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