A rechargeable alternative to the rice sock

Testing your diabetic dog's blood glucose.

There are several recommend locations to test your dog's blood glucose. We chose the inside of the ear flap as it's a large area, doesn't seem to bother our dog Parker, and he has two to choose from.

You will need to have some supplies, including a lance or lancing device to prick the test area, and a blood glucose monitor and its respective test strips.

Just like some countries use Celsius and others use Fahrenheit, there are two different scales used around the world to measure blood glucose. So make sure your blood glucose monitor is set to the correct one.

We recommend logging the information on your phone or in a notebook.

Why warming the ear helps blood glucose checks

Using something to warm the area, such as a sock filled with uncooked rice and heated in the microwave, can improve blood flow and speed up the whole process making it better for everyone.

The rice sock is great but has some shortcomings

One drawback to the rice sock is that it needs to be microwaved to work. About thirty seconds heats it up to doggie body temperature and you’re in business. 

But what if you don’t have access to a microwave? Maybe you don’t own one, or are travelling, camping or staying somewhere where you can’t heat your rice sock. Or maybe your house has lost power due to a storm.

We’ve had a couple of instances with our diabetic dog Parker when we couldn’t use our rice sock. So we did some research and found a great alternative. We love it so much we’ve ditched the rice sock in favour of our new discovery.

We bought rechargeable hand warmers from Amazon. They’re the size of a hotel bar of soap and designed to slide into winter gloves or mittens. Being from Canada, we’re familiar with all sorts of portable heating devices.

Why we love them more than the rice sock

They were not expensive. They were about $16 CDN for a pair.

We always have a backup. Because they’re designed for mittens or gloves, they come in pairs. So we always have a second one ready if the battery runs out of juice in the one we’re using. 

They have several settings‍‍. We can set the temperature so it’s not too hot for Parker’s ears, but also not so tepid that it’s ineffective.

They have a smooth surface. Because they’re designed to sit next to your hands inside of a mitten or glove, there are not sharp or scratchy surfaces that could irritate your dog.

Two things we don’t like

One thing we don’t like is that the indicator lights are very small. It’s hard to see when they are on, which leads to the other issue... 

It’s easy to accidentally leave them on. They have no auto shutoff so will run out of battery if you forget to turn them off.

Portability in your paws

After a couple of stinky episodes when we over-zapped our rice sock, and after being stuck without power for a couple of days following a big storm, we’ve switched to using the rechargeable hand warmers full time to prepare Parker’s ear for a blood test. They’re not perfect but are low cost, quick, and easy to use.