Re: 1/28 Ruben amps 396 320 +5
:YMHUG: I've been following along with you since your first post and I lurked through last night's low number shooting. You did a fantastic job! You have come such a long way already and I am so glad you found this board to help you through this process. The people here are so amazing and knowledgeable and have all been where we're at. I can only hope to some day come close enough to their level to help pay their generosity forward. :YMHUG:
I wouldn't worry about his ears too much; they'll heal. Michelangelo's were a mess the first couple of weeks. With Mikey, his right ear bleeds better than his left, so I usually test him on that ear. Whenever I test on his left ear, however, to this day it still leaves a red blotch under the skin. Just make sure you put pressure on the poked mark afterwards as this helps reduce bruising and scabbing.
I think you also asked about using a lancet pen at one point. I have used both freehand and a lancet pen. I currently prefer the lancet pen (Acccu-Chek Fastclix) since I got a ton of free lancets for it that I haven't used up and it's much faster than manually poking. I've also found it's easier for "guest testers" to use than freehand because they don't actually have to "slice" the skin directly themselves (helps with the squeamish), although there is more chance for "out-of-area" poking. I'll probably switch back to freehand once I run out of lancets because I do like the control of freehand better than the "aim for the general area and hope you get close enough" method of the lancet pen. You definitely don't want to be poking
through the ear so if you are using a lancet pen, it should be on one of the lowest settings. Let me know if you have any specific questions about using the lancet pens (I've used a few different ones) and I'll try to answer them for you.
As for Neosporin, the nice thing about it is that it does have a topical analgesic (pramoxine) for pain relief if his ears are hurting him. The downside is that this makes it heavy and greasy. I used it the first week with Mikey, but it seemed to really annoy him and he kept rubbing at his ears, trying to clean them, and licking his paws. My neighborhood pet store recommended
Vetericyn, which is water-based and not as oily as well as being non-toxic. Yes, it is expensive, but one bottle will last you for a long, long time and you can use it on pretty much anything, including yourself. (I've even used it on a few cuts and scrapes of my own and have been impressed with how quickly it's healed vs. other stuff.) This seems to have worked much better for me and Mikey, but ECID and I figured I'm mention it as an option to consider if you keep having problems with him rubbing at his ears.
party_cat Go Ruben, Go! Earn another couple of reductions and get OTJ for Mommy, okay? :RAHCAT
