I've read through the process of metering a cat, man I can't imagine doing that! Glad I don't have to!

It is so scary at first...you think you are going to miss, you are going bleed your baby to death through his ear, that it will hurt, that it will scar him, that he will hate you, run from you, claw the skin off you....nothing like that at all.

Very few nerve endings in the ear. There are some tricks, though.

Treats -- he loves freeze-dried salmon.
Cues -- I make sure I use the clicker and shake the treat container
Tactics-- I make sure there is no food down for three hours before I test
I always test in the same place, my desk
Equipment -- the small size of the sample 0.3 uL, the "sippy" strips, the fact ReliOn stays on while he purrs and cheek marks, eats his first treat.

Once he gets his first treat -- the lure treat -- I massage his ear with a cosmetic pad, use the SoftClix lancet device with the 31-gauge lancet, test the blood, massage the edge of the ear, click the clicker and given him the reward treat, shoot his insulin in his flank while he is eating, and then put him down (I never let him jump down--I let him know I have to lift him down) and then give him his raw food. Happy purring Kipper.

With all in place this takes less than 5 minutes. His ears are beautiful, full fur, no scars or bruises, he loves the treat and the attention. When I spot check him without injecting insulin I use the brush or flea comb on him and he adores that.

Only problem is all the fear at first and inexperience.

Since you feed your furry one the right food you probably will not have to do this. Irony is I had Kipper on Wellness no-grain canned food to reduce his weight a little bit and he still developed the diabetes. It did start, however, with his rabies shot last November. I do not believe he will receive vaccination again.

I don't think Indy will get diabetes either, unless his prednisone shot does it to him. He's got a raft of other issues that'll probably get him before diabetes does.

I'm happy to hear you got a nice routine worked out with him! Especially if he enjoys it. I'd be so afraid of the lancet going through the ear, or not being able to get him to be still, or not finding a spot with any blood in it having to stick a bunch of times.

I have Kaiser her in San d, and they cover all my strip for nothing. I love it. But back in AZ I learned from a friend to ask the Dr. to write a precription for the strips it saved me alot, 100 strips for 100 bucks, was 16 dollars.
I have a One touch Ultra Smart, but the screen is going. I have a One touch Mini but the readings on it were so high, I knew something was wrong. So my next one has to be a One touch of some kind.