Oh wow.. well done, that is incredible work. I hope it works and makes life easier on all of you for the monitoring.

 

Fingers crossed the device works. Looks and sounds like he was an absolute star.

 

Oh wow, hats off to you both for managing to do that.
Ted's such a good boy to keep still for you.
Good luck. Hope it works.

 

Aww brave boy!!! They are a god send for diabetics and hopefully will give you a great idea as to how his blood sugar tracks.

 

Well done @Psygon and a very cool Ted

 

Wow what a good boy Ted is, hopefully you can now monitor his blood sugar levels xxx

sending love to our super Ted. X

 

Well done, hopefully it works.
How does it actually work? There are little needles or something?
My local rescue recently did this with a dog as it was quite difficult to get her stable.

 

So as an update sadly it hasn't worked and Ted has removed it. We hoped with the patch over the top he wouldn't be able to but he was! Next attempt will have to involve a little wrap or jacket.

They work by inserting a little filament under the skin and then taking continuous readings. Or maybe readings every 15 minutes or so. The filament is like a super fine needle - it actually feels quite soft. I almost wonder how it gets in the skin, but the device that attaches them pushes them down on the skin and creates a small puncture for the filament to insert in.

It's not as accurate as a blood glucose monitor as it is 15 minutes behind, but it gives you a fairly decent view of things like blood glucose curves. People either use them alongside normal monitoring or instead of. For us because monitoring has got very difficult we are hoping to use them instead.

It's quite an expensive investment... But if we can get it working should be valuable because we can work out what is causing his glucose to spike. With our first one it already enabled us to work with our vet to reduce his insulin dose because it was too high - which may have led to some of the symptoms. It's also shown us that Ted may not have an a-typical hypo and where his nadir actually is. We need more data to confirm those tho so I hope we can get a device attached and for it to stay attached ☺

 

Oh, that's disappointing. Hope the Libre wasn't damaged and you can use it again. Yes, a jacket or babygro might do the trick.
Good luck.

 

Unfortunately they are a single use thing 😮 but I'm told on the Facebook group that we've been following tutorials from that the company that makes them are quite good at replacing them. So I have contacted their support to see what they say.

I assume they won't keep replacing them if Ted keeps taking them off but hopefully our first one won't be an issue!

 

@Psygon interesting, thank you.
Yes I think the stress of everything was the reason for trying it with the dog.
In the end it worked very well and she’s been able to be adopted knowing that it should be easier to keep her stable now.

Sorry to hear he’s removed it again.
A little jacket sounds a good idea and he’s used to wearing things isn’t he?

 

Oh sorry, that didn't work.

A jacket type covering might do the trick.
I think your guys are fine with thundershirts and that type of thing?

Jack would be oblivious to a Coat /Jacket but Biggles would probably bite at it.

 

A little jacket sounds a good idea and he’s used to wearing things isn’t he?

I think your guys are fine with thundershirts and that type of thing?

Yes he has worn a harness previously - and in fact we've just had a funny moment because they haven't worn harnesses pretty much since we cat proofed the garden and I just went to dig them out. Once CK and Darcy saw them they got super excited and ran to the front door 😂 I feel a bad now because they definitely had less interest in walks once we had the garden, but I guess the interest wasn't completely gone! Will have to find their leads now too!

 

Aww Ted 😽
I hope you manage to get the monitor to stay in place so that you can get the readings you need to manage his condition.
Love that CK and Darcy remembered the harnesses were for going out for walkies.

 

Lots of love to Ted.

 

What a pity the monitor has been dislodged again,it would make such a difference to have it for reading Teds glucose levels.
I can understand your concerns re needle aversion which is something you definitely don't want to happen when you have to inject him with insulin daily .
I had a cat many years back who was inulin dependent but in those days the usual way was a delayed action insulin given once a day with no regular easy glucose level reading meaning you really didn't know what was going on.
I hope you can find a way to prevent Ted from removing his monitor.

 

Sorry to hear Ted is having problems and hope you can get the monitor issue sorted, paws crossed

 

Oh How disappointing. I was going to say well done getting that in (still well done!) and well done to Ted until I read he pulled it out. I hope you can get it to work and give continuous readings.

 

Well good news in that I already had a response from the makers and a new sensor is on its way.

And I have cut up some leggings today to make Ted a little jumper so he is getting used to that this afternoon.

He's been having a proper good charge about while wearing it too so confident it doesn't restrict his movement. Going to be keeping a watch to see how he does with it for the rest of today.

 

Well good news in that I already had a response from the makers and a new sensor is on its way.

And I have cut up some leggings today to make Ted a little jumper so he is getting used to that this afternoon.

View attachment 611335

He's been having a proper good charge about while wearing it too so confident it doesn't restrict his movement. Going to be keeping a watch to see how he does with it for the rest of today.

He looks handsome in his jumper 🌼

Edit: Just caught up with the update, hope the sensor sorts out OK.

 

You look so handsome in your jacket Ted

 

Fingers crossed @Psygon that he puts up with his jumper and leaves the sensor alone. Great idea to have a Libre if he'll put up with it

 

Fingers crossed Ted gets used to his lovely jacket and leaves well alone xx

 

Wanted to give a little update.

First up, having contacted the customer support team at the weekend we got a replacement device through the post yesterday. So last night we had another go at getting a device fitted. All went well and we got Ted's jacket on him. This time it has survived the night so fingers crossed we can keep this one attached.

I was going to get a pic of Ted in his jacket. But CK has been attached to him like glue. So you get Ted and CK 😀

 

Aww. CK wants a jacket too!

 

How is Ted doing @Psygon?
Hope the jacket has held out!!

 

The jacket held up well, although I think because they were old leggings the elasticity was making them too big so we had to make a new jacket and now as of yesterday he has a rather fetching turquoise jacket.

The good news is it has kept his glucose monitor attached so we are starting to get some good data from the readings. His blood glucose is too high for a lot of the time which is a concern. But hopefully by getting a few more days of data we can work with our vet on what to do next.

I am finding the glucose monitor useful - but frustrating as well. I think that's the technology more than anything tho.

We have been reading up on how we can improve our home monitoring technique so that we can potentially improve how we were doing that and stop stressing him out. He's so good with almost everything else I think he just has super super sensitive ears.

Right now him, CK and Jammy are snoring behind me. Well Jammy is doing most of the snoring.

 

Oh Ted, blue suits you so!!
Sorry the readings are a bit higher than you hoped but I suppose at least you can now see them and act on those results faster, like you say, work with your vet to bring them into a more favourable range.

He's such a good patient, isn't he. Looks a very cosy Sunday there