Many failed blood testings

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Purple

Member Since 2014
I've been trying on and off since March to test my cats blood and since then I've only gotten it twice in 1 day, Since then I've only managed to stab her ears and paws, and make her run away from me.

I've done the warming up of her ears, I've tried covering her in a towel and doing her paws but nothing seems to work. She HATES her paws being touched.

I've been crying for days now and I don't know what to do..
 
Hello, and sorry to hear your kitty isn't very receptive to BG testing. Do you use the tool that came with your glucometer or are you just free-handing the lancet? I have better luck using the tool and do the testing on the "sweet spot" of her ear. Hannah hates having her paws touched, so they are totally off limits. I also talk gently to her before we test, softly rubbing both ears to warm them up and help calm her. She doesn't exactly love the procedure, but she tolerates it quite well. Also, maybe you could offer a treat as a reward -- Stella and Chewy's brand has been recommended on this board. Please don't get panicky about the testing, as your furbaby will get panicky, too. Try to remain calm. I know, easier said than done. Usually I get a test with one prick, but one afternoon last week it took several tries and I was getting quite upset. Hannah immediately got upset, as well. Good luck. And try the tool, if you are not already using it. Hope this helps. Hugs.
 
Hello.
In the early days I tried freehanding the lancet and that made mine upset. And so did paws.

I quickly learned about the accu-chek softclix plus device.... the lancets are a better size for cats. If you get too fine a lancet, the ears don't learn to bleed. My cat likes the click because she knows it's done.
Here is a pic of the sweet spot.

ear_web1_zps0bf45a17.jpg


You might want to get into a reward cycle.
Just hold your cat and stroke his ears, give him a treat. Start getting him to associate the two. You could also use this time to just click a lancing device. That also creates a positive association with the device/ click.
click... then treat.

There are lots of options for treats.... you will have to figure out which one gets your cats attention.
 
Hello, and welcome to FDMB.
And here's a huge reassuring (((HUG))) for you.

Very few people get the hang of hometesting right away. It can take a little getting used to, for both you and your kitty.

When my cat was diagnosed seven and a half years ago he was 7 kilos of pure 'attitude', so I knew I was only going to be able to test him if he agreed to it.
I started very gradually. I'd pop him up onto my desk, talk to him, hold his ear for a few seconds, and then give him a treat.
Then I'd pop him up onto my desk, set up the test kit, and then hold his ear, and give a treat.
Then I'd click the lancet pen against his ear, and give him a treat. etc.
When I came to do a test 'for real' I crumbled a few low carb treats for him to munch on, and quickly did the test while he was eating the treats. He wasn't bothered by having his ear pricked at all. I was amazed (and relieved...)

Tips I found most useful for actually getting blood are:
1. Putting a teensy weensy smidge of vaseline on the outer edge of the ear; it helps the blood to 'bead up' and stops it disappearing into the fur.
2. Being sure to put pressure against the inside of the ear (opposite side to where you're pricking). The lancet needs something to resist, otherwise it can just push the ear away. I press lightly on the inside of the ear with my finger, but some folks use a little cotton wool or folded tissue.
And always reward the kitty for a test attempt, whether the attempt is successful or not.
Here's a page of pics and info that may help:
http://www.sugarpet.net/bloodtst.html

You will get the hang of this. Just give yourself a little time. Be patient. And remember to breathe...

Eliz
 
Purple said:
I've been crying for days now and I don't know what to do..
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Hi Purple, I'm new here too. My heart went out to you when I read the above. I just wanted to send you a (hug) and share that I found the testing a bit tricky (and very distressing) at first but it does get easier with practice (for you both). Everyone here is so helpful - you will get there OK.
 
Thank you everyone! After I posted this I went straight to the pharmacy to get the meter with the smallest amount of blood needed for testing (0.3 microlitres).

I figured if the off chance I can get some blood out it would be small.. so I JUST finished trying it again for the third time today (got some out earlier but wasn't enough for a test with old machine).. Very small amount came out, but it could test it! It's was 3.8 which is a tad low but the vet said normal is about 4-9 so I think that's great. She didn't seem to bothered this time.

Lucy isn't really a fan of treats.. but I thought I'd try the freeze dried chicken breast, and she does eat them.

I really hope she continues to be okay with it.. I think I may have found a decent way to do this..
 
