Any tips on drawing blood for glucose curve?

Hi! Our Pasha was just diagnosed with diabetes. He also has FIV but has been healthy once we got all his teeth fixed! We don't know how old he is, maybe 8 or 9 (he was a stray when we got him).

On Wednesday I'm going to attempt to do four blood draws at home with the Alphatrak system. This will be his first glucose curve, after he got his initial dose and monitoring at the vet's all day last Thursday.

I would greatly appreciate any tips on getting the blood. I may have to do this by myself, as my husband won't be home. I'm going to try the paw pads, because I cannot find his ear vein even after a lot of rubbing (we tried this at the vet's, I couldn't see the vein! he's a black-and-gray tabby, and he didn't like the ear rubbing).

Pasha is generally a laid-back cat, but he's big and strong!

Thanks for any advice on drawing blood!

Nancy T.

 

The trick for seeing where to poke and more importantly seeing the blood pool on dark or black ears is to use a flashlight.

I used a small handheld one that I held with my teeth and used as a spotlight to see where I poked and where the blood pool was. I never could see a vein and didn't try, rather I poked along the edge of the ear.

Here is a pic of what I mean.



Poking anywhere along the inner edge is fine. You don't want to get the vein or it will bleed like crazy.

Also, I found the lancet device too cumbersome so I free hand poked. I held the lancet at an upward 45 degreeish angle and poked that way. Like this:



You also want to make sure the ear is warm, that will allow the blood to flow easier. A trick is to make a warming sock.

Take one sock - preferably an ankle length or so. Fill it with about 1/4 cup of rice, dry beans or oatmeal (I preferred oatmeal).

Knot the top.

Put in microwave for about 20-30 seconds, until warm to touch.

Remove, place behind ear and hold until ear warms up. Since I free handed poked, I found keeping the sock behind the ear, allowed me to poke without worrying about piercing my finger if I went through the ear.

Once you poke, drop the sock, keep flashlight in mouth to find the blood, if necessary "milk" knead the area to get the blood pooling and then test.

Be sure to remain calm and relaxed when testing, this will keep kitty calm and relaxed and give kitty a treat afterward.

 

I use a similar technique, except I use the flashlight as a flat surface against which to put his ear and then poke against that... it does double duty of lighting up the ear so I can see what I'm doing, and giving me something to lay his ear on to poke more easily.

(oh, and I also wrap him up in a towel, burrito style first, to keep him from wiggling too much)

 

Conversely...

I've never looked for the vein. I poke the thicker edge of the ear, closer to the base. I warm the ear a bit with a sock filled with about 1/2c uncooked rice, and then I keep the sock in the ear as support when I poke.

Jen

 

Wow!! Thanks, everyone, for the good ideas/experience. The flashlight sounds like a great idea.

Has anyone tried drawing it from the paw pads? The tech told me that was easier than the ear, though the vet just told me the ear.

Nancy

 

There's a few problems with the paws. First, most cats will let you mess with their ears for a lot longer than the paws! Second, the ear is a bit more sterile than the paw. Think about it- if you had to step in a box with your pee and poo, would you want a bunch of scratches on the bottoms of your feet? One thing we encourage here is frequent home testing. The more data we have, the more educated choices we can make with dosing. You'll at least want to be testing twice a day- before each shot, but likely more than just that. The ears will bleed better and better over time, the veins/capillaries really do "learn".

Another thing on the meter- I believe the test strips for the Alphatrak are quite a bit more expensive than many others out there. For example, I use the Bayer Breeze 2 and I routinely find the strips on ebay for 30c a piece. Others use the Relion (from walmart) whose strips are in that same ballpark ($20 for 50). I believe the Alphatrak is a pet-specific meter, so the numbers that you get off of that are around 30 points different from the human meters (higher). But, the human meters do work just as well and that's what most of us use.

 

Thanks much for all the info, Weathergirl. I'll try the ear first tomorrow. Yes, the Alphatrak has a "cat code" and the test-strip number has to match what's on the meter. I am new to all this so have a lot of reading to do to get up to speed!

(Well, I'm not actually new to the shots... we had a diabetic kitty years ago, gave her shots for four years, but we never did testing at home, such an option wasn't offered to us at the time.)

Here goes nothing!!

Nancy