about everyone else who has managed it helps with the panic feeling!
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Hi Grace & welcome!

You can get Ziwipeak in Australia. It's a kiwi brand & not hugely cheap, but a little goes a long way. The tinned stuff is less than 5% carbs, but the air-dried food is suspiciously carb rich. My two can't get enough of the tinned stuff. Unfortunately for us humans, it stinks to high heaven! ohmygod_smile
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

GraceAndAngie said:
I ended up buying the Optium Xceed!
Click to expand...

oops that's the one I meant not excel! it's made by the freeystyle people and they were supposed to be rebranding all their meters under that banner so I thought they would have done it by now - maybe they realised that wasn't such a good idea given the problems with the freeystyle lite!

good luck tonight don't get stressed if it doesn't happen it doesn't always happen the first time. do stop and try again later if u start getting stressed or angie will feed off your stress and get concerned too and especially don't forget her treat for after so she starts thinking testing is a good thing - and a treat for u too!
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

We did it! :-D

Angie was very relaxed an sat on my lap purring the whole time. I was a ball of stress and needed my partner as a support person. It took so many pricks to get her to actually bleed. But she wasn't fussed at all. Her pre dinner blood sugar level was 10.2 mmol/L. That's slightly lower than the vet was seeing - she was getting 12 to 13 the last few times we've seen her.

Thanks for all your help!

Vyktors Mum said:
oops that's the one I meant not excel!
Click to expand...

I have some calibration questions on the Xceed (you'd think they'd just spell it properly and then it wouldn't be so confusing). The instruction booklet said to calibrate it for each new packet of test strips using the included calibration strip. I didn't get one in the box though. Do you calibrate it? Do you normally get a calibration strip in the box? Does the reading mean anything if I didn't calibrate it?
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

you used to have to calibrate with each new box but they changed the strips so you don't have to do it anymore. it may mention something about that in the paperwork with the strips.

I'm so glad everything went so well for you sometimes it is that easy. I was lucky with vyktor like that too. you will want to look at getting a spreadsheet for angie to record her results now. I'm posting from my phone so can't get the link for u but if you look through the tech forum u will find the instructions in there. u want the world version. u enter on the world page and it automatically enters the US equivalent in another page - u won't find many people here who understand the aus numbers. the spreadsheet is stored in Google docs so once it's set up correctly your vet (perhaps a new vet!) will also be able to access it. my new vet (the original thought vyktor was too old to bother treating!) loved the spreadsheet.

what type of insulin ru using ?
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Vyktors Mum said:
you used to have to calibrate with each new box but they changed the strips so you don't have to do it anymore. it may mention something about that in the paperwork with the strips...

what type of insulin ru using ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reassurance. We're using Lantus. I've got the spreadsheet and have managed to work most of it out. Do you put anything in to record a failed attempt?

I wasn't able to get a big enough sample for the three readings I've tried so far today. I pricked her 8 times for each one and each prick got a tiny speck but they clotted too quickly and didn't bleed any more. That was using the deepest setting. After 8 I thought she deserved her chicken piece and left it at that so that she doesn't get cranky about it.

I finally realised that the pen was faulty (not just my technique) so I've gone back to the chemist and swapped it. With the new pen I get a big enough droplet (on me) using setting 1 each time. I'm hoping that it will work next time for Ang. I've been a ball of stress over this for days. Angie has been a stary. She is by far the calmest of the two of us and, although she pulls away sometimes, she has sat in my lap purring through each attempt.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

We couldn't do it again. :sad:

I got two drops of blood from her - one I put onto the test strip too soon and it didn't fill. The other she pulled away and wiped it before I could get at it. I really hope this gets easier! The new pen works though at least. No wonder I had such a hard time this morning.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

I hate posting from the phone I just wrote you a huge message and it all disappeared - mumble grumble. going to try again with an abbreviated version.

lantus is great - the only good insulin available in aus

check out the lantus support group forums where the lantus experts hang out - with the help of the forum the only thing diabetes related you'll need from the vet is the insulin prescription- tight regulation is the busiest and that program has the highest success rate with remissions - 85% for cats that start following it within 6 months of diagnosis

you can make a note in the comments column to say you've had a miss.

