What do I do now???

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RoysMum

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I have tried several times to get some of Roy's blood. I have pricked his ear several times and one of his paws. Nothing.
I thought maybe the lancet wasn't extended enough and used my finger and it bled well.

I am getting frantic.







I just got home from Wallmart after a most stressing day.
They did not have the reunion tester.

I got:

One Touch Ultra Mini...apparently it does not have to be calibrated.
One box of 100 Ultra test strips
One box of One Touch Delica lancets which fit inside the pen that comes with the monitor.
One box of 50 Ketostix by Bayer

The whole shebag was around $100.

I also got 2 dozen cans of FF (assorted varieties, unfortunately they did not have tender beef)

Roy hasn't eaten much today and has no insulin since yesterday at 11:30am. When I got up this morning it was apparent my housemate fed the cats as the big dish of dry kibble was at the feeding station and I do not know how much (if any) kibble Roy ate. About mid-morning I gave him 2 Tablespoons of Fancy Feast and he picked at it.
He appears a bit thirsty, and just sniffs the water bowl and would rather lick the water from the bottom of the bath tub (why is this?)

I gave him 2 Tablespoons of FF chicken about 10 minutes ago and he did not touch it.

He was out in the garden for about an hour today. However, he is listless and seems tired.

I caught him in the litterbox...he peed and it smelled sort of different.

So, now what do I do? Do I try a test? Give him some insulin? I don't know....

Please help.

Cheryl
 
Cheryl

Go back up to the icons in your post and select a 911. Just hit edit and go to the post icon and hit that. The more experienced people will come to your aid shortly. The icon can be removed later.
I am to new to be of any help, sorry and welcome to the board.

Terri
 
Go ahead and try a test - he could be listless because his glucose is too high.

What insulin do you have and what dose were you initially instructed to use?

Her previous post
 
Next time he pees, try to catch the urine.....gravy ladle, cup, or run Ketostix strip in the urine. Test him....do not give insulin without getting a test number. The meter you were looking for is the ReliOn but the OT mini is good, just more expensive. Get a number and post back.
 
I would try it on yourself first so you sure get how it works.

Don't forget to warm his ear first. The easiest way is a pill bottle filled with hot water. Keep it on his ear for 15-20 seconds. Then, with the bottle in back of his ear, poke along the side.
 
Is there anybody in Windsor Ontario that could help her? How do you look that up? BJ can you look that up to see?

Terri
 
can you smell his breath and see if it smells like nail polish remover or paint remover? did the pee smell like that? if so, vet right away. i'm concerned about ketones and they're nothing to mess with. if no smell like that, try to get a glucose reading because yeah, he could just need insulin. i know Mousie gets a bit sluggish if her BG gets abnormally high for her
 
Thank you Sue, believe me I know exactly how she feels, I am new and still feel like that a lot. I wish I had someone else here in the house to help once in awhile.

Terri
 
Cheryl

Its going to be alright, I know I still go through this too. Do you know where to poke on the ear? If need be go back online and watch a video of hometesting of go to the instructions at the beginning of this board. Poke right on the outside of the ear at the top half at least thats where I do it. Also what I do is take some toilet paper and roll it up and put on the inside of the ear when I am poking with the lancet. Toilet paper inside the ear and poke on the outside outer top part of the ear. Take a breath. Someone will come along shortly that maybe could walk you through it over the phone possibly.

Terri
 
My kitty has dark hair (I need to upload a picture). Therefore, I poke on the inside of his ear, where it is pink and where I can see the blood when it wells up. I put a cotton ball on the fur side, and kind of fold that top point ear part over the cotton ball and lance away.
 
Do you want me to call you and we can go through it one step at a time? If so, read your private messages. (upper left hand corner of the page - you have 1 message)
 
Sue, I PM her too for offer of help but you are far more able to help her being more experienced than I am. I just feel so sorry for her

Terri
 
Cheryl and I are in email correspondence - I can go visit her on the weekend, but with Roy's pee smelling funny, inappetance and acting thirsty but not drinking (lip licking), I agree this is urgent. Roy sounds like he is not feeling good.

