Can't find the sweet spot!

10 year old George was just started on 1 unit of insulin last Friday. Since Saturday morning, twice a day, my husband and I have been tormenting poor George trying to find the sweet spot on his ear(s). So far no success. We tried the hot washrag this morning, and got a flashlight to try to find the vein. It's so far along the edge that we can't really tell if the lancet is getting in the right spot. Think I should just try the needle alone (ack!)? Help! Also, the vet has him on Hill's M/D dry food (he only ate dry food before) and he seems to like it. But the other posts talk about wet food. Should I switch? Thanks! Kate

 

Here's a pic of the sweet spot area



While you don't have to be exacting, the idea is to poke as near the edge of the ear as you can. You don't want to hit the vein, or it will take a while to stop the bleeding, but getting close to the vein is fine. Anywhere along the edge will work.

What insulin are you using?

Getting rid of DM and dry food is an excellent idea! If your cat will easily eat wet food, then go for it with gusto! Any commercial canned food is fine - the trick is to look for ones per the food chart that are under 10% in carbs.

Please check out these links regarding food and nutrition:

Food/nutrtion links

Transitioning from dry to wet food

The thing to remember, when you change to low carb wet food, the insulin needs may change, so it's very important to master the art of home testing.

Can you tell us where you are, as there may be members local to you, that can help you master your technique in person.

 

I'm in Orange County, CA. Fountain Valley.

Thanks for the picture. Saw a video on the website too, however they used just the lancet, not the whatchamacallit we have been using that holds the lancet.

The insulin bottle says PZI 40 Units/ml Protamine Zinc. Assume that tells you something.

Also, I got the name of the dry food George the vet recommended wrong. It's Hill's M/D, dry food specifically for diabetic cats. Still think I should change to wet food? If so, perhaps I should wait until we get his insulin level stabilized first, as it hasn't yet been a week.

Appreciate your help! Nice to know there is someone out there to help.

Kate

 

Definitely return the dry food. The vet is supposed to give you a refund. All you have to do is say the cat doesn't like it and won't eat it.

Definitely go for the canned/wet foods on the charts - they are a whole lot cheaper than the prescription food and made with better ingredients.

You can get FF at Walmart for 30 cents a can. Friskies, etc, on the inexpensive end. You can also get higher end foods (and priced) such as Wellness, EVO 95%, etc. All much better than Hills MD or Purina DM.

Change the food immediately. As it's important to feed him the proper food and sadly the prescription stuff is garbage and will only make your wallet lighter.

The insulin you are using Prozinc and is an animal based insulin. It's also the new version of PZI. If you go to the board index and look for the insulin support groups, you will see a board for PZI/Prozinc. The folks on that board can give you more information about the insulin.

I cannot say if it's a good insulin, since I haven't used it, but I can tell you from what I've seen on this board, several people using this insulin do end up changing to one of the L insulins (lantus or levimer). These insulins are human based insulins and work very well with many kitties.

Personally, I used Lantus and had very good results with it.

The thingy you refer to is called a lancet device. They come with the meters and I couldn't figure out how to use it and realized it was more trouble and a time waster, that I found a simple poke or two using the lancet (pokie thingy) worked better.

One of the tricks is to hold the lancet at an upward angle and poke that way - like this:



Also are you warming the ear before poking? and massaging the ear?

Sometimes after you poke, you have to "milk" the ear to get the blood flowing.

To warm the ear:

take one sock
add 1/4 cup rice, oatmeal or dry beans
knot the top
put in microwave for 20-30 seconds, until warm to touch
put behind cat's ear and hold until ear warms up
keep it there and poke - this way if you pierce the ear, you will hit the sock and not your finger


I'm not good with CA, but I'll put word out that you're looking for peeps nearby.

 

Thanks for all of your help, Hillary.
I'm armed with knowledge and read to do battle (calmly, of course) with the lancet!

Kate

 

Remember you are bigger than it is and the first poke is the hardest. Once you do it. You will realize how easy it is. Sometimes a challenge to get blood but poke again and milk the ear it will bleed.


Remember to give kitty a reward after. And yoursel tooo. Maui was into brushes and knew when she got poked she got brushed. And if I didn't brush she would sit there waiting until I did. And she would look back at me and say. Well hey dummy you poked you annoyed me now brush me!

 

Definitely make a rice sock.

I can't begin to tell you the difference it has made for us. And it makes the sweet actually sweet. Before the sock it was a struggle to get a good stick.

Just fill a baby sock with uncooked rice. I sealed the end with a small cable tie. I imagine most sew it closed?
Then 30 seconds in the microwave. Let it cool until it's just warm on your ear. I mostly hold it under Duke's ear and heat from behind. After the ear is warm I keep the sock under his ear and use it to support the ear while I stick it. I too use just the lancet. One little poke does it just about every time now.

The BD Ultra-fine 33 gauge lancets work well for this newbie (who may soon graduate to the rank of practicing amateur).

Anyway stick with it, it's worth it.

BD

 

I am new at this too and had your same frustrations just a few weeks ago. I can tell you that the lancet will work if you give it time. It took Trouble over a week to really start giving me good drops of blood. When I posted the same questions you are, someone told me to give the ear time to "learn" how to bleed. Also, I had to reduce the depth of my lancet. A warm ear is so much easier to work with. As far as food chances go, I drug my feed for a long time thinking I would eventually get around to changing to wet food. One weekend I went on a trip and forced myself to only take wet, and I saw a dramatic drop in numbers immediately! Good luck...it will get easier really soon!

 

You don't need a baby sock, any sock you have will work. and if you have an ankle length sock, all you have to do is knot the top - to keep the stuff inside.

Please note that a 33 gauge lancet is VERY thin and may be too thin when starting out. I recommend to newbies to use a 29 or 30 gauge lancet to start. As it's large enough to get a good poke and not too big to hurt the cat.

Remember this with lancets and syringes - the higher the number, the thinner the needle.

 

I actually poke the thicker edge of the ear and find it much easier. I have also never looked for a vein, I just poke a few mllimeters from the edge just a third up from the base...

 

We never could get the "sweet spot" to work well on Smokey, just didn't bleed enough to get a bubble to sip up. We poked on the inner curve of the ear towards the top. I started with the hand held lancet, just couldn't do it right with the device at first. Towards the end I switched to the device, but hubby always did it free hand.

 

I used to have some trouble too but warming the ear long enough REALLY made all the difference.