I have just bathed my cat

[Zipperhead]

Honey sounds like a pretty good approach.  It's easily available, and cheap. The main reason I use energy gels, is that they are relatively easy and compact to carry, unlike a jar of honey!

If you go to Decathlon, you can get these. I can recommend them, easy enough to slip a couple in your pocket.

[TimO]

If you go to Decathlon, you can get these. I can recommend them, easy enough to slip a couple in your pocket.

Interesting.  I shall have a wander over sometime this week, and have a look.  I haven't been to Decathlon for ages, so it's worth a wander.  I've got some good deals in there in the past, but generally on random stuff, rather than what I went in looking for!

I'd imagine Murphy is feeling quite a bit better, which is good.   Becoming severely Hyperglycaemic, and the knock on effect of things like Ketoacidosis is pretty unpleasant.  When I was first diagnosed, I came damned close to going into a Ketoacidiotic Coma, and I felt pretty horrible.  As I recall, once I was on Insulin, I felt immensely better after an hour or two at most.

[Zipperhead]

Fark me, it's a wonder the poor kitty has survived the week.

We took him to the vets tonight to have his glucose levels checked. As it's not very far, he was carried to the car and carried in (and his box brought as well), being very laid back. So far so good.

All went well at the vets, insulin dose doubled, the other big blood test hadn't shown anything to be concerned about. So we headed home again. Parked the car and let the cat out and he walked to the front door. All good and well.

I went into the kitchen and sorted his food out as he hadn't been fed before we went out, and once he was eating my wife got out a syringe and the insulin and prepared a dose for him. As this was the first time with a higher dose, she asked me to confirm that she had put the correct amount in the syringe (she had), so I agreed with her. Then she pulled the syringe out of the insuling bottle and pulled the plunger down further, so it was 50% insulin & 50% air.

WTF! Why did you do that? I asked. Well, she said, the vet said to pull the plunger back a bit.

No, you're meant to do that after its in him to make sure it's gone in. Not inject the poor fellow with air.

[Feline]

If she was giving it IV then that would be sub-optimal, but sub cutaneously won't do him any harm. If you did it often enough with enough air you could turn him into bubble-wrap kitteh!

[Zipperhead]

We're meant to be helping him put on weight, not inflating the poor furry devil.

[TimO]

Do they use human type blood glucose testing on cats?  Whenever Talisker needed a blood test, for his Hyperthyroidism, they had to shave a patch of fur, so that they could find a vein, which was obviously a bit of a faff.  With the blood tests I do on myself, I just use a lancing device on a finger, produce a tiny drop of blood (1mm or so in diameter is adequate) and put that on a test strip. Ten seconds later I've got the measurement.

Now, I suspect you'd need a reasonably compliant cat, or two people, to do that, but I don't know whether you could get blood as easily from a paw pad, given that cats walk on them, so presumably the skin's a bit tougher than on a human's relatively pampered fingers?

(This would also assume that the blood sugar levels measured in cats was similar to humans, but I'd guess that they wouldn't be too dissimilar).

Edit: Answering my own question: There's certainly some drive towards home testing of pets, since like humans, it allows better control of insulin and blood sugar levels, and consequently reduced risk of diabetic complications (although cats appear to be less prone to this than humans and dogs, lucky little furry buggers!).  At least one site suggests that the best place to do it on cats is the edge of the ear, which I guess makes sense, since there's a lot less fur there than most other places on a cat, but a good blood supply.

[Mrs Pingu]

I spent last night reading about Somogyi effect, and then wished I hadn't, how complicated! Ignorance is indeed bliss.
Pippin was very relaxed again last night, and then lay down somewhere very out of character. At which point I worried, and made her stand up to make sure she was ok. And she was, but she wasn't very impressed at being moved. 

[slowfen]

The finger prick type home testing in humans is fine for monitoring, but is classed as not goodenough for diagnosis/ professional monitoring, although with the newer machines coming on the market, this can't be that far away.

[Feline]

Do they use human type blood glucose testing on cats?  Whenever Talisker needed a blood test, for his Hyperthyroidism, they had to shave a patch of fur, so that they could find a vein, which was obviously a bit of a faff.  With the blood tests I do on myself, I just use a lancing device on a finger, produce a tiny drop of blood (1mm or so in diameter is adequate) and put that on a test strip. Ten seconds later I've got the measurement.

Now, I suspect you'd need a reasonably compliant cat, or two people, to do that, but I don't know whether you could get blood as easily from a paw pad, given that cats walk on them, so presumably the skin's a bit tougher than on a human's relatively pampered fingers?

(This would also assume that the blood sugar levels measured in cats was similar to humans, but I'd guess that they wouldn't be too dissimilar).

Edit: Answering my own question: There's certainly some drive towards home testing of pets, since like humans, it allows better control of insulin and blood sugar levels, and consequently reduced risk of diabetic complications (although cats appear to be less prone to this than humans and dogs, lucky little furry buggers!).  At least one site suggests that the best place to do it on cats is the edge of the ear, which I guess makes sense, since there's a lot less fur there than most other places on a cat, but a good blood supply.

It is indeed possible to obtain the single drop of blood needed for a home glucometer machine from the ear margin of a cat or dog. However you cannot get enough from that to get the 1ml needed to mix with anti-coagulant in the blood tube to send off to the lab for other tests. Venous blood is needed to test fructosamine levels (this tells you how well the glucose level has been controlled on average for the previous 3 weeks ish, not just a single level possibly elevated by stress from a single sample). Blood profiles to check kidney, liver and other things need at least 1ml of fairly rapidly collected blood, so pricking a capillary vessel is not good enough sadly.

I have a fair few of my clients doing home testing since glucometers are now so cheap. You can buy them in Boots now for only about 20 squid although these are not calibrated for dogs and cats so only give a rough guide, but you can still get meaningful data tracked over time. It's a great way if your pet suddenly refuses food to tell if they are hypo or ketotic.

[Mrs Pingu]

Feline, does fructosamine tell if the dosage of insulin has been too high?

[Feline]

Feline, does fructosamine tell if the dosage of insulin has been too high?

It will if it's been consistently too high over a 3 week period. If it's been keeping the blood glucose generally in the right range but occasionally verging on the hypo level then it can come back suggesting 'good control' even though it's a bit too good. The vet needs to carefully interpret the result bearing in mind the history of what has happened and any suspected hypo episodes. In theory it is possible to get a fructosamine level in the right range when the cat has spent 10 days with a blood glucose much too high and then 10 days with it much too low.