ur doing really well I expect you'll be over your stress about it within a week and an expert in no time! angie will b so much happier having ear tests at home than vet curves
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

if you've only got the pen on one you probably will need to turn it up and if you're not doing so rubbing the ear before u stick it helps gets the blood flowing. don't be down on yourself afterall u did manage to get one on your first try with a faulty pen - that's over impressive! also it does get easier, before u know it you'll b able to do it in your sleep
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Vyktors Mum said:
if you're not doing so rubbing the ear before u stick it helps gets the blood flowing
Click to expand...

I'm doing foot tests not ear tests. I've been reading some University of Queensland studies and they are saying that feet are easier to get the hang of. They have method slide show here: http://www.uq.edu.au/ccah/ppt/homemngmntslides.pdf

Do you know if others do foot tests? Angie enjoys me playing with her feet but doesn't really like her ears being held so I thought I would try feet. I can be braver and switch to ears if it works better though. I will try rubbing her little pad first though next time - I was using her wrist pads.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

I have heard of a couple of people that do foot tests. some questions have been raised about whether that might increase the risk of infection since they walk on them but I have never heard anything definitively bad about doing it that way. the important thing is to get the tests and if feet is what works for u both then do it that way.

in case u think about changing to ears it would be a good idea to start rubbing her eas when u think about it so she gets used to her ears being touched. vyktor didn't like his ears being touched but I spent a few days before we started testing rubbing the outer edge of his ears and telling him how good he was everytime I thought about it - I'm sure u understand how that was a lot! - he got used to it in no time.
 
I can't get enough blood to test!

I'm really struggling with testing. If anyone has any advice, I would be very grateful. (I really appreciate all the advice I have received so far!)

Poor Angie! I keep jabbing her but she just won't bleed enough. I've rubbed the area before testing. I keep using the same spot (although I'm worried about giving her a sore pad). She just doesn't bleed much. I've turned up the pen to 5 out of 8. Should I keep turning it up? Is it about depth of prick? Should I vary the site so that she doesn't get too sore?

After Vyktor's Mum's suggestion, I'll start rubbing her ears to get her used to me touching them. I've started clicking the pen around her too so that she stops starting when she hears the click. I realised that it was the sound as much as the prick as she started even when it wasn't touching her.

We've failed 5 tests today because we haven't been able to get a large enough sample size. She doesn't mind the lancet prick but she doesn't like me squeezing her pad any more to try and make the blood flow. She didn't mind that last night but she has been pricked so many times since then.

confused_cat
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

At least Angie likes her Lantus Tight Regulation Protocol that I plan to try her on: she's been sitting on it most of the day.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Can't help with the paw testing as I test mine on the ears, I have tried the paw and it was like trying to get blood out of a turnip...ears bleed easier I think. If she doesn't like the sound of the lancet pen you can always free hand it with just the lancet.

Also with ears if you take an old cotton sock, dump a little plain uncooked white rice in the toe and knot it, then toss it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds until it is very warm but not hot (check the temp either on your neck or inside of your wrist) and hold that to the ear until it is nice and warm that gets the blood to flow easier. Then prick the outside edge and don't squeeze so much as push up gently from below the poke and the blood should bead up for you.

Also with ear testing I found that different cats have different spots that bleed better than others, with one of mine going low on the ear right above that double flap of skin worked everytime, while my other the tip of her ear works better, it is just kind of trial and error until you find the spots that work best for you.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

Does it still bead up with fur on her ear? Is that what people use Vaseline for? So that the blood beads over the fur? She's not fluffy but I had a hard enough time keeping a bead of blood on her pad because it would wick off of a piece of fur if she wiggled too much.
 
If you're having a problem with the blood beading, try smearing a little vaseline over the area before you lance it. My cat's fluffy as hell, so he gets his ear greased up every time he gets tested. (Originally, the vet nurse decide to try & shave his ear, but ended up cutting a chunk out of it instead....Grrrr!)
 
