She's had enough of the ear pricking

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DEF

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Don't know what happened --for 3 days I thought this won't be too bad but those days are OVER.

She moves her head so much now I have to make several stabs. I think in the beginning she didn't really realize what was going on and she also may have felt sicker but now the insulin is kicking in. Wrapping her up won't help --I can keep her body still but not her head.

Forget the paws --she doesn't want her feet touched, period.

Now I am dreading an important part of treatment. I want to do it the barest minimal times as possible per day.

I just went to fabric store and got a thimble as I stabbed myself a couple of times. I can't hold anything against her ear but the thimble on my finger should help.

If the nadir numbers are so important can't I just test in the middle of the day and then again either in the morning or evening (vary this) before the shot. Or is the barest numbers of times to test 3? (Please don't tell me it is 4)

I realize you are supposed to do a 'curve' with lots of tests --the more curves the better I guess. ohmygod_smile. I just started the lantus.

She is not a laid back kinda of girl. So far she hasn't been hiding on me but I can see that coming . :roll:
 
My two often shake their heads as if the poke tickles, so what I do is to sit beside the cat, have the cat lie along the outside of my leg, I hold the head against my right leg, and also holding the base of the right ear with my right hand, then poke with my left hand.
I have everything ready ahead of time, strip partially in the meter, lancet ready then just get the cat.
If your cat will lie against your leg, you can hold the ear with your hand and the forearm to hold the body to your leg.
If you need to wrap the body to stay still, it will still work but try with no restraint first.... and don't forget a little treat and praise after the test is successful.
 
i do the same technique as gayle does, although i think my hands are reversed - and on the other side of the cat is the sofa arm with the test supplies ready to go.

make sure you're giving a treat after the poke - immediately afterwards so you're training her that the poke comes with a treat. be very consistent about it!

i had to burrito wrap punkin for about 2 weeks when we started. i had to do it tightly - i've seen people just toss a towel over their cats, but i wrapped him tightly in a beach towel. the important thing is to pin down the front paws so they can't wiggle out of the towel. punkin looked like a shrimp wrap when i got done with him. it only took 2 weeks til he completely gave up - actually probably much sooner than that, but i kept wrapping him for that long.

if you are consistent she'll give up fighting you.

also, are you using the neosporin with pain relief? i find that if i put it on at night he will tolerate me poking him the next morning (for several hours) without flicking his ear. it seems like it hurts from previous pokes.

and are you using a lancet device or free-handing? i use the device - i know some people free-hand - but i put the device firmly against the ear and click it to poke. if the click sound upsets her - do it other times, often, near her ear to desensitize her from the sound. make sure her ear isn't moving away when the lancet pokes - this is one of those "summon up my inner strength because she HAS to have this" kind of things.

tell yourself you are saving her life with every poke. you are only doing this for her. it's keeping her safe. when you're the parent you do have to do things for your kids (fur or otherwise) that they don't like but you know it's for their own good. you just have to be convinced that you're helping them - because you are. and they can't do it without you.

hugs! keep asking if you need more help. others will also have ideas on what worked for them. between us we'll be able to help you get it down like a pro!!!!
 
DEF

I new to this whole thing and just started giving shots. My cat will not tolerate the poking to test at all. There is no way I am going to be able to test her four times a day. I will spend my whole day chasing her down for testing.
The vet has not even showed me how to home test her, they want me to bring her into the office for testing but only once a week.
My cat does not like to be picked up or handled, runs ands hides at every noise. I am so stressed so I know very well what you are going through.
It is only me in the house. It would sure help if I had someone else in the house for a little help but I don`t.

