New vet :/

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Julie Berber

Julie Berber

Member Since 2017
Wasn't impressed with this new vet at all. She does not want nippet eating FF classics. Said she wants her on diabetic foods only...... was pushing royal canin dry and wet foods. Ended up walking out paying $106.00 on a consultation? Also said it was ok for her to drop in the 20s and that when she does just give her a couple temptation treats..... and if she has a seizure, just rub molasses on her gums.... when i showed her what .25U was doing already she said to go ahead and give her "like 1 to 1.5u from now on". I showed her that .25 was already putting her in the 50s. Didn't seem to care at all. Said if she was eating the correct foods, she would be higher on BG and she would need more insulin......... WTF!! Am i going to need to leave state to find a dang vet for her?

Shes staying in the 180s right now. I did not give her her shot last night. I don't even know if ill give it to her this morning. Beyond done with all this craziness.
 
I am sorry the vet did not work out. If this next one we are going to see next week (will be the third vet) does not work out, I may have a breakdown.
 
Oh dear! :(

It's so difficult to find a good vet! When you find one hang onto them like a winning lottery ticket.
I've been more than happy with my vets in all honesty, but if necessary I will say no and they would have to accept that. Like when I said no to the diabetic food and pushed for ProZinc. I will miss him, hes left now but at least he (and to be fair the other vets there) seem to accept that I might want to do things differently than the standard pet parents.
I don't know how happy they are with that but they at least listen, It seems these days it's all about the money in most practices.
I found a gem with mine after walking out of the last practice I was in, you couldn't actually pay me money to go back there.
I don't generally think it's a good idea to go against what vets tell us, and I'd never place my animals in danger but sometimes you just have to work with what you have if there's no other alternative.

If they don't approve of home testing. Just don't tell them, if you are experienced with dosing insulin, do your dose. You are the one that knows your kitty better than anyone.

I do wonder if it's time the people in charge of veterinary practices, those that govern and those that teach were made more informed about diabetic cats and the protocols of treating them.

I'm horrified every time I sign in and yet another vet has given bad advice, wrong insulin doses, and place cats in danger because of their ignorance. It scared the pants right off me that these vets are placing animals in life threatening situations because of that ignorance. There needs to be a change, a big change before more fatalities happen due to wrong dosing, hypos, and people being told by emergency clinics not to act on these things right away then having that animal die because they didn't receive treatment in time. :arghh:
 
I'm sorry you are having such trouble. I read here that most vets get minimal training in diabetes and its care so I would think a vet who encounters a diabetic patient, must have a desire to expand their knowledge and take it upon themselves to learn. Those are the good ones I suppose. I feel very fortunate that even though my vet is no expert, she tries very hard. She sent me to an associate who is a internist with much more experience in diabetes care. She has the humility to ask the other vet's advice when necessary. She does think I go overboard on testing sometimes, but I just don't tell her how often I'm testing, lol. Good luck...the law of averages might come thru for you this next time.
 
My two cents: my vet is great - very knowledgeable and approachable, has an interest in feline diabetes, listens to me and so on. However - I learned that the preferred vet protocol for treating FD kitties does not work for Teasel. I made it my mission to learn all I could, came here to FDMB over a year ago and started doing things differently. I've kept my vet in the loop and she knows that as far as his FD goes, I'm the one making the decisions. It works because she likes a collaborative relationship with her clients and she trusts my judgment. If she was not like that I'd be in a pickle for sure. I'd be looking for a new vet.

I think the best arrangement is one where you have a vet you like, who will listen and gives good care in other areas but allows you to demonstrate your understanding and expertise in treating FD. I would focus on finding a vet like that, as hard as that might be, and not look for a vet that has an in depth understanding of diabetes treatment. All you need to know about that can be found here. :)
 
Julie, the sad truth is that vets get very little training for diabetes and what they do get is combined for cats and dogs so many vets try to treat our kitties as if they are dogs and that doesn't work. When it come to diet, most of a vet's training is provided by the big brand food companies like Purina, Hill's or Royal Canin so the vet is brainwashed into thinking their products are the only way to treat many conditions. There is nothing "prescription" about their foods. What makes them prescription is that these companies have the money to do some "research" and provide paperwork to buy the right to label their foods as "prescription". The list of ingredients on the so called "prescription" foods is no better and often worse than that on retail brands.

A lot of folks here do not even consult with their vet regarding diabetes. Diabetes requires a hands approach and it's a 24/7 proposition to keep kitty safe and get them regulated and any vet who is against home testing or insists on so called prescription foods doesn't have a clue. Many vets also don't seem to think it's possible to give less than 1 unit of insulin. The vet may be great for other ailments but fail miserably for diabetes. And some of this comes down to experience too. Many vets have very few diabetic cat patients so they tend to stick with what they were taught in school which is precious little.