I have never used vaseline, it beads up fine. because of vyktors black furry ears I do it backwards to most people - from the inside of the ear out. I found doing it that way also made it very easy to judge the right spot because I learnt how much of the lancet I should b able to see outside his ear. u just need to b pretty quick so they don't get a chance to shake their head. my procedure is rub ear, put strip in meter, prick and then grab the test.
 
Re: Help with food and blood glucose meter in Australia

GraceAndAngie said:
At least Angie likes her Lantus Tight Regulation Protocol that I plan to try her on: she's been sitting on it most of the day.
Click to expand...
bahahahaha she knows what's good for her. please make sure you print a copy of the shooting and handling low numbers sticky from the tight regulation forum. u will have a heart attack the first time u see low numbers so u will want that handy. I highly recommend that u do a daily post in that forum, if u can, while starting out with tight regulation. the experienced members there will get to know u and angie which will help them to give u the best advice and u will get so much support. I can not thank the wonderful people there enough for their help in getting vyktor otj and keeping me sane.
 
We did it! The ear was the trick! It worked the first time but I got excited and got the strip out before there was enough blood. It worked the second time but I hadn't pushed the strip in far enough and the meter hadn't switched on before I touched the strip to the blood bead. I asked my incredibly patient partner for help (again) and he put the test strip in the meter when I said go. The third time I got enough blood - the needle went all the way through her ear and I got plenty. It stopped bleeding quickly though and she purred the whole way through. I've lowered the setting on the pen but if that's the worse that I do, and she doesn't mind, I think we'll be ok! :-D
 
yay! everyone makes all the same mistakes ur making - its good to get them out if the way! u will find that the weather will make a big difference to how high u need the lancet. it can be lower when it's warmer so don't be surprised if u need to turn it back up a bit when it gets colder. also if u hold the pricked spot firmly but gently for a few seconds after the test it will help her not to bruise and keep her ear in good shape. u and your partner are doing such a fabulous job - well done!
 
MommaOfMuse said:
Also with ears if you take an old cotton sock, dump a little plain uncooked white rice in the toe and knot it, then toss it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds until it is very warm but not hot (check the temp either on your neck or inside of your wrist) and hold that to the ear until it is nice and warm that gets the blood to flow easier. Then prick the outside edge and don't squeeze so much as push up gently from below the poke and the blood should bead up for you.
Click to expand...

This was a brilliant tip. Angie was so happy to have a warm sock to snuggle up to that she thought that me holding her ear still was only mildly annoying and a small price to pay! I rubbed her belly and face with the warm rice sock too and she was putty in my hands.

I can't believe how lovely you all are and how supported I have felt through these last 48 hours of stress! Thank you all so much and particularly Vicktor's Mum, you have given me so much of your time.
 
you are very welcome, we have all been there and received the same support so it's nice to b able to give back. angie sounds (and looks) like such a lovely kitty. I think ur putty in her hands too!

I have tagged this thread so I get an email when something is added - hence I have been able to stalk u very efficiently but I will probably lose u when u start a new one since I don't hang around the board much lately due to my computer dying on me. if that happens and u want some aussie specific advice or need urgent advice when the Americans are sleeping feel free to send me a private message - I get an email to my phone when someone does that too.
 
Vyktors Mum said:
you are very welcome, we have all been there and received the same support so it's nice to b able to give back. angie sounds (and looks) like such a lovely kitty. I think ur putty in her hands too!

I have tagged this thread so I get an email when something is added - hence I have been able to stalk u very efficiently but I will probably lose u when u start a new one since I don't hang around the board much lately due to my computer dying on me. if that happens and u want some aussie specific advice or need urgent advice when the Americans are sleeping feel free to send me a private message - I get an email to my phone when someone does that too.
Click to expand...

I think she's lovely too - but some people just remember how loud she can be when she wants something! You are right though, she has me (through sheer stubbornness) as well trained as I have her.

I'm glad you don't mind me messaging you - as I already have. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top