Hello!
I struggled so much in the beginning too and asked for lots of help. The vets did not really help me and the cat on the AlphaTrak 2 dvd must have been on meds to sit
so still whilst testing, or so I thought.
My vet and others say the testing does not hurt them, but can just be annoying.
I have found that taking them to the same spot all the time helps greatly. For me and Murphy it is the living room ottoman. I keep all my supplies handy. I use the actual AlphaTrak lancet (in its entirety, not just the lancet) along with a dab of petroleum jelly which I was told to use by another helpful pet parent on this site. I also keep a flashlight near in case I cannot see if I got the drop of blood as Murphy has darker ears. I dab on the jelly and rub it his ear just a bit. Then I put my fingers or hand on the inside of where I want to poke and go for it. It sometimes takes a try or two and he was reluctant at first, but don't give up. Your cat may just find it annoying more than painful. If I can do it, believe me you can too. I remember someone suggesting trying a towel over them too for soothing. This worked with Murphy the 1st time, but I can now get him to just lay still.
 
Purple said:
Very small amount came out, but it could test it! It's was 3.8 which is a tad low but the vet said normal is about 4-9 so I think that's great. She didn't seem to bothered this time.

I think I may have found a decent way to do this..
Click to expand...

Hi again,

Brilliant that you got that test! Yay, well done! :smile:

How long after giving insulin did you get that 3.8?
And may I ask what insulin are you using, and what dose?

Eliz
 
Purple said:
At least 2 hours from when I gave her insulin. I use the Lantus. 2 units.
Click to expand...
Okey dokey,

Lantus is a great insulin for kitties. :smile:

Just thought you should know though that Lucy may drop lower than that 3.8 (I don't use Lantus but think that the peak of the cycle (lowest blood glucose number) may be around 6 hours after the insulin shot.) So you may want to keep an eye on her just to check that she's OK over the next few hours.

How is Lucy doing now? Are you able to try another test...?

Eliz
 
Yes, with Lantus the response to the dose is slow and you'll see the lowest numbers somewhere between 5-7 hours after the dose normally, though you'll learn your own cat's pattern after testing for a bit. For now though, you probably want to keep around that same level and not much lower at all, so you may want to give a small bit of food as soon as you can just to be sure that it's not dipping too low.

It's better for it to be higher than normal than lower than normal, especially when you're trying to figure out how she responds to the Lantus.

Great job so far though! Getting the hang of testing is a pain, but I promise that it gets much easier. Especially with a nice, new monitor. :)
 
I'm glad you got a meter that requires less blood.

3.8 at +2 is a little lower than I'd like to see her. What foods are you giving her? Right now, she needs to have a couple tsps of a medium carb food which would be in the 10-15% range of calories from carbs. If you tell us what you feed, we can possibly have an idea of the carbs in it.

Elizabeth is right that the lowest part of the cycle for lantus is around mid-cycle although it varies by cat. Because we don't know if your kitty is coming up or going down, it's best to be safe and assume she's headed down.

If it's been 30 mins to an hour since you last tested, can you please retest now and let us know where she is? if you just got the 3.8, please feed her and retest in 30 minutes.

I can give you some more testing tips shortly but we need to stop any drop.
 
At the moment I'm still using the W/D dry food from the vet.. I do still have some dry.. I believe it's the grain free Before Grain food.. I can't remember what they call it now.. I also have it in another bag so I forgot the name..

I'm really hoping to add a more raw food diet for both my cats (the other isn't diabetic)

The 3.6 reading was 3 1/2 hours after the 3.8 reading.
 
Great job getting that test done. Knowing that she's on a downward slope is really helpful. Hopefully she'll enjoy her food treat and consider it a reward for all the ear poking!

Try to get another test in 30 minutes if you can to make sure the sugars from the food are bringing her back up.
 
Okay, so you're at 5.5 hours after the shot was given? That's good to know.

And do you mean that you're feeding her W/D wet? Or dry for both the old food and the W/D?
 
Thank you. The freeze dried chicken helps for after.. Weird seeing her eat treats. I will try my best to test her again.. but I believe I got a little deeper in that last test.. I pricked her about 3 times before I got a much bigger drop... no pool of blood.. Yeah..

Okay.. Another thing I noticed.. I really hope it's not really bad is I can see on the inner side of the ear.. more red.. As in when I priced the ear the blood I guess didn't come out but spread a little.. That's worrying me..

No dry W/D food. The vet for some reason said no wet food when she first got diagnosed.

I don't usually give her the old one cause I was trusting the vet for a food choice which I don't believe in.
 
Thank you for clarifying the times. So the 3.8 was at approximately +2 (two hours after you gave the shot) and the 3.6 was approximately at +5.5 (5-1/2 hours after you gave the shot).