I agree with Kris. It's far more important to have a vet that you can work with you collaboratively and who accepts that you are the front line caregiver, know your pet far better than they do and have to be comfortable with the treatment plan. A vet who will work with you as a partner rather than a dictator is worth their weight in gold.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Many vets also don't seem to think it's possible to give less than 1 unit of insulin.
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How true that is!! I took Frankie to the RVC a couple of weeks ago for his heart check up and they asked how his diabetes was going. I said he's regulated on half a unit twice a day, They said you mean one unit? I said no, half a unit. Again, they never got it and said I meant one unit. A third time I said half a unit and the vet changed the subject. On the discharge report it said 1 unit!!!
 
Story of my life. If it were up to my vet my cat would be hypoglycaemic and still on insulin. I gradually lowered the dose from 3 (the starting point that my cat never ever needed in the first place) to .25 without telling the vet, and now my cat is in remission. His blood sugar was so low that he was eating about half a case of food a day. My vet did not want to take him off insulin at all, so I went to a new vet to finally get him officially off.
 
My former vet almost killed Squallie. If I hadn't found this site I probably would not have him with me today. The "new" vet is wonderful; he lets me do my thing as far as the FD is concerned. I know it makes him crazy - he's never said it but I'm certain he thinks I test too frequently, and my spreadsheet gives him nightmares because he's used to numbers generated by pet meters rather than human ones. When he sees the 50s and 60s on Squall's ss, his knee-jerk reaction is that those numbers are far too low. But he has learned to let me do my thing with the FD - he has never actually treated Squallie for his diabetes, lol, but he's always there if I have questions or need help. One of the things I did that I think eased his mind a bit was to send him copies of the Roomp/Rand study and the Tight Regulation protocols.

Sue484 said:
I said no, half a unit. Again, they never got it and said I meant one unit.
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My former vet told me there was no such thing as half-units!!!
 
TempestsMum said:
If they don't approve of home testing. Just don't tell them,
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While not telling the vet is good in theory, it would likely result in problems since the vet would then think that periodically you would have to bring the cat to the vet for either BG test/curves and/or fructosamine tests.
I would just tell the vet that I would do home testing and feeding commercial low-carb canned food and say I would like the vet to work with me.

I currently go to two different vet practices Some cats at one and the other cats at the other, and followed that tact. My first diabetic cat was at another practice and I just said I was home testing and periodically sent test results. After a while the vet said he had no need for them. I did however, feed the prescription dry DM they recommended. That was a long time ago.
 
If it wasn't for needing refills on insulin, I wound not even bring her back. I think I am doing a better job then the ones who went to school for 8 years with her Diabetes. I know Nippet would be dead if I didn't change her meds myself. Just this morning I went ahead and gave her .25 and she dropped below 50 again. I gave her a few pieces (like 5 of the Proplan DM) and she went up to 54. Unfortunately I had to go to work so now I am depending on my husband to monitor her.... I will see where she is at when I get home this afternoon.
 
The only thing I liked about this "NEW VET" was she had no problem with me doing the curves and testing at home. She still wanted to see Nippet once a week and I so called have to move her back to dry foods...... No on that. I am not moving her back to dry...
 
Sue484 said:
I said he's regulated on half a unit twice a day, They said you mean one unit?
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I had a recent discussion with my vet clinic on 0.1U dose. I was told it wasn't a dose and I was basically given Jones nothing and could be potentially hurting him. He should be on .75U as that is what his dose was last updated at. (My regular vet is on maternity).

Well that 0.1U less 1 drop does a lot for him right now and I am thinking he may need to lose another drop out of it soon.

I was also scolded for not sending in my curve information or getting a recent fructosamine test - our regular vet just reviewed my spreadsheett and never told me to come in for a curve. Not that I would any way.

I really miss our regular vet.

I have been lucky enough to confirm I can go to Costco and get the insulin without a script going forward.

I believe you shouldn't keep things from your vet. But if they don't like what you are doing - put it in the file and work with me. They don't know everything and I am not a passive pet owner. I have a problem, I research and figure things out and give it a 110%. My regular vet seemed to appreciate that but I find a lot don't.
 
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Here in Canada we have the advantage of not needing a prescription for Lantus or Levemir but in the US, the only insulins available without a script tend to be the older insulins like Humalog/Novolin regular insulin which is not appropriate for our kitties, and even that availability can be different from state to state. A lot of folks use the nod and agree approach with their vets. Nod, agree and then do your own thing. The only place I would think this becomes problematic is for those vets that demand doing curves in office or fructosamine tests which are not the end all and be all many vets seem to think they are. Once the vet sees improvement using your method, one would hope a lot of the rhetoric will stop.

Since you are getting low readings on the lower dose, then obviously what the vet is suggesting is dangerous. If the vet continues to give you a hard time about diet and the lower doses you are giving, I would ask her to explain what the point is of intentionally raising the BG with the food she is recommending so you can give more insulin. The goal is to get kitty regulated and what she is suggesting defies logical thought. If the vet is older, she may be under the impression that cats need a high fibre diet which was at one time thought to be best for our diabetic cats. If that's her explanation, she needs to brush up on current guidelines from the ISFM and AAHA. There are copies of both in the Health Links section of this board.
 
Shoot, my ER vet only believes in adjusting by whole units. And they (or at least this one doctor there) likes cats to be in the 300's because that way there is no hypo. They were surprised there were 1/2 u syringes.
 
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