Terri
 
((((((terri)))) - you might be the only one in the house, but you have all of us here to help you with advice and to hold your hand when you need it! you would be amazed at how cats will adjust to this. really. when we first started people would tell me that their cats would come with the rattle of the test strips container. I nearly died laughing - i was pulling punkin out from under the sofa by a leg! not the picture perfect, loving cat owner, let me just admit it now!

but, i persevered because i knew i would never shoot insulin into my own body, or my child's body, without testing. there is a lot of diabetes in my family, and although i don't have it, i'm aware of how potent insulin is. i am absolutely convinced that it is necessary for punkin's safety for me to do it.

so i wrapped him and poked him and gave him treats. now he comes when i call him and he purrs while i do it. really. it took about 2 weeks of me steeling myself that i absolutely HAD to master this for his sake - because I was not willing to put my favorite little orange boy with the gorgeous green eyes to sleep.

also, perhaps it will make you feel better if you know that their ears are tough. think about when cats fight - often their ears get kinda torn up. if you use the neosporin with pain relief it truly is like it heals them. you could even put it on in the morning to kinda numb it for the day's pokes. just wipe off the excess before you poke so it doesn't goo up your test strip. i use the ointment form and it helps the blood bead up.

you can both do it - i sat in your shoes last february, totally not wanting to, totally hating it, but loving my cat. and people here helped me learn.

ps - also much cheaper than testing at the vet's!
 
You can also help your cat to learn not to associate touching the ear to only mean getting tested. With all of my cats, I always spend several minutes each day petting their heads including massaging their ears. This way they associate having someone messing with their ears as something pleasant.

You also want to test before every shot to make sure it is safe to give the insulin. You cannot just only test between shots. If your cat's glucose levels are too low at the time of the shot and you give insulin, you risk hypoglycemia, which can be deadly. You can avoid giving insulin when the BG levels are too low, but you cannot take insulin back after it is given.
 
The thing that scares me how to you know when the cats BG is to low if you are blindly giving insulin shots and I can for the life of me get my vet to understand this. I agree I would never give insulin to another family member, child etc and not know what their BG.
I gave Lilly her shot this morning. They told me to confine her to a room, went back in there, she had thrown up had runny stool so right back to the vet we went just got her home on Thursday.
I did not know what was wrong with her is BG were to low. My mother is sick on top of all this and in a nursing home at present and I am trying to deal with a newly diagnosed diabetic cat that is fiesty as hell and can`t be handled.
 
terri, it might be good if you start a new thread and put all the info in there together on your kitter. then we can give you direct advice and it won't be as confusing as having it mixed with someone else's.

my heart goes out to you with your mom going in the nursing home and a sick kitter. it is a tough stage of life to be taking care of your parents. mine have both just passed away in the last 5 years and i had kids still at home. i had to race out of my youngest daughter's 8th grade graduation ceremony and drive like a bat out of hell when mom went into crisis an hour away - she died a few hours later.

truly, i understand. so do others here. just your mom's situation alone is hard and add the cat on top. we'll do our best to help you. when you get the home-testing mastered (and at 4 days i thought "i'm doing pretty good - i've only been doing this for 4 days!") then it's as easy-peasy as brushing your teeth. it becomes routine - and some cats go off of insulin fairly quickly. i've been here 6 months and just yesterday i realized that i've seen 29 cats go off in that 6 months. not too shabby. not all do - mine has other conditions and he won't. but really, i no longer mind, because now it's a routine thing to take care of him.
 
terri, I sure can understand where you are coming from. The cats on the videos I watched on u-tube just sat there without complaint while 'mom' was pricking ear.

It still helped me tremendously to watch them and I plunged right into doing it as it didn't look so hard.

And it really was fine for several days. Even now it it doable but I think the squirming has alot to do with the fact that I am too slow doing the pricking and she doesn't like me holding her ear for that length of time. I need to steel myself before I start to make sure I can mentally do it quickly.

I am glad to read about the ears being tough as everytime I think to myself --this can't be all that painless and how in the world can a cat's ears take this amount of stabbing. There is only so much ear rim and I hate poking it over and over.

Terri, the only thing I can say it that we have got to do it correctly but fast. A difficult cat won't take messing about.

I do have one cat who would never allow me to do the ear thing. Had her 11 years and she is still pretty 'feral'. I told my husband it is like we adopted a wild racoon--though even a racoon would be tamer then her. My husband still loves her to pieces though.

Thanks for the cat holding instructions--I will try them out.
 
