Nancy K
Member Since 2016
Hello again ~ I found and signed up for this forum last weekend (thank heaven I found it !). Apologies in advance for a long post but I'm pretty freaked out and dealing with multiple problems in addition to the devastation of knowing that my little pal is really sick and all the ramifications of FDM. I'll try to be succinct as I can. 
Any advice or tips are welcomed.
My beautiful kitty guy, Kohl, was diagnosed last week after I noticed excessive drinking of water and then he peed in my bed (!). I had seen a gradual increase of out-of-box peeing but he had never ever done so in my bed before. I was super-hesitant to make the appt. with his current vet as I was not happy about my experiences with them. However, this felt like an emergency plus he was a month or two overdue for the laundry list of vaccines and other items they wanted me to bring him in for so I called them. They told me neither of the two vets I'd seen previously was available but I could see Vet #3 the next day. I booked the appt and we went in to see the new dr. with optimistic hopes for a better experience. That was not to be and, long story short, I have now concluded that this clinic operates on an extremely corporate basis to maximize profit at the expense of humane treatment towards pet owners. The vets and techs seem nice and caring but they seem to have to operate under this boiler-plate approach or 'protocol' which results in squeezing the maximum $$ out of patients. As I have to be extremely careful and conserving of funds, I questioned everything at the time but still (because I was so upset and freaked out) ended up paying them for worm medicine it turned he didn't need ! It was a small part of the whole bill ($537.00 !) but still.
Anyway, it turned out Kohl's numbers are all good except for his glucose which was 510.
I took Kohl in on Tuesday afternoon - got a voice mail from vet on Thursday around 5pm with diagnosis - was unable to call her back until 2:30pm Friday - was told she (and her asst.) were in surgery so I asked to be called back that day and that I felt some urgency - no call back. [By this time, I'm getting an idea of what Kohl and I are in for and it feels imperative to have a vet I can trust who will work with me. So I started scouting other vets in the area, asking friends, etc. I immediately got some low-carb wet food from my wonderful pet food shop and began introducing that in tandem with his dry food. A while back I researched organic food and he's been on that for a year plus - before that he really only liked Purina Natural dry food (which I now regret).] I finally got another VM from vet about 4:15 - didn't know she was in and frankly, I was hoping I could find another vet over the weekend - what a mess ! Spent Sunday researching and calling around to friends and on this forum. Monday, I called the clinic back and was able to speak to the vet tech, Krysten. I'd decided to wait to speak with her and find out their protocol before I sought out a whole new vet/clinic. She actually turned out to be good: well-informed, answered all my questions, sent me pdf's of Kohl's lab reports for this year and last year, listened to my concerns about finances, told me the clinic would charge me $100 for an AlphaTrak2 meter but that I could get it on Amazon for $50. She asked if I wanted to make an appt. and I hesitated wanting to process the info before deciding but THEN she told me that if I waited to make the appt. I would have to be really firm about asking for HER specifically. The "Front Desk" really didn't like it when the pet owners asked for a certain person !!! Holy Cow !! So I immediately decided to go with my gut and make the appt. with her. That was for yesterday. Fortunately I had called in early in the morning with a question and learned that Krysten hadn't come in due to a family emergency. The gal I spoke to said, oh, no you can just come in - I'll be taking on Kohl's case and can get you going ! Uh.....No. I sort of had a melt-down on the phone, told her what I thought of the clinic, how freaked I was, how close I was to looking elsewhere and said that neither Kohl nor I could deal with the stress of being traded around among different care-givers - that I was comfortable with Krysten and needed to see her. An appointment was set up for today (Friday) with Krysten at 10am (an hour from now). I phoned them around 8:15 to make certain my appt would be with Krysten. The front desk guy was listless, clueless and didn't even know Krysten's name - eek !! But he said he would have someone call me back and I got confirmation calls from both Krysten and someone else. So I'm getting ready for appointment now - really don't need this extra layer of stress of vet probs. I know I'm not the only one.
Since I'm short on time, I will just briefly summarize my concerns re: timing - this will be the real challenge for my situation, I think. I am self-employed with two jobs: a musician (night job) and an accountant (day job). Divorced 7 years ago, I live alone. Having 2 jobs makes my schedule erratic and different every week. For example, if I have a gig at night that goes late I typically allow for sleeping in the following day etc. So the daily schedule of every 12 hour shots is going to be nigh unto impossible for me to do - I have no idea how I can pull that off. Ongoing, my music career requires travel. I have no idea how I will pull that off either. Funds are limited and I'm just barely able to pull off this dual career financially as things stand. Once the reality sank in, I had to cancel my performances at a regional music festival, bow out of a music gathering for this weekend and forgo a planned trip to Portland to visit family. I want to care for Kohl as I love him to bits and he's the best kitty ever - wonderful temperament - sweet - fantastic company - the best ever. I have to stop now but wanted to at least put my concerns here with grateful thanks.
