? Vet Pushback?

[Chippy & Ingrid]

Hello Everyone,

First of all, thank you so very much for this forum. It has been an immense help to us since our Cat, Chippy was diagnosed back in January. One thing I'm wondering is how many members experience pushback from their vets? Right now, we're trying to follow the SLGS protocol, but might like to transition to the TR protocol as we (I) gain confidence. My vet strongly disagrees with this intensely managed approach, to the point that she is angry with us. She has said that if we continue with this approach, she will need to charge us $40 per day - every day -to look at our charts (although we have not asked her to do this), in addition to fairly hefty charges for phone and email consultations. We're of course happy to pay a reasonable amount for her time, but last Friday we paid for a phone "consult" that consisted of her chewing us out for 45 minutes about not following her advice closely enough.

We have a long and good relationship with this vet, so we're somewhat taken aback by her response. I decided to feel out some other vets in the area to see how they work with diabetic patients. I started by calling another highly-regarded feline-only vet in the area to see if they were comfortable working with clients using the tight regulation protocol. They had never heard of TR, and said they had no idea why I would be "poking" my cat so many times a day. My second call to a vet whose bio states that he has participated in diabetes research was more successful, and I have an appointment with him next week. This all has left me wondering how common this pushback is among vets. I also wonder for the folks who do have a good working relationship with their vets, what the typical weekly/monthly interaction is with the vet team.

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

 

[SashaV]

Haven't talked to my vet since fall last year.
She encouraged me to test, she doesn't charge for phone calls, prescriptions, or email.
If your vet wants you to pay, for her looking at your spreadsheet, I'd tell her to find someone else to bother.
Most here only use a vet for prescriptions, anything else we do on our own, with the help of the board.

You could also educate your vet, bomb her with information about feline diabetes. If she doesn't respond to the research that's out there, I'd walk away......
I know more about dosing methods than my vet, I know the difference between insulins, I just need a vet to give me a prescription, nothing else...

 

[FrostD]

My vet has pretty much left me to do my own thing. He's fairly knowledgeable about FD, but doesn't feel a need to micromanage what I'm doing.

I'd be perfectly happy to pay him to look over the data here and there for a consult and occasional check in, just to get his opinion and another set of eyes. I just send it to him every so often, hel looks it over, comments, sends me any relevant papers and info... but so far he does not charge me to look it over. But that may be because I have two geriatric animals with him that run up quite the bills

Sounds like your vet might just be trying to cover her butt. I personally would just say while I appreciate your concern, you're asking too much and I am confident in my abilities to manage this disease. I'd be more than happy to <insert whatever here, "send you data and pay for a consult once a month", etc> but if you insist on anything beyond that I'll be looking for a new vet.

 

[Chippy & Ingrid]

Thank you for the perspective, Melissa and Sasha. It sounds like you both have found vets that trust you to know what to do and are willing to let you do it. I guess part of my problem is that I still don't trust myself to know what I'm doing, so my vet probably picks up on that insecurity. While the information on the message board is invaluable to me, I can't get past feeling that I need my vet's support and approval. We're meeting a new vet next week for a consult, and I'm hopeful he'll be more on board with the TR treatment plan or, if not, that he'll at least give me a good explanation why.

 

[SashaV]

Thank you for the perspective, Melissa and Sasha. It sounds like you both have found vets that trust you to know what to do and are willing to let you do it. I guess part of my problem is that I still don't trust myself to know what I'm doing, so my vet probably picks up on that insecurity. While the information on the message board is invaluable to me, I can't get past feeling that I need my vet's support and approval. We're meeting a new vet next week for a consult, and I'm hopeful he'll be more on board with the TR treatment plan or, if not, that he'll at least give me a good explanation why.

Are you posting a daily condo in the LBL forum? It might be a good idea to gain some confidence, some insight into Chippy and have other people's opinions and thoughts about his treatment? Then you'll literally have eyes on you, and you won't be alone

 

[Chippy & Ingrid]

I have been posting in the lantus forum, not daily, but whenever I'm feeling uncertain about how to proceed. They have been very helpful and reassuring.