Need a friend in San Diego to help give our 1st glucose curv

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jennifunki

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Hi! We just recently found out that our cat, Dazz, has feline diabetes. We bought a glucose reader to do our own glucose curves to save money. The glucose reader was missing the lancet pen/devise so we tried pricking our cats ear without the devise. We were unable to get enough blood for the test. We tried 3 times and were unsuccessful and put our cat through a lot of stress (not to mention us)! We are looking for someone in San Diego (Ocean Beach) to help us test our cat (we ordered the lancet devise but it won't get here for another 5-6 days). If anyone can help us out, or lead us in the right direction, we would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you! Feel free to email us @ Jennifunki@aol.com
 
Re: Need a friend in San Diego to help give our 1st glucose

Hi,
I know we have members in your area, and I've sent a PM to one of them. Hopefully others will see your post.
I don't have the links, but there are videos of how to home test kitties on YouTube if you can search there.

I have a pic of the area you should be trying to get blood from:


It's that small area between the vein you can see (try shining a flashlight under the ear) and the edge of the ear. Then you just use that lancet tip like it was a sewing needle, and poke. If you hold a cotton ball under the surface it helps. Some people use an old pill bottle filled with warm water because if you warm the ear first, it bleeds easier. Hold that under the ear, and poke on the surface facing you. The bottle or cotton ball will help avoid poking yourself if you happen to go all the way thru the ear too.

Carl
 

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Re: Need a friend in San Diego to help give our 1st glucose

I"m a newbie too. I use a sock filled with rice warmed up just a tiny bit and hold it under the ear. Serves as something warm and I have found helps immensely with the bleeding, also serves as a surface to kinda hold the year taut making it easier to see the vein and find the sweet spot (i'm lucky, light skinned siamese, I can see the vein without a flashlight) and then after I poke and test I can fold the sock over and use it to stop the bleeding.

Now just to warn you, I tried using the lancet pen at first and it was terrible, I could never get the sweet spot because I couldn't tell where the pen was sitting becasue it's so big, and I coldn't get it pressed down hard enough (not like a human finger) to be effective.

I have found that doing it by hand and following all the tips. 45 degree angle, not straight down, having the ear pulled a bit taut/on a surface sort of (for me the sock of rice, for others a cotton ball) and I apply what I think is a good amount of force and not too too quick, I almost always get a good droplet, and it really doesn't bother cello. IF the droplet isn't quite big enough sometimes I milk it and can get enough, but sometimes that doesn't work and I waste a strip :? but I would say about 90% of the time now I get it.

For the record, about the first 10 times I had to double or triple poke before I figured out what worked for us, so be patient and good luck!
It's big learning curve, but not so bad once you have it figured out!

Find diabetes approved treats for post testing. Cello only gets treats after tests now and he actually starts to purr when I go to test because he knows he is getting freeze dried chicken at the end!
 
Re: Need a friend in San Diego to help give our 1st glucose

:o Please remove the rainbow icon from your first post -- around here, it signifies that a cat has gone to the Rainbow Bridge...

I poke freehand, and initially used a microwaveable ear warmer upper, but I found that rubbing his ear to warm it was sufficient. Of course, Donovan doesn't mind having his ears rubbed. Some cats don't like it.

MJ&Donovan
 
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