Curly Sue refuses to have me test her

So, I've just started home testing as of last week... Or at least trying to. I've made about 9 attempts in the last week (time constraints) to test her sugars and only 2 have been successful. My cat is very smart, very food motivated. She knows when I get the test kit out and gets angry about it. She bites a LOT and is fairly aggressive. I finally had it when she went at my arm. I was so frustrated that I was ready to kick her (...I didn't), I gave up, gave her dinner and gave her a shot. Her fur still feels kinda greasy so I gave her her usual dose of 3u of vetsulin. I just don't know how to get this cat to chill so I can test her. Any ideas? I've tried the blanket, she gets mad. I've tried kneeling with her between my knees. I've tried treats, LOTS of them, which is how I got to test her the first time. I've tried scruffing her but I've only got 2 hands and she bends her ears back. I'm out of ideas. She knows what I'm doing. Help T_T I'm ready to break down here.

 

You might try this...You can use a clothespin or any kind of clip that is strong enough (there are more video's on YouTube too....Google "How to Deactivate a Cat"

 

I've been know to use a couple of hair clips, the sort that can be used to pull a little girls's hair into a ponytail if you don't want to use rubber bands

test them out on your fingers, some have sharp edges, some are too weak

 

My cat was the same way when I first started. She hated it and she was NOT afraid to let me know with her teeth and claws! I watched all the videos, I read all the tips, and I was still having so much trouble. I thought there was no way I’d ever be able to test her.

What helped for me was conditioning her to all the different parts of testing before trying it all at once. So a few times a day I would touch her ears and give her a treat. Then i started holding her between my legs, which is how I test her, and I would give her a treat. And I did this for all the different parts of the routine. When I eventually tried testing her, if I couldn’t get any blood after about 3 pricks or if she started struggling too much, I would just let her go, give her a treat, and try again later. It took us a few weeks to get there but my demon finally learned it was nearly as bad as she thought Now she comes running when I get her testing supplies, which I thought would never happen!

 

Omg. How cool is that. Had no idea

 

Also, if you are stressed about testing her, she also will pick up on that and it will stress her out too. Someone mentioned a while back to sing while you are testing. It is supposed to help relieve your stress and also the cat's stress. Also, even if you are not successful, always give her a treat. You want her to associate the testing with treats.

Are you using the lancet freehand or with the lancet device? If using the device, you may want to try using it freehand instead. I found I have more control of where I poke, plus the clicking noise of the device is not there to stress out the cat.

 

It's based on the normal cat's reaction to the "pinch" on the neck....when momma cat picks up her kittens to move them, they "freeze"....that prevents them from being hurt (and make it a lot easier on momma too) That reaction continues to work in even much older cats (but not 100% of the time...there are always exceptions to the rules)

 

ECID -- but it does work on Catcat -- at least until he manages to get a hind foot to push the clip off ... normally I can hold him off enough, but the clip makes it much easier for me ... I probably should use it oftener than I do