New member-Does testing get easier?

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Violet&Pippin

Violet&Pippin

Member Since 2022
Hi everyone,

My partner and I just started home testing with Pippin. We've had about two successes with ear sticks (and about 4 other failed attempts), but Pippin really hates the process. We even tried a foot stick to see if that would be easier, but he hated that more! He's such a sweet, cuddly boy, and even though we try to give him cuddles and treats he still keeps getting scared. Do cats ever get used to this? I don't want him to be miserable with this process. We want to try and conduct a curve in a few days, but I'm nervous to try testing him more than just the AMPS and the PMPS.

Additional question: for ear sticks, we've had the most success doing it free hand, not using the pen, but I feel like I might be actually piercing through the ear instead of just puncturing deep enough to bleed. Is this a problem that could be making it worse? Any advise for free-handing lancets?
 
What size lancets are you using?
Get either 26 or 28 gauge lancets
Look at the lancet you will see that one side is curved upwards and you want to poke the ear with it pointing upwards
5 units of lantus is really a high dose to start with ,but I know you said when you adopted him he was on 5 units
With that PMPS BG tonight of 102 please try and get some more tests in , with newbies we suggest not to give insulin if it below 200
I'm going to tag a few members for you and maybe see if they think you should lower the dose since you are having trouble testing
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
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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 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming

A video one of our members posted, she is using a pet meter ,strips too expensive plus you have to code it
A human meter is just fine, most of us use human meters ,that's what our numbers are based on


VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
 
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Diane Tyler's Mom said:
5 units of lantus is really a high dose to start with ,but I know you said when you adopted him he was on 5 units
With that PMPS BG tonight of 102 please try and get some more tests in , with newbies we suggest not to give insulin if it below 200
I'm going to tag a few members for you and maybe see if they think you should lower the dose since you are having trouble testing
Click to expand...
@tiffmaxee

@Suzanne & Darcy

@Bron and Sheba (GA)

@Wendy&Neko

@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

@Bandit's Mom

@Chris & China (GA)
 
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Make sure you have a hypo kit set up in case Pippin ever drops too low and you need to bring his BG back up to safe numbers Such as

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
And some honey in the house

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

Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.

Please read all about Lantus here
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
What size lancets are you using?
Get either 26 or 28 gauge lancets
Click to expand...

We are using the lancets that came with the glucometer, which are 30 gauge. Is that too small, should I stick to 28?

Diane Tyler's Mom said:
5 units of lantus is really a high dose to start with ,but I know you said when you adopted him he was on 5 units
With that PMPS BG tonight of 102 please try and get some more tests in , with newbies we suggest not to give insulin if it below 200
Click to expand...

Yes, I thought so too! Which is why I was incredibly surprised that his fructosamine came back as 513! Pippin has even recently swapped to only wet food and he's lost weight (he was 15 pounds when we adopted him, we think he's closer to 13 now), so if anything we expected his number to be way lower. Previously he trended around the 300s.

I'll see if I can test him again in a bit here. Right now he's having some nightly zoomies, so probably best to let himself tucker out a bit first.

Diane Tyler's Mom said:
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Click to expand...

We are supposed to avoid piercing through to the other side, right? Or does it not matter?
 
Oh, I should also mention that we are communicating with the vet and relaying this information back to them as well. The high fructosamine level is what triggered the vet to say we need to start testing at home and do a home curve to see if we needed to bump the insulin dosage up to 6. However, the vet only answers once a day during business hours, so we're a little limited in how much we can ask and how quick we get a reply.
 
In have copied this from what Wendy told her in your first post
The fructosamine is not the best indicator of blood sugar and whether he needs an increase. It's also a different indicator than blood sugars. Reference Ranges for Fructosamine Test Fructosamine is an average over two weeks, but can't tell you if he's high all the time, or a combination or really low and really high. That's one of many reasons we recommend home testing his blood glucose. You want to catch those lows that would tell you he needs less insulin. Even with spot BG testing at the vet, cats can be a lot higher at the vet due to stress.
 
junkieinthetrunkiecat said:
We are supposed to avoid piercing through to the other side, right? Or does it not matter?
Click to expand...
You should be trying to poke in the diagram above, you really should try to avoid piercing through the other side of the ear
You can feed him more than just twice a day , we feed the bigger meals at AMPS and PMPS then smaller meals maybe around @+2 and @+4 for both cycles

We adjust the dose by how low their BG is dropping not the Pre Shot numbers that's why you need to be testing at different times to catch those lows which will tell you when you need to reduce the dose
We adjust doses by 0.25 units at a time
Sorry but the vet doesn't know too much about diabetes
If it wasn't for the experienced members here and their advice Tyler wouldn't be in remission today
 
I added on to my post above in case you didn't see it
I would add New Member in your Title in front of where you have the word Does
Look to the right and you'll see the word Thread Tools tap on that then tap on Edit Title add it then hit Save

Withold food 2 hours prior to testing AM and PM Pre Shots so they ate not good influenced

If you are ever not sure to give insulin you can Post something like this
? Help need advice Should I Shoot and put the BG number whether it's AMPS or PMPS
It would be good if you can post every day if you can
You would put
Date Pippin AMPS # and any additional test after that
To add them
Look to the right and you'll see the word Thread Tools tap on that then tap on Edit Title add them and tap Save. You can add PMPS and tests after that too
Link your previous days posts to them
Pippin is a handsome boy :cat:
 
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Years ago I thought injecting was the hard part. It's the ears that are the real test, like poking through a tissue in midair without going all the way through.
I always did free hand and the thicker (26 or 28 gauge) lancets are the way to go. Why make a series of tiny holes that yield little if any blood when you could just get it over with in one go? I got lucky with a very patient cat who jumped up on the table when I thumped it. We can't all be that lucky but with practice you'll be a pro in no time.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Pippin is a handsome boy :cat:
Click to expand...

