How to measure blood glucose in a cat – Diabetic cat

Hi, my name is Dr. Uri Burstyn I’m a veterinarian in Vancouver, BC, and I’d like to welcome you to my series of practical skills for pet owners I’d like to talk today about getting blood for measuring blood glucose on a diabetic cat I’m gonna be joined by my little furry friend Mr. Lancelot shortly for a demonstration But I just want to talk through a little bit of theory first and show you the equipment that you’ll need to do accurate blood sugar measurements at home So the reason we do blood sugar measurements at home is because cats can get quite stressed when they’re brought to the clinic So we can do blood glucose curves in the clinic to monitor diabetic cats But they’re not quite as accurate as ones done at home and also doing them at home is often cheaper and easier for the owners So we do try to make people’s life a little bit easier when they have a diabetic kitty and most people find that with a bit of practice they can safely and effectively do a blood glucose curve at home And give us- just phone in the numbers to us, and it really helps us manage these diabetic kitties optimally give them a nice happy and long life without any complications of their diabetes So… To do a blood glucose curve. We’ll need to measure the blood glucose of a cat We need to get a little blood sample from a cat. Then we need to apply a glucometer Which is a little device. I’ll show you in a moment That’ll tell us what the blood sugar is and then you just note it down on a piece of paper So… The equipment you need to do this procedure is pretty basic. You need a little bit of Vaseline For… preparing the skin You need a… glucometer Now it’s quite important that you use a right glucometer There’s quite a number of glucometers on the market for humans that are all calibrated for humans All the studies done in cats have been done using an AlphaTRAK glucometer, so we’re not really doing product placement here, but all of the scientific work has been done using this glucometer, and it’s calibrated appropriately to give accurate readings on cat blood If you use a different glucometer You’re going to get inaccurate blood sugar readings, which is worse than not getting any reading at all Of course need some test strips for your glucometer and again these have to be AlphaTRAK And then you need a lancet or a needle Some sort of a device to actually break the skin and draw a little drop of blood That you need to measure the blood glucose so… Probably a good time to warn you guys there’ll be a needle in this video Maybe a tiny spot of blood, although you probably won’t be able to see it And with that together you get that together, you want to get it prepared And you get a table, a towel and then you’re ready to get your cat So I’m joined here by Lancelot He’s a lovely big cat who lives in our clinic at the moment Now Lancelot has kindly volunteered to be our demonstration cat So in order to get a tiny drop of blood from his ear We first take a dab of Vaseline And just smear it on the skin on the inside of his ear Now there’s a tiny little vessel that runs all the way around the periphery of that ear. I know darling I know Just all the way around here, and that’s where we’re gonna get our blood from You can’t really see it very well unless you have a pink, here, pink cat. Or a white haired cat with pink ears But it’s right there just a millimeter or two from the edge of the ear Now Lancelot is a pro at this procedure. He knows what’s gonna happen Then we stick a strip into the glucometer Which activates it so we have it ready And you get a little drop on the glucometer. I don’t know if it’s visible on camera, we get a little drop showing that it’s ready to receive blood And then we take the lancet Oh, sweetie pie And we just… Poke the inside of the ear just like that Just give it a little poke Then we push up so we get a little drop of blood And we touch the glucometer to the blood just like that And that’s it and then you get a blood glucose reading So it’s really just a question of Finding the little vessel Holding it off Giving it a poke with the device And then touching the edge of the strip to the drop of blood Pretty simple most cats will tolerate this very very well Then you give them a little treat afterwards and you can do this a couple times throughout the day at home based on a schedule that your veterinarian gives you and you can get a blood glucose curve Easy right? So thank you very much, Lancelot And thank you very much for watching. I hope you find this video useful Please share it. Give us a like And just remember to have fun with your cat Even when you’re doing medical procedures. They still need lots of love