If the nadir numbers are so important can't I just test in the middle of the day and then again either in the morning or evening (vary this) before the shot. Or is the barest numbers of times to test 3? (Please don't tell me it is 4)
Click to expand...

Absolut barest minimim: Once a day at the nadir (IMO).
--> See my update below ... 2-4 times a day.

Preshots only tell you what is "left over" at the end of the cycle. The target goal (and danger point) is the nadir.
 
Absolut barest minimim: Once a day at the nadir (IMO)

Preshots only tell you what is "left over" at the end of the cycle. The target goal (and danger point) is the nadir.
Click to expand...

Preshots tell you if it is safe to give insulin.
 
Preshots tell you if it is safe to give insulin.
Click to expand...

Absolutely for the short acting insulins. 4 tests a day minimum!
EDIT: Also true for the intermediate (10-14 hour duration) acting ones like PZI and ProZinc.
Also true for high doses of ANY insulin.
Definitely the recomendation of this forum for ALL cats ALL the time.

IMO it is less critical for lower doses of longer acting ones, Lantus in this case.
Browsing the spreadsheets you can see people shoot the same full doses into pretty low wonky numbers all the time without any problem. Then testing at the nadir to watch out for a hypo problem. Obviously, a pre-shot test allows you to adjust the dose to help head-off a potential hypo. IMO it takes experience to use a long acting insulin to react to the short-term ups and downs in the BG. You can try, but realize a dose adjustment to offset a low pre-shot number will also be affecting the next cyle (or more), potentially getting into a roller coaster. The cats own spurting insulin levels, stress, amount of food they ate/digested, hormone response, etc., etc., are all beyond our knowledge and control, you may drive yourself nuts trying to master it.

IF your cat is regulated (consistant and repeatable numbers), doses are low, and you have some curves under your belt then 2 nadirs a day is the "absolute bare minimum when there are no other options". Newly diagnosed cats would not fall into this category at all.


This would apply ONLY if more testing was NOT an option.
IMO... this is based on our personal research and our great success with Lug (.25U bid, thanks to this forum :-D ) and does NOT neccessarily reflect the suggestions of this forum.
 
The only short acting insulin that some vets still use is N......R is usually used by ER vets......but there are people who may read your post that are using Prozinc or BCP PZI and they are NOT short acting.

FWIW...I've been shooting and dealing with FD since '90.
 
If you think a faster poke would be better tolerated, try a slightly larger gauge lancet. It make as slightly larger hole, produces a little more blood, so less re-poking involved. Remember the smaller the gauge #, the larger the lancet diameter.

Good luck!
 
Many of us have been in your situation. I was also by myself so I didn't have anyone to help me. I used to get physically sick, throwing up before pricking my boy's ear. He shaked his head after I finally had a successful pricking with enough blood to do the test. Evey pricking/test was a stressful experience for both myself and my kitty till one day I decided that I had to overcome this and be very good at it because testing is such an important part of the treatment.

One morning I locked myself and my kitty in the bathroom. I practiced over and over with him without actually pricking his ear but went through all the actual steps and practiced to be quick. I tried to find a position that was most comfortable for both of us and get him used to the position. I had every thing ready before bringing him to the testing position: the lancet pen, the meter with the testing strip, the Q tip for Vaseline, the rice warming sock, the cotton pad. Since I am right handed, I set everything on the right side so I can grab them quickly and be done with the test quickly. For me, the key is to get the test done QUICKLY.

For every test, even if it was a failed attempt, my boy got a treat. Believe me, he soon realized that this wasn't too bad and wanted to be tested because he loved (still does) his dry chicken treats. Now, as soon as I take out his testing kit, he jumps on the bed and gets himself in the testing position (his bum towards me). After each test, he runs to the drawer where I keep his treats.

