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#1
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First attempt at an ear stick ..
Hi all,
Well, after doing all the required reading on my One Touch Ultra and calibrating it, and practicing on myself, I thought I was ready to try and give Geordi his first ear stick, in my efforts to get him regulated here at home without having to take him in to the vet for Glucose curves. I watched the videos that showed other owners doing this procedure, so I thought I was going to do okay. Warmed up the ear with a damp cloth in a baggy that I microwaved. I decided to go easy on him, so I set the auto-lancet device at the minimum setting (I was able to draw blood on my finger on this lowest setting, so I figured it would work). After triggering it, I looked hopefully for a droplet of blood. Nothing. Rats! I warmed the ear some more, and massaged it a bit. I also put the lancing device to the middle and gave it another try. Still nothing! Geordi was very cooperative, and was allowing me to do all this while he laid on his side on my bed. I took the warming pad and put it back in the microwave, and decided to try once more on the other ear. I also set the lancing device to max. I fully expected that Geordi would be UNDER the bed when I came back into my bedroom, but, no, he was still lying on the bed, and just looked up at me when I came in. I warmed up the other ear, and triggered the lancing device. I got a teeny-tiny amount of blood .. not enough to get a reading .. and you really need very little with this meter .. only about the size of an 'o'. Since Geordi was still cooperating, I decided to try one more time in a different spot. Got another little tiny blood spot, but not big enough to do a test. That was it .. I figured I'd better give Geordi (and myself) a break, and give it another go tomorrow. Geordi is a big boy, a 14 yr. old Maine Coon neuter, and he has the typical 'ear furnishings' found on Maine Coons. Since he is BLACK, its hard to see anything or any veins. The insides of his ears are light in color in some areas, but even his skin inside his ears is somewhat black. The fur doesn't make it any easier. So, I will give it another try tomorrow, after we both have had time to think about what we did today. Any suggestions? |
#2
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"Darmok" wrote in message
... Hi all, Well, after doing all the required reading on my One Touch Ultra and calibrating it, and practicing on myself, I thought I was ready to try and give Geordi his first ear stick, in my efforts to get him regulated here at home without having to take him in to the vet for Glucose curves. I watched the videos that showed other owners doing this procedure, so I thought I was going to do okay. Warmed up the ear with a damp cloth in a baggy that I microwaved. I decided to go easy on him, so I set the auto-lancet device at the minimum setting (I was able to draw blood on my finger on this lowest setting, so I figured it would work). After triggering it, I looked hopefully for a droplet of blood. Nothing. Rats! I warmed the ear some more, and massaged it a bit. I also put the lancing device to the middle and gave it another try. Still nothing! Geordi was very cooperative, and was allowing me to do all this while he laid on his side on my bed. [snip] The lancing device is designed for use on fleshy areas - a fingertip, for instance - that tend to protrude in to the lancing aperture, and lancing-depth settings are calibrated in consideration of this fact. A cat's ear is not nearly so conformable, and my experience has been that the best results obtain when the lancing device is set for maximum penetration. |
#3
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There are some hints he
http://www.felinediabetes.com/fdmb-faq.htm#glucose To get advice from people who are experienced and do this all of the time, go onto the message board at www.felinediabetes.com. They are very helpful and answer quickly. Rhonda Darmok wrote: Hi all, Well, after doing all the required reading on my One Touch Ultra and calibrating it, and practicing on myself, I thought I was ready to try and give Geordi his first ear stick, in my efforts to get him regulated here at home without having to take him in to the vet for Glucose curves. I watched the videos that showed other owners doing this procedure, so I thought I was going to do okay. Warmed up the ear with a damp cloth in a baggy that I microwaved. I decided to go easy on him, so I set the auto-lancet device at the minimum setting (I was able to draw blood on my finger on this lowest setting, so I figured it would work). After triggering it, I looked hopefully for a droplet of blood. Nothing. Rats! I warmed the ear some more, and massaged it a bit. I also put the lancing device to the middle and gave it another try. Still nothing! Geordi was very