While we live 36 miles away from Cheryl, this includes crossing through US-Canada customs which can take 5 minutes or it can take an hour and a half depending on the time of day and traffic - and the more pressing/urgent - it always seems to take an extra long time.
 
I talked to Cheryl. She is going to try some wet food with dry sprinkled on top with a catnip chaser to get Roy to eat. She hadn't heated his ear so she will try that before trying another poke.

She said he was only 12 at the vet which is low for a vet number. (216). I hope if she can get a number we can figure out what is happening.
 
If you absolutely have to, aim for the small vein along the edge of the ear.
It is practically guaranteed to bleed a good bit - which is why we don't normally use it.
You'll need to put pressure on it immediately after you get your test, as he will shake his head and drops will go flying.

What gauge lancet are you using?
The thinnest I've seen are 33 gauge and they hard for someone new to use. The 27 gauge are more likely to work at first because they are larger, so aim is less important.
 
One thing I forgot to say, Cheryl, is that if you get blood and he starts to move away, get the drop on your fingernail. You can test it from there.
 
What happened

I called Sue-thank you.

My house mate said I should not listen to people I do not even know about Roy's condition. (He lives in a rotary world). Even though I succinctly told him the facts and that this site has (had) over 2,000 members, and by God they seem to know what they are talking about. He took the cat and gave it a shot of insulin. He told me to listen to the Vet. He yelled at me for not giving Roy his shot this morning. I lied tho, when he asked me how much insulin to give him, and I told him just go a bit before the 2nd line (2 units), so he did not have the full two (2) units cos in the back of my mind, I keep remembering that a lot of people here said 2units was a lot and probably harsh (he had just a tad under 2 units). Anyhow, after the shot was given, Roy did eat some Fancy Feast (about 1/2 can). He had a bowel movement and peed and I could not tell if his pee smelled funny cos his bowel movement was a real stinker. Then I kicked the other cats out of my bedroom and laid down on the bed with Roy to give him some love. He wasn't the least bit interested in being loved, which is majorly weird cos of all my cats Roy is the Ayatollah of Suckola and will head butt your hand just to get petted and he just will not quit. I put a tad of catnip on the bed, he sniffed, maybe munched a leaf and that was it. At present, he is laying on the bed as still as as statue. I just stuck my nose right up close to his mouth and his breath smells like Fancy Feast. I gave him some more love and he did not even purr. I remain steadfast in my commitment to get his number as soon as I can---Sue gave me some excellent tips and I will post what comes up here. Please pray for us.
 
Hope you were able to get a test Cheryl. Warming the ears helps as does testing from the underside to see better. Even if you hit a vein it will be okay. My Thor sits atop the recliner and I direct a lamp or have someone hold a flashlight too in order to see the vein. Ideally you want to be between the vein and ear edge but right now you just need some blood. So don't worry about hitting the vein, aim for it if you need to. I had trouble at first too and did better with a larger bore lancet. After testing use a cotton ball or piece of paper towel to apply pressure for a few seconds to reduce bruising. Keeping you in my prayers.

Nikki
 
Wow, I go to work for 8 hours and all the excitement happens then....
(I'll be working 2-10 all week, so anything like this needs to happen either before, or after, then, okay?) :smile:

Cheryl,
Having talked to Sue, I am sure she's given you plenty of tips on how to get blood out of dear Roy's ear, right? Just keep trying. Now that he's had insulin, it's very important to see what sort of number you get. NO MATTER WHAT IT IS, we can help you deal with it, high, low, it doesn't matter. People here will stay up all night to help with this.

OK, that out of the way, please consider having a heart to heart with your housemate. He needs to really "get it". What he did by taking it upon himself to play the "expert" is to put the life of YOUR cat at risk. He can poopoo that all he wants, and he can think that the vet knows what's best. But he's wrong. Simple as that. He has absolutely no right to administer insulin or anything to Roy, unless Roy is his cat. If Roy belongs to you, he's actually crossed a line that he may not want to cross again.

