Re: 6/17Willy AMPS~214|2~192|5~92|7~82 my vet quit
Found out that my vet quit when I went in to speak about having Willy tested for Acro/IAA/etc... we're known as "the guys with the diabetic" by anyone who doesn't actually know our name (they ALL know Willy's name).
So, we decided to try talking to the other vet at the clinic before we make a decision if we go vet shopping. She was the original vet he saw when he went DKA; she originally DX'd him with having a dental infection and it took some pushing to figure out it was ACTUALLY DKA :roll: :roll: :roll: She's also the one that sorta advised us to... not go down the path we're on because it's "difficult" and "expensive" (she is quite old and my understanding is this is an old school line of thought). We figured we've been at this clinic for a long time and we like the techs so we'll gauge her response to everything we tell her and decide next week if we would like to go forth with her look for someone new.
Anyways, the talk went ok. I kinda caught her up on what we were doing (diet, protocol, spreadsheet). I explained we were very "aggressive" in our treatment and while it may not work for everyone, it works for us because we hometest and we're prepared (ie: yesterday last night).
She seemed ok with the range he was in (more OK about it than our vet was) and she approved (verbally!) of his diet (high protein low carb!). These are both huge pluses for us.
One BIG negative is she was convinced that the *only* real way to judge diabetes regulation is fructosamine because it's a "summary over time, not just one point in time." I explained that I test many times a day and that data is real time. I planned to have a fructosamine done in August anyways and I don't mind making minor concessions if I am able to continue doing what I am doing with support. :lol: :lol:
I brought her Willy's spreadsheet, the protocol, and the information for Acro/IAA. I told her about my understanding of these things and that I wanted to give her some time to look into them and what would be needed for the testing. She seemed reluctant to consider Acro, is convinced is extremely rare. I told her there are a number of things that concern us about Willy and went on to explain what they were. For each thing I said, she sorta shrugged (hate when people do that, at least feign interest!). I expressed my understanding that a lot of my observations were subjective as individual things but as a whole they are suspect and my preference to have them ruled out. I also explained that knowing this wouldn't change anything but it would allow us to understand things that MAY arise in the future. She was briefly convinced he has hypoT but looked back in his record and saw it was already ruled out. :lol: :lol: She also mentioned something about seeing an internal specialist in PHX but in the context, it didn't really make sense.
When I reiterated the testing information she didn't really listen to me (I don't think she understood that I was saying it will need to be sent out and I know it can't be done by THEIR lab). She doesn't know if their lab will allow them to do the test; she needs to speak to some manager or something about it. She is going to look into it this weekend and contact us on Monday with an update (she can't guarantee an answer by then but will update us for sure). In her defense, we were taking up a lot of her time for how busy they were. I am hoping she looks closer at everything this weekend. :? It was unintentional but I had to explain myself 2-3-4 times because I kept getting interrupted.
If the test can be done, I think we will give them a fair shot and continue going there, especially because she approved (on the surface) of the protocol/diet/etc. If they won't do it (unless for a really good reason, and then I would expect them to refer us to someone in town who can) I think we will shop around.
*Oh, one more thing about my clinic that I like: as a WHOLE they do not over vaccinate or suggest things unnecessarily (we don't have a big flea/tick problem here, I asked about it for Gizmo and my vet told me not to worry about it unless I was planning to travel a lot because the risk of chemical burn outweighs the probability of him getting fleas/ticks). They actually wrote me a note to give to my apartment (requires proof of vaccination) that Willy was not a public health hazard and because he was vaccinated properly in the past, is indoor only, and he's diabetic it is unnecessary to vaccinate him further at this time.
Sienne- that comment made me laugh!!!
Nina & Melissa- thank you for the thoughts. We have a healthy stock of insulin (4 pens left and 1 refill for a new box) so that's good news. There is also a 24hr clinic here that has really state of the art (supposedly) equipment. Willy was there when he was DKA and they took really good care of him, however, because they handle emergencies, the vet really did not give us much attention because she was super busy. This is something I don't like.