cooperative, and was allowing me to do all this while he laid on his side on my bed. I took the warming pad and put it back in the microwave, and decided to try once more on the other ear. I also set the lancing device to max. I fully expected that Geordi would be UNDER the bed when I came back into my bedroom, but, no, he was still lying on the bed, and just looked up at me when I came in. I warmed up the other ear, and triggered the lancing device. I got a teeny-tiny amount of blood .. not enough to get a reading .. and you really need very little with this meter .. only about the size of an 'o'. Since Geordi was still cooperating, I decided to try one more time in a different spot. Got another little tiny blood spot, but not big enough to do a test. That was it .. I figured I'd better give Geordi (and myself) a break, and give it another go tomorrow. Geordi is a big boy, a 14 yr. old Maine Coon neuter, and he has the typical 'ear furnishings' found on Maine Coons. Since he is BLACK, its hard to see anything or any veins. The insides of his ears are light in color in some areas, but even his skin inside his ears is somewhat black. The fur doesn't make it any easier. So, I will give it another try tomorrow, after we both have had time to think about what we did today. Any suggestions? |
#4
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"Darmok" wrote in message ... Hi all, Well, after doing all the required reading on my One Touch Ultra and calibrating it, and practicing on myself, I thought I was ready to try and give Geordi his first ear stick, in my efforts to get him regulated here at home without having to take him in to the vet for Glucose curves. I watched the videos that showed other owners doing this procedure, so I thought I was going to do okay. Warmed up the ear with a damp cloth in a baggy that I microwaved. I decided to go easy on him, so I set the auto-lancet device at the minimum setting That's the problem. Try a higher setting. I use the Soft-touch lancet pen set at 4 for cats. Good luck. Phil |
#5
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On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 05:24:13 -0500, "Phil P."
wrote: "Darmok" wrote in message .. . Hi all, Well, after doing all the required reading on my One Touch Ultra and calibrating it, and practicing on myself, I thought I was ready to try and give Geordi his first ear stick, in my efforts to get him regulated here at home without having to take him in to the vet for Glucose curves. I watched the videos that showed other owners doing this procedure, so I thought I was going to do okay. Warmed up the ear with a damp cloth in a baggy that I microwaved. I decided to go easy on him, so I set the auto-lancet device at the minimum setting That's the problem. Try a higher setting. I use the Soft-touch lancet pen set at 4 for cats. Good luck. Phil Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try again today with max setting on the soft-touch lancet pen. If that fails, I may go to the message boards mentioned to get additional advice, or try the method suggested by Megan, who recommended not using the soft-touch lancet pen, but rather just do the stick manually, after locating a vein. That's the hard part .. ear veins on black cats (who have black skin in their ears) is pretty tough. We'll keep you advised. Thanks again. Bill & the boys BTW, if you'd like to see my boys, visit www.cooncat.net |
#6
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Stick about a 1/8 of an inch in from the edge of the ear. I have
always done it manually with a needle and had no problem. -L. |
#7
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Any suggestions? I use a insulin needle. Also, when you have a hard time finding the vein, it helps to have a little back light, so put a light source in front of the ear. will make the vein more visible. I also find that "pumping" the vein for blood will help more come out if only a dribble comes out the first time. Hold the bottom end and milk the top end. Good luck!! |
#8
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"Darmok" wrote in message ... On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 05:24:13 -0500, "Phil P." wrote: "Darmok" wrote in message .. . Hi all, Well, after doing all the required reading on my One Touch Ultra and calibrating it, and practicing on myself, I thought I was ready to try and give Geordi his first ear stick, in my efforts to get him regulated here at home without having to take him in to the vet for Glucose curves. I watched the videos that showed other owners doing this procedure, so I thought I was going to do okay. Warmed up the ear with a damp cloth in a baggy that I microwaved. I decided to go easy on him, so I set the auto-lancet device at the minimum setting That's the problem. Try a higher setting. I use the Soft-touch lancet pen set at 4 for cats. Good