Suggested Type of Home Monitor & Friskies Suggestions

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mylo

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So the good news is that Mylo started to eat, drink and use his litter box today. I have changed his diet from the prescription DM back to his usual Friskies. Does anyone have ideas on Carb count on the Friskies Select Indoor food? He will eat the Friskies Pate if that's better. I am also going to use the Fancy Feast because both my cats like that.
I have decided to do home monitoring but I need suggestions on monitors and lancet sizes.

Thanks
Becca and Mylo
 
Hey Becca & of course you too Mylo,

If you go here the third column is the carb count for at least the regular Friskies pate flavors, that we feed here, as well as many other kitty foods, but I didn't see the indoor stuff. http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html This is the new canned food list and if memory serves me correctly I think the Fancy Feast might be in the old canned list. Biggest thing is to stay away from anything that says "In Gravy" or "Grilled"

Glad to hear he is eating and drinking on his own, maybe he just really hated the DM, I know not a single one of mine would touch the stuff.

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang
 
No help on the Friskies food since I've never fed that.

Blood glucose meter: any brand works. You just need a basic meter, not something with graphing options, food tracking, etc. Wal Mart's Relion brand is a good inexpensive choice. The OneTouch Mini is also good. The Accuchek Aviva is pricey but verycat-friendly.

Most meter kits come with 10 lancets and 10 test strips to get you started. Obviously that won't be enough so be sure to buy a box of lancets and a box of test strips while you're at the store :smile: The meter kit box will tell you what lancets and test strips to buy. If you're unsure, ask the pharmacist.

Lancets are typically not interchangable between brands (ie meter brand X lancets won't work with the lancet device that comes with meter brand G) Here's a chart: http://www.walgreens.com/marketing/libr ... ancets.jsp 28 gauge lancets work well. 33 gauge is too thin to get enough blood with.

If the lancet device that comes with the meter kit doesn't work well enough to get blood with even after trying different depth settings (it happens. Some devices just stink), you can buy a completely different lancet device and matching lancets (AccuChek Softclix is great) or try freehanding the lancet without the device.
 
I just checked the info on the Friskies website and the Select Indoor varieties look good, around 10% or less carbs. All of the CLASSIC varieties of Fancy Feast are great too.

I use the Relion from Walmart and love it. It requires a vey small amount of blood and is easy to use. And cheap too! The meter is $9, 50 test strips is $20 (or you can get 20 for $9). I would suggest getting 28 gauge lancets, that's what I use. When I first started testing I used one of those pens but sometimes had a hard time hitting the right spot. I just freehand it now and get blood every single time.
 
I was wondering if it was hard to get the blood and also how do your cats react to having their ears pricked daily? Does it seem to bother them?
 
For most cats, it takes a bit of getting used to. It's like the ears learn to bleed. Two things that really help are to warm the ear with a rice sack (thinnish sock filled with raw rice, knotted and then heated in microwave till very warm but not hot) and to use a larger lancet at first (25-27 gauge)

It may bother the cat at first, but soon they discover that treats always come with pokes. Before long most literally volunteer to be tested.
 
At first it can be a bit of a challenge to get blood but their ears do "learn" to bleed. And there are all kinds of tricks that we each have learned that work for some of us and some that work better for others, but regardless of what problems you may or may not have someone here will have a trick to get around it.


As far as how they react to it, well I can only speak for my own cat Max, now when I started to test Max we had no history together, as I adopted him as a diabetic from this very board. So at first it was a little tough as he had no reason to trust me yet, but it didn't take me more than a couple of days and he was jumping up on the bed to be tested. Now he has been in remission for several months and will still come running when I shake the test strips. And he purrs through it all.

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang.
 
mylo said:
I was wondering if it was hard to get the blood and also how do your cats react to having their ears pricked daily? Does it seem to bother them?
Click to expand...

My diabetic had his eears poked multuple times every day for 4 years. The first week or two was hard becaues it was a new experience and he didn't like it and it took me ahwile to find a routine that worked. After that, he didn't care about me poking him. He even let me poke him while he was sleeping.

I was always able to get blood. It helps if you warm up the ear really really well with a "rice sock" or something similar. And press the lancet device (if using one) firmly against the ear while pricking. Hold the rice sock underneath ear for support.
 
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