You need to sit him down and calmly discuss this. Here's a way you might get through to him. Tell him to pretend that Roy is his infant daughter. He's just brought "her" home from the hospital, and she's been diagnosed as a diabetic. The doctors sent him home with some insulin, and told him that he is going to have to give her insulin twice a day, and her life literally depends on him not screwing up. OK, then ask him, "are you just going to give her insulin twice a day, without worrying if it's not enough or too much? How would you know? What if giving her an incorrect dose would hurt or kill her? Would you want to know what her blood sugar was before sticking a needle in her?" I am guessing he'd want to know. I am guessing that he wouldn't put his daughter's life in his doctor's hand twice a day forever, and not worry that she could die. An infant would have no way to communicate how they feel, or if they were suffering from blood sugar that was too high or too low. Sort of like a cat - kitty can't tell you how he feels. You have to know and you have to test it yourself.

Now, if he would be perfectly fine just shooting insulin into his infant daughter with no worries, and totally trust his doctor's advice and put her at risk twice a day, every day, then maybe he should consider never having children, because he'd be an unfit parent.

That's the reality of your situation with Roy. You can do this, you know you can. You love that cat a whole lot, right? You've shelled out money and time and done endless research on this, and you obviously want to do what is best for Roy. And your housemate has zero right to screw that up. None.

After you talk to him and he hopefully sees the logic in this..... then look him dead in the eye and tell him "Never, ever, touch my cat again without my permission". Calmly, but dead seriously.

That's it. Off my soapbox. On to helping figure out how best to help you deal with Roy.

Carl
 
Here is an illustration on where the best spot to poke the ear is:
sweetspot.jpg


It sounds like you may be going too far inward to poke. Also, you can use most lancets without the automatic pen. Some people have an easier time poking with only a lancet because it's easier to see what you're doing and it only goes as fast as your fingers can poke. You will not hurt him, I promise. Wet a cotton ball and pinch it on the spot after you get the blood on the test strip, so the spot doesn't bruise.

Warming the ear helps a lot too. Sometimes you may have to "milk" the area a little toward where you poked to make the blood come out.

We are all concerned that Roy is OK. Since he peed, were you able to stick one of the ketostix in the pee? Funny smelling pee and/or breath is a concern. If you notice it again tomorrow, please take him to the vet, especially if you can't get a ketone test of his urine by then. Or if you notice it again tonight and it smells like nail polish remover.

As for your roommate, I agree with Carl. Those of us who've been helping on the board for a number of years have heard that "bunch of people you don't know online," bit before. I'm sure many of us can testify that this board saved our cat's life, especially in the beginning when we could see that our vet's instructions weren't working.

The important thing to know is that despite being strangers, we each love cats and we want to help you help your cat. It's as simply as that. And we have the positive experiences of now thousands of board members over more than 10 years to back up that ours is the best advice you're going to find, even if it is the inter-nets.

Keep us posted. It gets easier, I promise.
 
ours is the best advice you're going to find, even if it is the inter-nets.
Click to expand...

Very well said, Vicky. I did chuckle at the "inter-nets" thing.... lol. When my dear daughter wants to poke fun at people who ridicule web related things, she says "No kidding Dad, I saw it on the inter-web"

But seriously. The collective experience, knowledge and wisdom found on THIS site is greater IMHO than that you would find from any single vet. That's just logical sense to me. I'm pretty sure you could go into any regular vet clinic in the world, and not find one that has treated even dozens (rather than thousands) of sugarcats with a remission rate anywhere close to what you'll find among FDMB members.
CArl
 
With all the issue's you are having I am afraid to offer this piece of information...but as far as I know the one touch ultra mini DOES need to be calibrated. I mean I could be wrong...I just checked my newbie kits and found one and did actually calibrate it for a strip I put in there.
Just don't want you to get blood and a misread with an uncalibrated meter.
Corrections please if I am mistaken.
Lori
 
Anyone know how Roy did?????
I am sitting her sweating with wonder how he did last nite? or did I miss that??? nailbite_smile
 
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