Stuck myself with the cat's lancet

"Julie Bove" wrote in message
...

"Richard Evans" wrote in message
...
The cat and I are both diabetic. I check my own sugar 6-8 times per
day, I check his twice. We have separate glucometer kits. Today, while
preparing to check the cat's sugar, I had a brain fart and instead of
lancing the cat I lanced my own forearm with a lancet that had been
previously used on the cat.

I immediately rinsed it with alcohol, but what are the chances I
caught anything from the incident?

Oh wow! I don't know what the chances are, but how in the heck do you
lancet a cat? I know mine would never sit still for it and would lancet
me with her teeth and claws if I tried it.

They take the blood from the ears.

Paul

"Spot" wrote:

Where the heck have you been..........................Most diabetics DO NOT
reuse a lancelet.

I've been on alt.support.diabetes and every time the subject comes up
the consensus is that reuse is common.

Care to start a separate thread and see what responses you get?


You are letting yourself wide open for an infection
sooner or later.

Nothing yet after probably ten thousand sticks. I'll take my chances.


And yes I am diabetic my doctor would smack me upside the head if I told him
I was reusing lancelets.

Then don't tell him.

hopitus wrote:


why are you reusing lancets??

Because that's been my practice for over ten years. Most diabetics
change lancets once or twice a year , if that.

Heh...is your doc living on S.S.? And how do YOU know what "most
diabetics"
do?

Based on repeated threads on alt.support.diabetes over many years.

Please read last sentence of my other post here. Who are YOU to
jump
on this dude. No one is landing on you for what you choose to do.

Uh, yes, they are. So far, nobody has answered my question, just
ragged on me for reuising lancets.

"Michelle C" wrote:


"Richard Evans" wrote in message
.. .
The cat and I are both diabetic. I check my own sugar 6-8 times per
day, I check his twice. We have separate glucometer kits. Today, while
preparing to check the cat's sugar, I had a brain fart and instead of
lancing the cat I lanced my own forearm with a lancet that had been
previously used on the cat.

I immediately rinsed it with alcohol, but what are the chances I
caught anything from the incident?

Hi Richard,

I'm just guessing, but I doubt that you can get anything harmful from your
cat's lancet. Most things people worry about catching from their cat
include ringworm (direct contact with skin), toxoplasmosis (from feces) and
cat scratch fever (method of transmission obvious--cat scratch). I imagine
being a family pet that it's unlikely your cat has any of these things, and
none of them have to do with blood. According to a little googling, the
blood diseases that may be carried by a cat--feline leukemia and feline
immunodeficiency virus--cannot be transmitted to humans.

Thanks. According to a friend who is a vet tech, there is virtually no
chance. It had been twelve hours since the lancet was last used and
nothing contagious survives in the air that long.

"Paul M. Cook" wrote:


"Julie Bove" wrote in message
...

"Richard Evans" wrote in message
...
The cat and I are both diabetic. I check my own sugar 6-8 times per
day, I check his twice. We have separate glucometer kits. Today, while
preparing to check the cat's sugar, I had a brain fart and instead of
lancing the cat I lanced my own forearm with a lancet that had been
previously used on the cat.

I immediately rinsed it with alcohol, but what are the chances I
caught anything from the incident?

Oh wow! I don't know what the chances are, but how in the heck do you
lancet a cat? I know mine would never sit still for it and would lancet
me with her teeth and claws if I tried it.

They take the blood from the ears.

That's the short answer. The longer answer: It takes two of us to do
it. My wife holds him firmly. I massage his ear from the base towards
the tip to force blood to the edge of the year. I then insert my thumb
with the nail backing the ear, and poke near the edge with the lancet.
I'm getting so I can get blood on the first try most of the time. I
would not be able to do it unassisted.

Google on anything to do with diabetic cats or checking cat's sugar.
There are lots of good sites describing alternate procdures.