Haha, thank you! Yes, he is quite a stunner, and he appreciates your compliments. One of the soft benefits of this thread is that, even if you' came here feeling overwhelmed by FD, you get to see a bunch of pictures of kitties to cheer you up! :)

Thank you for your advice. We've had our vet write us a prescription for the Freestyle Libre 3 just in case. We're more concerned with consistent testing at this juncture than anything else. Even if we only use the Libre once for the full 2 weeks and never replace it, that should give us more than enough time to practice ear pricks without the stress of "omg, we need this number right now!".

I fully, 100% believe Pippin can get to remission. He's such a strong boy with a warm heart. That sugar in his blood just makes him extra sweet! I can see if I'm able to test him at +6 AMPS today just to get an extra reading. I can tell now those 30 gauge lancets are just too tiny. I've poked him a couple times and barely anything came out, it barely even turned red! I've ordered 28 gauges, they should be here tomorrow. Now if I could just get Pippin to sit still long enough for me to actually poke him.... I'm very lucky with this guy, he's super forgiving. My other cat (non-diabetic) would have thrown me out a window by now.

I'll continue to update Pippin's spreadsheet as I'm able. I'll also try to make sure I withhold food 2 hours before the shot. It might be a little tricky, bribing him with churru paste has been the most effective method thus far, but we'll get there eventually!

Diane Tyler's Mom said:
? Help need advice Should I Shoot and put the BG number whether it's AMPS or PMPS
It would be good if you can post every day if you can
Click to expand...

Just to check: would I post this under the main forum? Or the Lantus forum?
 
Okay, I also just found out about this device called Genteel, which helps make the testing process more painless? Would anyone recommend this device? I’m not sure if it should be used on the ear, or if I should maybe shave a little spot on Pippin’s flank to test him there (but that’s also close to where he receives his insulin shot, if that matters).
 
junkieinthetrunkiecat said:
Okay, I also just found out about this device called Genteel, which helps make the testing process more painless?
Click to expand...
I think you mean this:
https://www.amazon.com/Genteel-Plus-Technology-Pain-Free-Monitoring/dp/B013PT28XO
I tried a similar device 20 years ago or so,
https://www.amazon.com/ASCENSIA-MICROLET®-VACULANCE-Lancing-Device/dp/B001CJRJL6
but it really did not work since cats are tested on the edges of the ear or paw pad and those are no good surfaces for getting a vacuum seal The Genteel seems better and might work since it has a soft sealing disk.
The Genteel is only more painless since the vacuum is supposed to pull blood out of the puncture site vice doing multiple punctures are squeezing the ear to get enough blood.
 
junkieinthetrunkiecat said:
Haha, thank you! Yes, he is quite a stunner, and he appreciates your compliments. One of the soft benefits of this thread is that, even if you' came here feeling overwhelmed by FD, you get to see a bunch of pictures of kitties to cheer you up! :)

Thank you for your advice. We've had our vet write us a prescription for the Freestyle Libre 3 just in case. We're more concerned with consistent testing at this juncture than anything else. Even if we only use the Libre once for the full 2 weeks and never replace it, that should give us more than enough time to practice ear pricks without the stress of "omg, we need this number right now!".

I fully, 100% believe Pippin can get to remission. He's such a strong boy with a warm heart. That sugar in his blood just makes him extra sweet! I can see if I'm able to test him at +6 AMPS today just to get an extra reading. I can tell now those 30 gauge lancets are just too tiny. I've poked him a couple times and barely anything came out, it barely even turned red! I've ordered 28 gauges, they should be here tomorrow. Now if I could just get Pippin to sit still long enough for me to actually poke him.... I'm very lucky with this guy, he's super forgiving. My other cat (non-diabetic) would have thrown me out a window by now.

I'll continue to update Pippin's spreadsheet as I'm able. I'll also try to make sure I withhold food 2 hours before the shot. It might be a little tricky, bribing him with churru paste has been the most effective method thus far, but we'll get there eventually!



Just to check: would I post this under the main forum? Or the Lantus forum?
Click to expand...
Yes you would post on the Feline Health Main forum for now until you're able to get more tests in, and please don't bump him up to 6 units, glad you are considering the Libre, at least you'll see how the dose is working , and you can practice testing him with your meter
Main forum
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-welcome-main-forum.28/
 
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I feel like testing did get easier for me with time. I learned to not poke too hard (or too softly), even though I still mess up sometimes. What really helped us what picking a very special treat (tuna purée for us, but you could use chicken baby food or any kind of treat your cat really, really loves) and giving it to her ONLY for ear pokes and insulin injections. At the beginning, I would put her in my lap for testing while my boyfriend would hold the tube of tuna to her face for her to lick. With time, I was able to transition to giving her a couple of licks, putting her on my lap and testing her ear, then she gets off and get a few more licks as well as plenty of praise. She barely flinches, only when I go a little too hard, and if it takes too long I give her a bit more tuna and it distracts her from my fumbling. I have never tried a lancing pen, I use 28 gauge lancets (31 didn’t work for me, too small).
 
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