Hello Erin,
Carl has given you some really good pointers there.
I absolutely second Carl's advice to get the cat used to the sights and sounds of the testing kit, and getting him to associate them with positive happy-making things. And also to get him used to having his ears handled, maybe while grooming him and talking softly to him.
I was slow to start hometesting my cat. And he was on insulin so testing was really important. I was completely convinced that he was one of those that could never be tested. He's a big chap, and very strong, so if he doesn't want to do something we can't do it! But the folks at FDMB kept 'encouraging' me to try to do it. And it was just as well, because Bert turned out to be a tricky diabetic who needs quite a lot of testing (an average of 7 or 8 tests a day). My husband worked out recently that, over the five and a half years that Bert has been diabetic I've done over 17,000 tests.... It was just as well that Bert was a willing participant!
I aimed to make test times a treat-giving, head-scritching, cuddling time that 'just happened to have a test in them'. I never wanted to restrain him, not even for a moment.
This is how we did it: I started out by getting Bert to jump up onto a table, grooming him, and then getting the whole test kit out, clicking the lancet pen (away from him at first, but later next to his ear), rattling the test strip vial, and then giving him a treat. Then I'd do the whole sequence again, and include rubbing or holding his ears, and then give him a treat. We even did a couple of 'dummy tests' where I crumbled a few treats to keep Bertie occupied and then pressed the lancet pen (ear-pricking device) on his ear, and then gave him a cuddle and another treat. He'd got so used to it all that when we actually came to do a real test (and even with my hands shaking and my palms sweating) he didn't even notice that he'd been tested!!! You could have 'knocked me down with a feather'......
Now, I only need to rattle the test strip vial or click the lancet pen and he will come running.
Now our tests typically go like this:
I go into office. Bertie follows (if he isn't already ahead of me) and jumps up on desk. I make a fuss of him and then set up the test kit. I crumble a few no-carb treats and Bertie starts to gobble them up. I scratch his head, move my hands across to his ear, prick his ear, scratch his head, take the meter reading, scratch his head, press a little cotton wool on the test site, scratch his head. Then give him a cuddle and lots of praise. The entire test takes place while Bertie is eating the treats. If I'm feeling slow, or the meter is having a bad day, I just crumble a couple more treats to keep him occupied.
I can also test him if he's dozing in his basket just by scratching his head to soothe him, and talking to him softly, and he'll generally purr through the whole thing.
You and your cat will work this out together. It would be so useful to know what is going on with his BG's now. But if he goes onto insulin it could become crucially important.
When I learned to hometest the difference it made to my understanding of Bert's diabetes was phenomenal. It was as though I had been trying to find my way around an unfamiliar house in the pitch dark; and then someone switched on the lights... It was that profound...
Good luck. I know you can do this!