luck. Phil Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try again today with max setting on the soft-touch lancet pen. If that fails, I may go to the message boards mentioned to get additional advice, or try the method suggested by Megan, who recommended not using the soft-touch lancet pen, but rather just do the stick manually, after locating a vein. That's the hard part .. ear veins on black cats (who have black skin in their ears) is pretty tough. We'll keep you advised. Thanks again. Bill & the boys The best method is the one that works for you. I have a rough time using just the lancet because they're so small or my hands are too big. LOL! You might want to give him a treat when you're done so he starts to associate the procedure with good things - although most cats don't even flinch. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. BTW, if you'd like to see my boys, visit www.cooncat.net Wow! Your cats are gorgeous. I like the names. Too bad "Spock" was probably before your generation. ;-) Good luck. Phil. |
#9
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Darmok wrote:
On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 05:24:13 -0500, "Phil P." wrote: That's the problem. Try a higher setting. I use the Soft-touch lancet pen set at 4 for cats. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try again today with max setting on the soft-touch lancet pen. If that fails, I may go to the message boards mentioned to get additional advice, or try the method suggested by Megan, who recommended not using the soft-touch lancet pen, but rather just do the stick manually, after locating a vein. That's the hard part .. ear veins on black cats (who have black skin in their ears) is pretty tough. I found it nearly impossible to get close to the vein with a lancet device, and just use the lancet in my fingers and a quick jab. Getting a good blood drop requires good aim. (IMO, people who claim the cat's ears need to "learn" to bleed are really experiencing their own difficultly learning to aim properly, and/or not warming the ear enough.) My diabetic cat is black, so I had to spend time examining the light brown ears of my other cat to familiarize myself with the distance of the vein from the edge of the ear. I seemed to get the knack for hitting the correct distance pretty much right away. I usually go for the middle third of the outside edge, because I find it a little harder to aim going nearer the ear tip or the top-of-the-head edge. (of course, if you're doing a curve, you might need to use more of the ears that day). As I said in a previous post, with the ultra-fine lancets being almost hair-fine, I think it's far less of a problem to accidentally poke the lancet all the way through the ear sometimes, and only have to stick once, than to try to do it shallowly, and maybe have to stick several times to get it right. Neither my 13-year-old diabetic cat, nor my 17-year-old Maine coon that I've tested a few times over the past year, notice the actual lancet prick, but tend to get slightly annoyed at having their ear held and warmed, and would likely start squirming in the time it would take to try to stick several times (not to mention that the lancet would get duller with each stick). HTH -- jamie ) "There's a seeker born every minute." |
#10
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On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 03:10:51 -0500, "Phil P."
wrote: The best method is the one that works for you. I have a rough time using just the lancet because they're so small or my hands are too big. LOL! You might want to give him a treat when you're done so he starts to associate the procedure with good things - although most cats don't even flinch. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. Well, I'm using the pen ... If I get the ear warm enough, and get lucky, I can get my droplet in one shot. Sometimes, it takes 2 or 3 attempts, but I'm getting better. Fortunately, Geordi is just a great big "pooh bear", and sits there and behaves like a perfect Maine Coon ... just gentle and relaxed. I do give him one or 2 pouncies, depending on if I had to stick him once or twice. BTW, if you'd like to see my boys, visit www.cooncat.net Wow! Your cats are gorgeous. I like the names. Too bad "Spock" was probably before your generation. ;-) Thanks for the compliments .. I think they are pretty special. They are my 1st purebred kitties, and my 1st Maine Coons. No, Spock wasn't before my time .. I've seen all the original series shows probably 25 to 50 times each. Its just that when I got my boys ( 1990 ), Star Trek The Next Generation was REALLY popular on TV. Good luck. Phil. Thanks. Geordi was switched to Humulin L on Monday, and so tonight the doc wants me to do a GC. Good thing I have an alarm clock. He got his shot at 5pm, so every 2 hours I'll be doing the test. |
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