Badtux
Member Since 2017
The good news is that I'm not diabetic.
The bad news is why I know that -- I just can't seem to get blood out of my cat's ear. I've watched the videos. I've read the advice. None of it seems to work for me. I thought maybe my pricker thingy (the Walmart one) was bad, so I pricked my own finger (with a fresh lancet) and tested my blood glucose while I was at it -- normal. I tried again with my cat. No blood. I even gave up on the lancer entirely and just poked his ear with the lancet (Walmart thin). I poked my cat -- he let me know, he's a docile kitteh but that was an insult too far -- but couldn't squeeze any blood out of that little hole no matter how I massaged his ear. Tried *twice*, different sides of the vein, different sides of the ear, no go.
I'm using the heated rice in a sock to heat up his ear beforehand, and his ear feels plenty warm to the touch, so I'm just baffled. Am I perhaps not poking his ear in the right place? I've tried on both sides of the border vein, which I can see from the furry side of his ears when I'm massaging his ear around, but still nothing.
At this point I'm frustrated, my cat is frustrated (he's a docile boy and I give him lots of hugs and cuddles and treats while doing all this, but enough messing with his ear and he's not happy anymore), and I'm just looking for any advice I can get on how to test the cat rather than myself, whether that's maybe better placement of my hole, a different lancet, whatever. I don't want to kill my kitteh on an insulin OD!
The bad news is why I know that -- I just can't seem to get blood out of my cat's ear. I've watched the videos. I've read the advice. None of it seems to work for me. I thought maybe my pricker thingy (the Walmart one) was bad, so I pricked my own finger (with a fresh lancet) and tested my blood glucose while I was at it -- normal. I tried again with my cat. No blood. I even gave up on the lancer entirely and just poked his ear with the lancet (Walmart thin). I poked my cat -- he let me know, he's a docile kitteh but that was an insult too far -- but couldn't squeeze any blood out of that little hole no matter how I massaged his ear. Tried *twice*, different sides of the vein, different sides of the ear, no go.
I'm using the heated rice in a sock to heat up his ear beforehand, and his ear feels plenty warm to the touch, so I'm just baffled. Am I perhaps not poking his ear in the right place? I've tried on both sides of the border vein, which I can see from the furry side of his ears when I'm massaging his ear around, but still nothing.
At this point I'm frustrated, my cat is frustrated (he's a docile boy and I give him lots of hugs and cuddles and treats while doing all this, but enough messing with his ear and he's not happy anymore), and I'm just looking for any advice I can get on how to test the cat rather than myself, whether that's maybe better placement of my hole, a different lancet, whatever. I don't want to kill my kitteh on an insulin OD!

My other boy is named Alfie. Alfie and Jasper are half brothers/half cousins, or as I call them brother-cousins. Their mothers were sisters and they had the same dad. They were both born on the same day and each litter had 3 kittens each. I love telling that story, lol. They couldn't be more different than each other, though.
I read that you are not even supposed to test a dog on the lip, although I think it is more commonly recommended with diabetic dogs. Just imagine where your face is while poking the dog's lip!