Nancy K & Kohl
ps....will hopefully have time to make a signature over the weekend....no time right now.
Any advice or tips are welcomed.My beautiful kitty guy, Kohl, was diagnosed last week after I noticed excessive drinking of water and then he peed in my bed (!). I had seen a gradual increase of out-of-box peeing but he had never ever done so in my bed before. I was super-hesitant to make the appt. with his current vet as I was not happy about my experiences with them. However, this felt like an emergency plus he was a month or two overdue for the laundry list of vaccines and other items they wanted me to bring him in for so I called them. They told me neither of the two vets I'd seen previously was available but I could see Vet #3 the next day. I booked the appt and we went in to see the new dr. with optimistic hopes for a better experience. That was not to be and, long story short, I have now concluded that this clinic operates on an extremely corporate basis to maximize profit at the expense of humane treatment towards pet owners. The vets and techs seem nice and caring but they seem to have to operate under this boiler-plate approach or 'protocol' which results in squeezing the maximum $$ out of patients. As I have to be extremely careful and conserving of funds, I questioned everything at the time but still (because I was so upset and freaked out) ended up paying them for worm medicine it turned he didn't need ! It was a small part of the whole bill ($537.00 !) but still.
Anyway, it turned out Kohl's numbers are all good except for his glucose which was 510.
I took Kohl in on Tuesday afternoon - got a voice mail from vet on Thursday around 5pm with diagnosis - was unable to call her back until 2:30pm Friday - was told she (and her asst.) were in surgery so I asked to be called back that day and that I felt some urgency - no call back. [By this time, I'm getting an idea of what Kohl and I are in for and it feels imperative to have a vet I can trust who will work with me. So I started scouting other vets in the area, asking friends, etc. I immediately got some low-carb wet food from my wonderful pet food shop and began introducing that in tandem with his dry food. A while back I researched organic food and he's been on that for a year plus - before that he really only liked Purina Natural dry food (which I now regret).] I finally got another VM from vet about 4:15 - didn't know she was in and frankly, I was hoping I could find another vet over the weekend - what a mess ! Spent Sunday researching and calling around to friends and on this forum. Monday, I called the clinic back and was able to speak to the vet tech, Krysten. I'd decided to wait to speak with her and find out their protocol before I sought out a whole new vet/clinic. She actually turned out to be good: well-informed, answered all my questions, sent me pdf's of Kohl's lab reports for this year and last year, listened to my concerns about finances, told me the clinic would charge me $100 for an AlphaTrak2 meter but that I could get it on Amazon for $50. She asked if I wanted to make an appt. and I hesitated wanting to process the info before deciding but THEN she told me that if I waited to make the appt. I would have to be really firm about asking for HER specifically. The "Front Desk" really didn't like it when the pet owners asked for a certain person !!! Holy Cow !! So I immediately decided to go with my gut and make the appt. with her. That was for yesterday. Fortunately I had called in early in the morning with a question and learned that Krysten hadn't come in due to a family emergency. The gal I spoke to said, oh, no you can just come in - I'll be taking on Kohl's case and can get you going ! Uh.....No. I sort of had a melt-down on the phone, told her what I thought of the clinic, how freaked I was, how close I was to looking elsewhere and said that neither Kohl nor I could deal with the stress of being traded around among different care-givers - that I was comfortable with Krysten and needed to see her. An appointment was set up for today (Friday) with Krysten at 10am (an hour from now). I phoned them around 8:15 to make certain my appt would be with Krysten. The front desk guy was listless, clueless and didn't even know Krysten's name - eek !! But he said he would have someone call me back and I got confirmation calls from both Krysten and someone else. So I'm getting ready for appointment now - really don't need this extra layer of stress of vet probs. I know I'm not the only one.
Since I'm short on time, I will just briefly summarize my concerns re: timing - this will be the real challenge for my situation, I think. I am self-employed with two jobs: a musician (night job) and an accountant (day job). Divorced 7 years ago, I live alone. Having 2 jobs makes my schedule erratic and different every week. For example, if I have a gig at night that goes late I typically allow for sleeping in the following day etc. So the daily schedule of every 12 hour shots is going to be nigh unto impossible for me to do - I have no idea how I can pull that off. Ongoing, my music career requires travel. I have no idea how I will pull that off either. Funds are limited and I'm just barely able to pull off this dual career financially as things stand. Once the reality sank in, I had to cancel my performances at a regional music festival, bow out of a music gathering for this weekend and forgo a planned trip to Portland to visit family. I want to care for Kohl as I love him to bits and he's the best kitty ever - wonderful temperament - sweet - fantastic company - the best ever. I have to stop now but wanted to at least put my concerns here with grateful thanks.
Nancy K & Kohl
ps....will hopefully have time to make a signature over the weekend....no time right now.
