Poor little guy was tested 5x today, and three of those times were very difficult. Poor little me, I gave him insulin for the first time today, my partner gave it last time and the practice try at the vet. Poor little all of us, including his civvie brother Bailey, who does not know what is going on but is currently in "Bailey Jail" for harassing his brother who is having a bad day while he tries to eat. Anyway... I feel like a zombie and they'll be up in a few hours again bugging me for food so I'm going to take a nap. Hopefully we'll figure out a better feeding schedule soon. (update: Bailey was released on his own recognizance after a very short stint in the pokey so his brother could eat in peace for a minute lol)
Okay first off, your comments about Bailey CRACKED me up! As for the testing and the shots it DOES get easier. Give it some time and you'll both feel better after it. Do you give a treat after the tests? That's the secret...they look forward to the treats so much they come running for their tests! I had to give treats out to everyone so I usually had an attentive audience at test time! I see that you're giving shots only at night. Is there a reason for that? Jasper is in somewhat higher numbers, but since he's only getting a shot once a day, he'll probably come down into really nice numbers if you can give twice a day. Right now, he spends the night cycle with insulin in him helping keep things regulated, but when it wears off in the morning, he spends the day getting higher and higher...then starts over at night. Giving twice a day will help get him lower since he'll get the insulin both times and it will help keep him lower during the day as well as the night.
Thanks! Yeah we skipped one dose because we're very new to this and it's very stressful combined with other life stresses going on and my own health issues getting in the way, we decided to start low and go slow to see how he reacted to his very first dose of insulin ever and just an overabundance of caution skipped one dose. Going forward now that we actually know how to do all of this and now that we actually know how he reacts to insulin the plan is to give it to him every 12 hours. Even just doing the spreedsheet was hard for me, testing him 5x yesterday was also very stressful, etc. This has all been very overwhelming. I've seen others on here say they skipped a dose for whatever reason so it didn't seem like a big deal to skip his second dose ever til we got used to everything and felt confident about injecting him, that's all. I do give him treats and he's such a good patient boy but for some reason yesterday 2x it worked quicker and easier than ever and the other three times I couldn't get his ear to bleed after a million pokes, it was awful. And yeah, Bailey is ridiculous lol But he's a good boy , I just think he's stressed out from all the changes too.
It's a learning curve for sure. Now that you're getting everything figured out, it will start to get easier. Pretty soon you'll be able to do this all in your sleep. A few tricks to help with the bleeding: 1. Put some neosporin or vaseline on the ear first. Just a tiny sheen. It helps the blood bead up instead of getting lost in their fur 2. Cats are quite often dehydrated. Make sure to add anywhere from 1-4T of water to his food. As much as he'll tolerate. You may have to start low and work up if he doesn't like it. The extra hydration really helps them bleed better 3. Warm the ear first. Make a little pouch of fabric with uncooked rice (or other hard grain) and warm it in the microwave, then use it to warm his ear. You can use a square of fabric, a cut out from an old t-shirt, a baby sock -- whatever you have around. You can also use warm water in a pill bottle. 4. Use a larger gauge lancet. 26 or 28 work well when you're starting out. The smaller the number, the larger the needle. If you're using 30's or 33's, those can be difficult when you're first starting out.
Thanks! and thanks for the tips. I had tried neosporin but I haven't gotten good at just using a little yet lol and made a mess everytime I tried it so far. Yeah I was thinking it might be a hydration issue and his FF have been looking drier than usual so I have been adding a little water to it. We have been using a rice sock that I have for my shoulder lol it works well if I heat it up enough but I was worried about overheating so was probably underheating it lol this morning I left it in too long so had to use a paper towel between it and him but yeahhhh this morning there was a lot of blood thanks to the rice sock :/ And the lancets we got are ultra fine and sometimes those work but we got like 10 slightly bigger ones with the meter I used those the first couple times and now I go to them if the ultrafines don't work.
So he got his first AM dose this morning, he was 342 at AMPS and he's 219 at +3. For some reason we seem to have gotten worse at testing and it seems like his little ears are sore from too many failed attempts because even when I just start to gently rub them to warm them up a little bit he squirms and tries to leave. I had good luck with just rubbing them twice and got overconfident I think. I'm going to make a new rice sock cause the one I've been using is an old one I've had for my shoulder and I just feel like he deserves a nice new one. And... we have gotten an error message twice now... it's Er4 on the Relion Premier compact meter... which says something about it being either viscosity or too little blood I think and there was definitely enough blood both times...so I'm thinking ...lol I did use WAY too much neosporin on his ears yesterday by accident and didn't use alcohol or anything to clean them, just warm water but they do still feel weird. So... I want to test him again in a couple few hours ... so hopefully he'll let me clean his ears with a soapy washcloth first lol. He's such a good boy, I feel so bad for him. But a friend is sending him a bag of purebites so I went ahead and gave him as many as needed during this last test to get through it and then to reward him now that I know we won't run out too soon. Anyway... just feels good to share it all with you guys, thanks for listening and thanks for all the help, you've all been lifesavers and I'm sorry if I haven't always had a chance to thank everyone personally but it means the world to me that you take the time to listen and help us out. <3
Thanks so much, all your support early on gave me a lot of hope and confidence to be able to do this stuff.
And your doing a great job, I promise it will get easier, we have all been in the same place your are, please just ask when in doubt, these people are wonderful and just remember YOU got this! You will do a great job!
I put the teeniest smidge of neosporin on my finger first, and then rub it along his ear to make it smooth and thin. It should just be a sheen, not a thick layer. You're just trying to tame the fur. Right after the meter sucks up the blood, while you're waiting for the number to register, put some pressure on the poke spot by pinching it gently between your fingers. Usually accompanied by a jowl scratch and a kiss on the head. Keeping the pressure on for a few seconds keeps the spot from bruising which helps avoid it being sore. Also make sure you're rotating poke spots. So I use the front edge and back edge of each ear and just rotate through. Also varying how high or low in the sweet spot, so I'm not poking the same area more than once every eight tests. By the way, here is the "sweet spot" And one more picture that might help:
Thanks so much, our last two tests were quick and easy cause I made sure to use the rice sock at the right temperature.
