How to test cat recently diagnosed

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Mycatismilo

Member Since 2024
Hello! Brand new here after a vet visit on Friday which showed our cat has diabetes. He gets extremely stressed/anxious for car rides and vet visits. He usually pants and breathes extremely rapidly the whole time. On Friday I took him in because he's been urinating more and I was concerned. Also eating a bit less. After labs we were told he has diabetes (something was 500) and we needed to start insulin this week and put him in all wet food diet. I read that sometimes with anxious cats their glucose or blood sugar can spike during vet visits because they are so anxious. I'd like to test him at home when he is calm but am not sure how? Looking for advice on how to test/recommendations. Thanks!
 
Hello, I am sorry to read about your cat’s diabetes diagnosis, but you came to the right place. I am still relatively new, but I can help with this until the more experienced members respond.

You can buy a human glucometer ( I think most members use the Walmart Relion meter. I use the Contour Next One) to use to test your cat’s blood. You can try the smaller gauge lancets first then work your way up to the larger gauge lancets if you are having trouble drawing enough blood. The higher the gauge number the smaller the needle. For example, a 30 gauge lancet has a thinner new needle than a 28 gauge lancet. It is the same for syringes. The best place to draw blood is your cat’s ears. The outer rims of the ears near the top might be the best if your cat is calm. It might help to have the test strip partially in the meter in case the blood comes out quickly. That way you can test your cat before he shakes his head or instinctively wipes his ear. Use a cotton ball or cotton square lightly pressed against the puncture site to help stop the bleeding. It is EXTREMELY important to understand that you may not the successful the first few times. It took me two months of failed attempts before I was finally successful. I was using the wrong gauge lancets. The 26 gauge Walmart Relion lancets worked best for me.

If your cat doesn’t like having his blood drawn then try making it a pleasurable experience. Try to use a spot in the house that is quiet as the place where you test your cat’s blood. Try some practice attempts without actually lancing the ear so your cat can get used to the procedure, and give your cat a treat at the end. If it is cold in your house you can use a sock filled with rice heated in the microwave to warm the ear. I put it for 15 seconds at a time until it felt warm enough on my wrist.
More in next post.
 
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Thank you so much. I will try but don't know that I have in me to stick him and he's not likely to be very cooperative (just his personality) :( He's on day 3 of wet food though and seems fine although he is no longer drinker water from his bowls whereas before he was drinking a lot of water. Is there a better wet food that's good but affordable? The vet of course recommended Science diet little cans.
 
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 10 or 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand not the lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Look at the lancet under a light and you will see one side is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with

Try putting a thin layer of Vaseline on the ear so the blood will bead up

Here is the link for the meter and test strips so you don't have to search for them
Relion Premier Classic Meter at Walmart for 9 dollars
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-CLASSIC-Blood-Glucose-Monitoring-System/552134103

The tests strips are 17.88 for 100
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-Blood-Glucose-Test-Strips-100-Count/575088197
 
Mycatismilo said:
Is there a better wet food that's good but affordable? The vet of course recommended Science diet little cans.
Click to expand...
Most feed Fancy Feast Classic Pates or Friskies,
Most feed 6% carbs are less
Here is our food chart so you can take a look at the carbs
Here is the new link:http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Here is a video one of our members made , she is using a pet meter so ignore that, a human meter does not need to be coded
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar

For your hypo kit in case you ever need to bring up your cats BG
Med and High Carb food and have honey in your house



Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart. Doesn't have to be Fancy Feast just an example about the med and high carb foods



https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

10% and under is low carb
11% -15 is medium carbs.

16- 24 is high carb.

Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help
This link will tell you how to set up our spreadsheet and how to use it
 
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