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Rob vdW

Member Since 2024
Hi all, I am Rob in Newtown, Sydney Australia. Some advice please.

Our 13 y.o. Burmese boy, Chooch, has just been diagnosed with diabetes. We’re having vet visits but we also bought a blood glucose meter/monitor to measure his bg levels throughout the day at home (while we try to get his insulin dosage determined and BG stabilised). We are using a bg meter which is for humans but can also be used for cats.
Two questions:

1. We are using the lancing device to prick his ears. However, we are often not getting ENOUGH blood to get a meter reading (despite reading, following videos - eg. warming & massaging the ear - and multiple tries). Often not even a decent small drop forms! This is leading to stress (mostly human, some cat). A few sites suggest trying at the paw pads but we are a bit reluctant. Is there a ‘preferred’ lancet? Or is the tip of a syringe suitable? (Or any other ideas?)

2. I read in one place online that BG meters specifically for animals can be easier/better because they require LESS blood in the sample. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on this?

Thank you so much. I know there is a huge well of knowledge and experience here!
 
Some lancet devices work better than others. Try a different one. If it has adjustable depth settings, start with a middle setting and adjust from there. Some people just use the lancet without the device.

How are you warming the ear? The"rice sock" method works well. Hold the sock inside the ear to provide a surface to firmly press the lancet device or lancet against. There's a picture of the sweet spot here: https://www.felinediabetes.com/images/laur_danny_famoussweetspot.jpg

The smallest drop of blood for a Human blood glucose is 0.25 ul. I don't know about pet specific meters but a quick Google search shows the smallest drop of blood is about 0.6 ul. Most people use a Human blood glucose meter because the test strips are usually available at a local pharmacy for those times when you run out of strips and have forgotten to order more online.
 
Hello and welcome. What size of lancets are you using? We suggest large ones, 26-28 gauge to start, then move to the smaller ones as their ears learn to bleed. The other thing I found important was a very small smear of Vaseline on the ears where I was going to poke. Otherwise the blood just hid under the black fur. The vaseline helped the blood bead up. Lots more tips in this post: Hometesting Links and Tips

What type of insulin is Chooch going to start on? The AT needs 0.3ul I think, and at least in Canada the Freestyle Lite (human meter) uses the same size. There are some in the US (Relion but I'm not sure the current model name) that also used the same size blood drop. People here, and even vets, used human meters when I started here cause the pet meters weren't a thing yet. I'm curious of the name of the meter than can be used for both pets and humans, what is it? More info on supplies for Australia in these two posts:
Sorry for the links to read, but just one more I promise.
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
 
Human meters tend to come with either 30 or 31 gauge (larger the number the smaller the diameter) lancets. Try using 26 or 28 gauge lancets. Those are usually advertised as for human alternate site (other than finger tip) testing. Problem with pet meters is that the test strips are pricey, like $1 per strip the strips for the human Walmart Relion Premier are $0.18 each.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Hello and welcome. What size of lancets are you using? We suggest large ones, 26-28 gauge to start, then move to the smaller ones as their ears learn to bleed. The other thing I found important was a very small smear of Vaseline on the ears where I was going to poke. Otherwise the blood just hid under the black fur. The vaseline helped the blood bead up.
Click to expand...
Wish I had known about the Vaseline trick back in 2021. Would have saved a lot of lancets. And ear pokes. But I know now.
 
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