Is it possible for you to get some canned food and try to get her started on it? Dry food, even the reported low carb, grain free stuff, is not good for a diabetic cat. However, you can't just stop the dry food cold turkey because it's likely what is controlling her numbers at that dose of insulin. If you stop dry food cold turkey, you could end up with extremely low numbers.

The best approach is to slowly get her off the dry food by incrementally decreasing it as you increase the lower carb wet food while also monitoring to see how her insulin needs are decreasing. It is better to move them slowly from dry food to canned, LC wet food, and then to raw. All very slowly while watching how the insulin needs change.

You might want to look at Scooter's Spreadsheet. He was a kitty on dry food whose caregiver slowly took him off of it and put him on wet. He went into remission and is now a diet controlled diabetic. It happens more often than you probably could realize.
 
That was my plan. I just couldn't do it without know what the dry food was doing to her first. I do plan on going back to more wet, and go from there.

I was just having such bad luck with the other meter. I'm hoping after today.. I can still take her blood on a regular basis.
 
My vet also put my cat, Mona, on dry W/D when she was diagnosed and every day was a roller coaster in terms of her numbers. After finding this site and board I took the plunge and switched her to wet food. It dropped her numbers so fast I was able to reduce her from 3 units to the tiniest drop of insulin after less than two weeks. Take a look at the spreadsheet to see what a drastic effect it had. Essentially, the dry food (and this was the W/D!) was what was overwhelming her pancreas.

I changed her to an even lower carb wet food last week and she's in an "off the juice" trial right now, which means she's not getting any insulin at all and if she keeps showing normal numbers the whole time, she's considered in full remission. It's shocking to me that vets are prescribing dry food to diabetic cats still. I even told my vet about the results and showed her the spreadsheet and she said that it was an "unusual" response to wet food. This board is proof that that's not really true.

But, it is definitely important to get a handle on how she responds to the insulin for now. But, I honestly have to warn you that while you'll get a sense of the patterns, like when she hits her low point, the dry food is likely to really mess with the overall numbers, and you'll likely see HUGE spikes and drops and big differences from day to day because the volume of insulin needed to counteract the food is so dramatic. I was a stressed-out mess until we made the switch to wet food and then everything suddenly got much easier and more predicable. It was like night and day.
 
Thank you for the tips. You guys are bloody awesome. I've been sorta in the dark about a lot of things. No one to talk to..
 
Great post, Katie, about Mona and her success!!! Go Mona!!!

We probably have the best knowledge about successfully treating feline diabetes because we all live it and breathe it 24/7.

Have you been able to get a test after food? Keep up in mind that the other pitfall to dry food is that if numbers are low, it won't bring them up quickly like high carb canned food/gravy will.
 
Ok. Take a breather for a few minutes and love on her. Are you trying both ears? One will usually bleed better than the other. It does take time for the ears to learn to bleed.

When you try again, use a warm wash cloth in a baggie to warm the ear first then massage the ear a little bit. Be sure the bevel on the lancet is facing up. Try to poke at an angle.
 
I'm sorry but I have to pop off here for a bit. I have an appt.

In my signature block is a post on "Handling Low Numbers". If you test and get any lower number than you already have, please post and ask for help.

Good luck and I'll check back in later.
 
I was just checking back one more time before I left.

This is the video we used to teach us how to hometest:

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The most important thing is to stay calm. You'll get it. Everyone does.
 
I've watched that before. I'm going to have to try maybe right before supper time cause I really don't want to stab her here another like 6 times before that.. I believe I'm pricked her ear over 20 times today alone.. and the seeping look of the blood in her ear is upsetting..
 
Hi Purple. Sorry you're having trouble getting blood droplets for testing. I use a dab of petroleum jelly on the test area to help the blood bead up instead of wicking along the fur. Also, i found that when I first started testing, I didn't warm Saoirse's ears long enough. I was using the warm, wet cotton wool in a bag but it seemed to get cool too quickly. I now use a little plastic test tube with fairly warm water in it: it holds the temperature longer and it's easy to just curl Saoirse's ear around it and hold it in place: it helped me learn to feel when the ear is warm enough. Also, I take a bowl of warm water to the test station and stand the tube in it to keep it warm until I'm ready to use it. (I test the container against the inside of my wrist to check it's not too warm before applying it to Saoirse's ear). When I started taking a little longer to warm Saoirse's ear before using the lancet, I started having much better testing success, although I must confess that even now I occasionally don't wait quite long enough and have to prick her ear a second time, which makes me feel like an utterly useless Critter Mom. But we get there in the end.

