NutterButter a/k/a Drama King

Nutter went for his first curve today at the vets. Can we say "nightmare"!! They couldn't do it because he was growling and hissing so much. They finally let him just stay in the crate to calm down and put a towel over it so he wouldn't have to see all the commotion. They did manage to get one reading which was 115 (don't know the timing of the reading) and got weighed in at 13 1/2 pounds. (Up from 12 1/4 just a couple of weeks ago) They were able to get blood for a Fructosamine which should be back in a couple of days. The vet says his weight is perfect right where it is. She thinks he's doing very well.

They showed me how to do my own home testing...they are real supporters of it. (They got a "volunteer" cat to demonstrate...I'm sure he was thrilled). The vet gave me some needles to use instead of lancets which she thought might be easier for me to use.

Anyway, my dear boy was a nightmare to get back in the carrier. I had to go back to the cage where he was growling. Finally, he knew it was me and he came to the door. We got him outside of the cage, but no amount of coaxing or treats was getting him back in that carrier again. They loaned me a larger carrier that the lid comes off and we managed to get him in. What a drama boy I have there.

I got him home and he acted like nothing was wrong. He inhaled his dinner and let me give him his shot just fine. Ignored his brother and all is well. I, of course, had some of the chilled Chardonnay (sitting next to me right now!!!).

Thanks all for your encouragement. I know once I get the home testing down, I'll feel a lot better. Baby steps!!!

Linda

 

Well, your mileage may vary with the needles.

My vet also gave me 25ga monoject needles to use for poking.

I found they hurt Smokey. I switched to a lancet device.

It's easier to get blood with the needle, at the cost of more discomfort for your cat.

Get a lancet device and start practicing with that also.

You can get a Reli-On lancet device at WalMart, and the FINE (not ultra-FINE) lancets
to go with it.

 

I have the lancet device and two size lancets (the 30 and the 28 guage). I just need to figure out how to keep him from squirming around so much. He just knows when I'm about to poke.

But I will figure it out. I'm giving him a break for the next couple of days and I'll try again on Thursday. It is certainly a learning curve.

Linda

 

Linda,

You're so lucky to have a vet that supports home testing! It seems that so many are opposed to it, which is too bad. It's much easier to do curves at home, once you get the hang of testing. It will be easier on NutterButter and you won't have to worry about having false high BG because of stress.

Best of luck getting the testing going.

 

The vet called today with the Fructosamine results. They were borderline to normal. She said that with the low reading of 115 yesterday, she's lowering the units to 2 twice a day. I'm going to try to test tonight before I shoot to be sure. Keep you fingers crossed that I can do this.

Linda

 

one thing I found that made it easier for me to do the ear pokes with a lancet device was to take the cap off where the lancet is and use it capless. Then arm it like you would with the cap, it gave me better visability of where exactly I was poking but allowed me to trigger it quickly to get a squirmy cat. (Yes, I even check my civies now once a month, just to make sure they are still civies)

Mel & Muse (GA)