Author: Stephanie Howe, DVM

How To Draw Blood From Your Diabetic Pet Many pet owners are nervous about taking blood samples, but it gets easier with practice. Ideally, you should find at least two locations on your pet that are comfortable for both you and your pet and rotate through them. In cats, the best place to take blood from is the tiny vein at the edge of the ear flap (the marginal ear vein). Other options is the accessory carpal pad, or the pad on the front leg closest to the cat’s body.  Make sure that you don’t draw blood from a spot your cat will be walking on. In dogs, you can also target the marginal ear vein or accessory carpal pad. Other options in dogs include the inside of the upper lip or the callus on the elbows. It is best to find at least two locations on your pet that are comfortable for you and them and rotate through them. This way your pet does not get sensitive to excessive sampling in one area. Before drawing blood, be sure to warm the sample area so that you get an adequate sample. Warming the area helps to bring blood to the surface and makes for easier sample collection. You can simply rub the area with your fingers or apply a warm cloth. For pets that have long hair, shaving the sample site may make drawing blood easier. If you are sampling blood glucose only once a day, ask your veterinarian what time of day is best and test at that same time each day. There are several on-line tracking apps for monitoring blood sugar levels, (AlphaTrack, Vetsulin) that can be helpful when monitoring your pet’s glucose at home.,Additional Home Monitoring Options for Diabetic Pets Continuous glucose monitoring is a new type of monitoring that was adapted from human medicine to help diabetic patients. Currently, no continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are FDA-approved for use on pets at this time, but there have been several published studies that suggest the Freestyle Libre is safe, accurate and effective for use in both dogs and cats. Some vets recommend it off-label. Using a CGM enables you to constantly monitor your pet’s glucose levels without having to obtain blood samples. The Freestyle Libre is a small, round glucose sensor that has a tiny sampling tube that’s implanted under your pet’s skin at the veterinarian’s office. The sensor monitors tissue glucose levels continuously for 14 days and then the sensor and probe are removed until your vet recommends another round of monitoring. Monitoring is generally recommended after changes in insulin dosage, every three months in stable diabetics, or as directed by your veterinarian. It does not measure glucose in the bloodstream. Instead, it checks glucose in the fluid that is in the tissues under the skin. This sensor then links to an app on your phone or a reader (a separate device to collect and interpret the data from the sensor, which can be purchased separately) so you can easily keep tabs on glucose values. Each sensor is used only once, and it intended to be used for 14 days to provide continuous glucose data. There are multiple advantages to this system: It’s pain free, collects continuous glucose data over the course of 14 days and the data is collected at home where your pet is happy and comfortable. The downside, however, is that CGMS aren’t quite as accurate as manual glucometers. If your pet has a very abnormal reading, you’ll want to double check it with a glucometer.  Urine testing: Test strips can be used to measure how much glucose has spilled over into the urine because levels exceeded what the kidneys can handle. Your veterinarian might advise urine testing if your pet has been recently diagnosed with a diabetes. Featured Image: iStock.com/didesign021,If your pet is diabetic or recently diagnosed as one, you’re probably learning everything you can about managing a diabetic pet at home. In healthy pets (and people), a hormone called insulin moves sugar from the blood stream into the cells where it can be used for energy. If your dog or cat has diabetes, however, their pancreas does not produce insulin or sufficient insulin. Typically, pets are not classified into type 1 or type 2 diabetes as are humans. However, for understanding the similarities, type 1 diabetes is where the pancreas is not producing insulin. Dogs get type 1 diabetes and cats can have type 1 or type 2 diabetes.  With type 2 diabetes the pancreas is still producing insulin but not in sufficient levels. As a result of either type of diabetes, the amount of sugar (glucose) in their bloodstream can become dangerously high causing a condition called hyperglycemia. To keep your pet healthy, you’ll have to give it injections of insulin, but you’ll need to avoid overdoing it. If you give them too much insulin, their blood sugar levels could become dangerously low (hypoglycemia). That’s why regular monitoring of glucose levels and adjusting insulin doses is crucial, as directed by your veterinarian.

4. It’s Rare To Find an All-Black Cat While some cats are completely black from head to toe, this is actually rare. Most black cats have patches of fur, paw pads, or whiskers that are some other color, such as white. Whisker hairs are thick sensory hair follicles that originate deep in the skin. Cats are known to shed their whiskers, and often new ones will grow back in other colors. Paw pad color is often the same as a cat’s fur color. Darker-furred cats tend to have black or gray toes, while lighter ones have pink toes. Black cats with some white fur markings are more likely to have patches of pink or white on their paws.,5. There Are Many Famous Black Cats Animation has brought to the fore many famous felines from Bagheera, the black panther in “The Jungle Book” , to Luna, the black cat in “Sailor Moon”. Live-action famous black cats include: Salem in “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”  Thackery Binx in “Hocus Pocus”  Isis in “Star Trek”  In addition to on-screen characters, other black cats have gained celebrity status, including: The official First Cat of the George W. Bush administration was named India. India was an all-black American Shorthair who lived to be 18 years old.  Blackie, the world’s richest cat, was left a $12.5 million fortune when his pet parent, British antique dealer Ben Rea, died in 1988. Oscar the Bionic Cat became the world’s first cat to have double rear-leg prosthetics in 2009.,You might think of a black cat as a witch’s familiar or as a bad omen when one crosses your path, but there is much more to the black cat than meets the eye. Here are some interesting black cat facts.