Do you have an old plastic pill bottle or similar you could use?
 
most of us use neosprin ointment ( not cream) with pain relief. just a dab.... before poke and after.....
use a napkin or paper towel to put pressure from behind the ear when you poke and you can dab up any residual blood. Every once in a while I'd get a really big drop of blood and mine would shake her ears and splatter the white curtains behind her. :-x :roll:

are you in the U.S. ? if so, there is a freeze dried shrimp treat called Pure Bites. http://www.entirelypets.com/purebit...th01-oaTZCFVPqMZqQMSRslv4cYmaX9T-hhoCPW_w_wcB

You can add water and rehydrate them.
Most cats love them....
 
I actually stab the vein itself on my cat most of the time because that gets the right amount of blood with my own particular lancing motion, I've found. I also wrap her ear over my index finger and hold it in place with my middle finger to hold it very still while I prick it. Then I kind of massage it without letting go to get the drop to form without it getting shaken off by the (often annoyed) kitty.

Seriously though, you're doing great. Even every "failed" attempt to test is helping both of you to learn and to get used to the process.
 
Alright.. so I was able to test her blood again... and it's 3.7.. What the bloody hell? That's low still.. I mean she seems fine.

I filed her food with the mixture of the 2 foods.. but shes not even wanting to eat much right now.. Doesn't seem any less energetic then normal..
 
Hi again, Purple. I've been wondering how you were getting on. Unfortunately, I'm new to diabetes so I can't comment or advise on Lucy's BG numbers, but I am very pleased for you that you managed to test ok.
 
I think you are probably going to have to skip tonight's shot. The Health Forum has a "no shoot" number of 200 for new members. It also might not be a bad idea to reduce her dose at least to 1.75u or 1.5u twice a day until you can reliably test her at shot time and at least around mid-cycle.
 
I was thinking the no shot as well.. I'm going to have to try with maybe 1 unit tomorrow as I use the pen insulin..
 
Many of us use pens but we don't use the pen needles that humans do. We draw the dose into a syringe just as you would if you were drawing from a vial. Many of us are micro dosing (e.g. My kitty gets 0.35u of insulin twice a day).

For Lantus or levemir, which are U100 insulins, you would purchase U100, 0.3cc, usually 30g or 31g, either short or long needle, with 1/2u markings. If you are in Canada, I believe the ones you can get there are BD.

In this post on Storing and Handling of Lantus and Levemir, there is a great video that shows you how to draw out of a pen using a syringe.

Even if you don't shoot, please make sure she is coming up. If she got below 2.2, she could stay low for a long time especially if her dose is too high.
 
Hi Purple,

You're doing a great job! It's been a bit of a 'trial by fire' for you doing all these tests when you're so new to testing.
I know it can be distressing if the kitty's ears look sore. But they will soon heal. And the testing you've been doing today may have saved Lucy from hypoglycemia. She will forgive you... ;-)

Eliz
 
I just got up, it's 7:13am here in Canada, and it took about 10 tries to draw blood.. But it's 5.3!
 
I did it yesterday morning at like 9am-ish.. I fed her and just tested her blood again.. and now at 3.9.. I'm very confused.. I also have to go to work.. So I can't check till like 8pm tonight and it's 9:23am..

I've left food out.. but I can't do more then that at the moment..
 
Lucy may be wanting to go into remission. Her numbers are certainly looking good at this point (fingers crossed/anti-jinx).

Small/mini meals spread throughout the day can help stimulate a recovering pancreas to work without overwhelming it with too much to do at any one time.
And lower carb food could certainly help the process along (am I right in thinking that you're feeding higher carb /dry food at the moment? Sorry if I've misunderstood).

It'll be interesting to see what Lucy's blood glucose level is this evening...
 
It's all dry right now.. I bought some cans of chicken food and a Half pound thing of raw feline food for her to try. Going to put all three out tonight to see what happens. She's very picky about food so going to do a little bit of each.
 
Hi Purple (BTW, is calling you 'Purple' OK, or would you rather be called by another name?),

If Lucy is used to dry food then you may need to switch her to wet/lower carb food slowly: If too fast then it may upset her digestion; her system may take a little while to adjust. So, it may be prudent to introduce her to it a wee bit at a time, Maybe starting with a small spoonful of the new food with some crushed (and familiar) dried food sprinkled over the top, and then see how she does with that...

Eliz
 
Purple is fine. I do plan on that. I used to do dry in the morning and wet at night before she got diagnosed so it's been since February she hasn't had wet. I just want to see if she will try it tonight. I only plan on a small amount then slowly switch her off. I know it will take a little while which is fine.
 
I just tested blood again.. and it's 5.2, and tried some if the new food and Lucy so far doesn't care.. but Yeah..
 
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