New Member - Trying to do a curve at home

[shtwophell]

Hello There,

My Cat Holly was Diagnosed with Diabetes not too long ago.

We have been through the process with the vet, shown how to do insulin at home etc.

After trying the initial 1 unit of insulin for a couple of weeks and the vet didn't see much improvement, the vet attempted to do a full day curve but had to abandon due to Holly being very stressed and uncooperative.

They suggested we go to 1.5 units, and after 10 days try a curve at home.

We bought an alphatrak meter and have tried to follow videos online aswell as some of the advice I have seen here on the forum.

She is a very sweet and friendly cat but this seems to cause her a lot of distress, and we can see why the vet had difficulty.

I have on only two occasions been able to get blood from her ear, despite pricking it 20+ times.

On the day we attempted the curve we had to abandon for a day or two as well, in addition to her becoming increasingly distressed, her ears where like a pin cushion, I had tried the initial 1 depth setting, then on to 2,3,4 and now 5.

Even on 5 I am getting no blood even though it is clearly penetrating, there is also a some bruising going on, when I shine a light through her ears you can see what I assume is blood pooling under the skin in several areas, on both ears now.

We have tried both rubbing the ears for a short while, as long as she can tolerate, and warming up a sock filled with Rice and holding that to the ears prior to the lancet, for a few minutes.

I have also tried pricking from inside the ear and outside the ear, towards the center of the ear, as well as the usual "sweet spot" between the vein and the edge of the ears.

None of this seems to have made a difference.

Sorry for the rambling, this probably could have been summarised a bit easier.

I'm assuming I'm overlooking something obvious and this is human error on my part.

Could anyone offer any advice?

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Hi there, I am pretty new to all this as well just been at it a few months now.

In the very beginning, I thought doing the ear pricks and blood tests was flat out impossible. We tried and tried and failed and failed.

One thing that was a game changer for us was ditching the lancet device and going freehand with a longer lancet, thicker gauge (26g) in order to get the hang of it

warming up the ears and using a bit of vaseline turned out to be critical. NEVER succeeded until we did that. Wearing a headlamp so I can see what I'm doing, and a pair of readers for extra magnification.


Those are just what worked for me, I'm sure @Diane Tyler's Mom will be along to post all her tips and tricks, she has lots of suggestions that helped me in particular when I was struggling so.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

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

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
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up

Here is a video one of our members did
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar