What supplies should I have on hand?

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LoveMySmokey

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I'm a bit clueless on what supplies I should have on hand for Smokey. I know I need a glucometer, test strips and lancets along with the insulin and needles but what else should I have on hand? What is the best glucometer to get? I was looking online and it seems that the Relion meter is the cheapest as far as test strips go.

Anyone use one of those timed feeders for their pets? The ones that open up at a certain time so the food isn't available until that time. Is it okay to use for wet food or will it get dried out to easily?
 
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A human glucometer. Any one that sips and takes a tiny sample is fine. The meters are often free at drug stores; it’s the strips that are expensive. You can, however, buy them on ebay at less than half the price of stores. Lots of people here also like the ReliOn from Walmart. It is an inexpensive meter and its strips are the cheapest around. Try the meter out on yourself or someone else before you try it on your cat. You want to be familiar with it before you poke the cat.

Lancets and a lancet device. Usually, until the ears “learn” to bleed, a 25-26 gauge is good. Any brand will work.

Ketone strips. (Ketostix) Just like human diabetics use. You will sometimes need to test urine if the numbers are high.

Rice sack. Make this out of thinnish sock, filled with raw rice or oatmeal and then knotted. You heat this in the microwave until very warm but not hot. Then heat the ears before poking.

Also nice to have. Flashlight: so you can look at the ears and find the little capillaries that come off the vein running down the ear. Vaseline: Put a tiny smear where you want to poke. It will help the blood bead up.

And some lo carb treats to give your kitty, successful test or not Lo carb treats

We love our PetSafe5. It is easy to use and has 5 sections. And it is the only feeder that our cats could not break into.
 
Honey or Karo syrup and needleless syringes, the honey/karo in case you ever have a hypo which hopefully you wont with hometesting. The needleless syringes in case you ever need to give food that way.

Ketone test strips, they test the urine, good to check once in a while, especially in the beginning.

The Relion is great, cheap works well and you can get strips easy. If you want to go with other brands, AccuCheck Aviva, Bayer Contour, One Touch Ultra, Freestyle, they are all good, but really the Relion will be fine.

Keep some high carb gravy canned food, also just in case of low numbers. Some treats, freeze dried chicken or salmon, low carb to help with hometesting.

When you see offers for free meters, get them. It's always good to have a spare meter.
 
We started out with an AccuCheck Aviva but we were having such a hard time getting enough blood to check. So we had to go to a Relion because it required a smaller sample. It was cheaper and so were the strips. Also since it is at Walmart, I could go anytime to the 24 hour store. Since he is off the juice now, I check only once a week so I still don't get blood on the first try often. We use a "headlight" flashlight that we got at Lowe's or Home Depot so that our hands were free. The Beefeaters freeze dried chicken treats at Petsmart are magic! Everyone comes to see Bo get his ear pricked so they can have chicken too. There is no privacy with 4 cats. I give chicken before, during and after the test so that he is cooperative. I use Vaseline and small round makeup pads (not the big fluffy ones) to hold his ear and to wipe it when finished.

Because of this board, I had karo syrup and a liquid medicine dispenser in the event of hypo (which did come without any warning signs - just straight to a seizure) so I was ready when it happened. I also had some high carb food with gravy that he loved to give him after the Karo syrup. After he had the seizure, once he quit jerking, I squirted some Karo syrup on his gums a few times trying not to choke him with too much at a time. Since the Karo syrup works fast but also wears off fast, I gave him a packet of the high carb food when he could sit up. It takes the food a little while to get the BG up. He ate while I got the carrier and called the vet. We went to the emergency vet with the Karo and food in the car. After he had that seizure, I had karo syrup or honey and a liquid medicine dispenser in every room so that it would be there if I needed it.

Tucker's mom said to also have some syringes without needles to get some food in them in case they can't eat. That is a good idea. I don't remember reading that before.
 
Hypo toolbox supplies: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2354

LoveMySmokey said:
Anyone use one of those timed feeders for their pets? The ones that open up at a certain time so the food isn't available until that time. Is it okay to use for wet food or will it get dried out to easily?
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Lots of people here use the PetSafe 5 compartment feeder http://www.petsafe.net/Products/Feed-and-Water-Systems/Automatic.aspx There's 2 compartment one but it's not cat-proof (cats are able to pry the lids open and even flip and push the feeder around) and it's very noisy because of the manual timer that only sets in 2 hour increments. Catmate is another brand of timed feeder.

Any timed feeder can be used with canned food. The food may get a little dry but most cats are ok with it. You can add a little water to the food to prevent it from drying out too much.
 
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