Getting the test done FAST (I practiced and practiced till I could literally do the test with my eyes closed) and getting my kitty associating pricking his ear with somthing he likes such as his favorite treat made all the difference for us.
 
lug, i'm going to strongly disagree with you about the need for preshot testing. we use lantus - and i absolutely test before every shot. there have been times when i waited until i could see his blood sugar was definitely coming up before i shot. i would say punkin fits in the category of fairly regulated - not this weekend, but usually. even so there are times when i have delayed or skipped a shot because he had some lower than usual number or the pattern wasn't his norm.

when you say slower acting insulin, it's not NO acting insulin. it's onset is in a couple of hours and peaks somewhere around 6 or so hours after shot, then decreases. but it still has an action and insulin is really nothing to mess around with.

perhaps it would be helpful to point out that insulin is a hormone - and hormones are not always precise in their response within a body. having been a teenage girl and having raised teenage girls . . . all happy and sunshine one moment, weeping and angry the next - thank you hormones!

just for the safety of the cat, i am firmly convinced that it's vital to always check their BG before you shoot.
 
I have a question. When poking to test cats ears do you poke inside the ear or outside the ear? I did experiment on my old cat Arthur today who let me test his sugar with meter. He is not the diabetic cat she is at the vet. I used my mothers meter and got a reading of 56 on him. Is that normal for a cat?
I then tested my own BG with it and mine was normal. Forgive me for being nuts> the vet has not explained about blood sugar levels to me or what normals are for cat or anything.
I had no problem testing him but he is not the one with the diabetes. She is fiesty and I will maybe have to practice more on the other cats.
 
just for the safety of the cat, i am firmly convinced that it's vital to always check their BG before you shoot.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it would not be smart to only rely on nadirs to catch a hypo in progress, rather than using preshots to help head them off.
3-4 tests minimum a day it is. Post edited.

Julie, 15U b.i.d, WOW!!
 
KSA
" he jumps on the bed and gets himself in the testing position (his bum towards me)." :lol:

I read this to Pinkie but she looked at me with a kind of "in your dreams" look.

I agree that the trick is not to hesitate and to learn to do it fast. I am also going to pay more attention to warming up the ear to avoid multple pokes that don't produce any blood.
 
DEF said:
KSA
" he jumps on the bed and gets himself in the testing position (his bum towards me)." :lol:

I read this to Pinkie but she looked at me with a kind of "in your dreams" look.

I agree that the trick is not to hesitate and to learn to do it fast. I am also going to pay more attention to warming up the ear to avoid multple pokes that don't produce any blood.
Click to expand...


LOL!

As much as my boy loves his treat, he still only gives me ONE shot to do it, no multiple pokes.
 
hmmm - i wrote a response an hour or so ago - must've thought it posted when it didn't. yay. :roll:

either the inside or the outside of the ear work. i think most people use the outside because you can work from behind them and not have them watching you. but whatever works for you is fine.

couple things about the pokes - a warm ear bleeds better than cold - so you can use a little bag of rice (uncooked rice, cotton sock, tie a knot & microwave) to warm up their ear, one ear often bleeds better than the other. as you poke the ear it grows more capillaries - so after a couple of weeks you'll get blood every time. in the meantime you just keep trying.

put a little pressure on the ear after you poke to staunch the blood - that will prevent bruising. make sure you give that treat! someone told me "3 strikes you're out" to give up after 3 tries and give a treat anyway. mostly i've done that although sometimes i was desperate and kept going. i've hit the vein on purpose if i was desperate - not recommended, but somehow punkin survived it. i think it might cause a little scar tissue though.

re punkin's dose - punkin has acromegaly and was diagnosed diabetic last december and with acro in june. people on FDMB saw the signs and encouraged us to have him tested. acromegaly is a benign tumor on the pituitary gland. most cats, obviously, don't have this and need between .25 & 3 units BID, but the current thought (Dr. Lunn from Colorado State University is an expert on feline acromegaly) is that as many as 1 in 3 cats that need a higher dose have acro. there are also other conditions that can cause a need for a higher-than-average dose. the important thing for any cat is to get what they need - there are many acro cats who get much higher doses than punkin. we arrived at this dose the same way that anyone treats diabetes in a cat, increasing slowly but safely to keep his BG in a healthy range. hormones from the tumor prevent the insulin from getting into the cells and doing its insulin-thing to the carbs. so we give him what he needs to be healthy. he's just like any other kitty.

well, he purrs more & louder than most. :-D and he has a licking obsession, too. and he's more beautiful than most. not that i'm biased! :lol:
 
Dear DEF, and, of course, your extra-sweet "Her",

I'm so sorry. I don't know "Her" name. Or, if she is DEF and I don't know your name. Forgive me, I'm a name girl...