Paul

"Richard Evans" wrote in message
...
"Michelle C" wrote:


"Richard Evans" wrote in message
. ..
The cat and I are both diabetic. I check my own sugar 6-8 times per
day, I check his twice. We have separate glucometer kits. Today, while
preparing to check the cat's sugar, I had a brain fart and instead of
lancing the cat I lanced my own forearm with a lancet that had been
previously used on the cat.

I immediately rinsed it with alcohol, but what are the chances I
caught anything from the incident?

Hi Richard,

I'm just guessing, but I doubt that you can get anything harmful from your
cat's lancet. Most things people worry about catching from their cat
include ringworm (direct contact with skin), toxoplasmosis (from feces)
and
cat scratch fever (method of transmission obvious--cat scratch). I
imagine
being a family pet that it's unlikely your cat has any of these things,
and
none of them have to do with blood. According to a little googling, the
blood diseases that may be carried by a cat--feline leukemia and feline
immunodeficiency virus--cannot be transmitted to humans.

Thanks. According to a friend who is a vet tech, there is virtually no
chance. It had been twelve hours since the lancet was last used and
nothing contagious survives in the air that long.

I can only think of blood parasites that would be transmittable and that
would be one heck of a stretch at that given the device used. Viruses etc,
are not communicable between humans and cats. If they were, we'd all be in
deep doo doo.

Paul

Lynne wrote:


Uh, I test my blood sugar sometimes as much as 10 times per day. I never
reuse lancets.

Your choice.


Are you misusing terminology?? The lancet is the actual needle, not the
thing that holds it.

I mean the needle.

I'm pretty sure that is called a lancet holder.
Lancets are CHEAP and meant to be used ONE TIME.

So are syringes, but many commonly reuse them. I use mine until they
get too dull to pierce the membrane on the vial.

"Richard Evans" wrote in message
...
Lynne wrote:


Uh, I test my blood sugar sometimes as much as 10 times per day. I never
reuse lancets.

Your choice.


Are you misusing terminology?? The lancet is the actual needle, not the
thing that holds it.

I mean the needle.

I'm pretty sure that is called a lancet holder.
Lancets are CHEAP and meant to be used ONE TIME.

So are syringes, but many commonly reuse them. I use mine until they
get too dull to pierce the membrane on the vial.

I reuse my Byetta needles all the time. I use a fresh one about every 5
days. I just dip them in rubbing alcohol first to be cautious since I store
the pen in the fridge.

Paul

In alt.support.diabetes Richard Evans wrote:
: The cat and I are both diabetic. I check my own sugar 6-8 times per
: day, I check his twice. We have separate glucometer kits. Today, while
: preparing to check the cat's sugar, I had a brain fart and instead of
: lancing the cat I lanced my own forearm with a lancet that had been
: previously used on the cat.

: I immediately rinsed it with alcohol, but what are the chances I
: caught anything from the incident?

Well, if you start to prowl at night and start to grow whiskers, I would
begin to worry:-)

Wendy

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:03:31 GMT, "Spot"
wrote:

Where the heck have you been..........................Most diabetics DO NOT
reuse a lancelet. You are letting yourself wide open for an infection
sooner or later. Beside lancelets are the cheapest part don't be stupid.
And yes I am diabetic my doctor would smack me upside the head if I told him
I was reusing lancelets.

Celeste

Celeste, I can only presume you are writing from
rec.pets.cats.health+behav. To see what other diabetics are
doing you might find it valuable to come on over and join us
at alt.support.diabetes. I doubt that you can speak for even
a small number of diabetics, let alone most diabetics.

First, you might find this old thread worth reading:
http://tinyurl.com/42eyrs or
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.h...49ec14d50e5608

I usually only change lancets when I test someone else or
when I notice it's getting a bit dull. Over the past six
years and 6000+ tests I've bought one pack of 100 and
received another 30 with new meters; I doubt I'll need to
buy any more before I go to the old folks home.

I've never had any infection as a result - and I also have
hypogammaglobulinemia, which means that if infection was a
possibility I would almost certainly get it.


Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
--
d&e, metformin 1500mg, ezetrol 10mg
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_s/
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com (On Indian Roads)