I do know testing a "not laid back kinda girl." Her name was Gizmo. Her familial names were Cujo, Gizzie Blair, and The Spawn of Satan. Did I mention I was a lifelong needle-phobic when she was diagnosed?

Okay, I'm not proud at all to say it took me one month and 28 days/nights to bite the vampire bullet. (Did I mention her nicknames?) Nor, would I suggest that to anyone. (I did learn about the whole cat approach during those 1 month and 27 days...) But, I am proud to say that I eventually became a vampire. I am more proud to say that Giz, diagnosed diabetic and DKA at age 14 in the same breath, lived a wondrous life for four more years. And, no DEF and extra-sweet "Her" or you and extra-sweet DEF (names??), diabetes did not take Giz. She simply decided at like age 90, her work here was done. And, yes, I miss her to this day...

Giz hated restraints. They were simply not in her feline vocabulary. Thus, my home testing dilemma...

So, let's flash back to my first night as a vampire... There will be a point here, I promise!

There I was looking at the wonder that was the whole Giz on increasing doses of Humulin N based on a +6 (6 hours after shot) test every Sunday at 4PM with her ER vet (who I will love forever and have taught a lot about dancing with a sugar cat...) for almost two months... Had been on the FDMB for about six or seven weeks and had learned volumes. Was having a glass of chardonnay and pondering our now sugar lives... Had all the necessary testing equipment available...

Went to the kitchen to refill my glass. Took a sip. Okay, maybe two. Decided to poke myself to see how it felt. Not great, but do-able. The meter read 21. Figured I was basically dead so had nothing left to lose. Gathered up all the equipment with the theme music of Jaws running through my head and surprised the crap out of Giz when we both copped a squat in the hall right next to the bathroom which had the best light. Got blood on my second poke. She was 189. Figured that was as improbable as me being dead. And, actually posted my deceasement and Giz's 189 BG on the Board.

I honestly don't know what was more fascinating with the responses we got that night. These wondrous people were not only overjoyed I got blood, they assured me I hadn't deceased myself. It was a good night in a Fellini kind of way... But, you know what DEF and "Her" or "Her" and DEF? I knew we were dancing. I knew we had a real chance!

I started giving Gizzie treats for every single ear poke. And, trust me, they were only Pre-Shot tests... Eventually Giz learned sugar math: ear pokes + treats + shots = feeling better! Giz taught me sugar math.



Ironically, and after some time after deciding her work here was done, she sent me Nikki. Nikki is the antithesis of Giz. She is not the least bit scary. She is a cupcake. Unfortunately until it comes time to testing. Nikki requires Ferrari-like speed. Sometimes I have to, painfully for me, let her know I am bigger than her. And, after testing, basically have to run like hell! It's become a game with Nikki. She likes to chase and bite my feet. There is no time for treats. Apparently I am her treat!

Hey, whatever works, right?!

This is my humble way of saying stick with it, DEF and "Her" or "Her" and DEF (names???!!!). You won't regret it! Why? There is nothing like dancing with a sugar cat. They have a way of making you become a better person.

This is for you, too, terri1962... How much do we like Arthur?! There's nothing like a mellow non-sugar cat to test on before the real deal... Wish I had one!

To you both, welcome to the place you never wanted to be; but will be blessed for having found.

Love and encouraging hugs for you both and your extra-sweet furries,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...

PS: My humble suggestion from the sugar trenches is get pre-shot tests first. You know it's safe to shoot. Let you both get used to insulin. Then go for a +6 test when you're both available. You can work on curves a little later, okay? Remember, your cats are still your cats, they're just extra sweet!

PPS: If it takes more than two pokes with a lancet -- and, yes, I'm a free-hander -- if, there's time, use a fresh lancet. It is kinder and gentler to their ears...
 
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