? Curve advice please

[Buffy C]

Long story short, our vet ( his tech specifically) is making us feel like we're horrible kitty parents for home BG testing our Punkin.

I put his numbers in the SS but I'm not 100% sure I am doing it right. Because of the numbers we're getting, we have given him zero Vetsulin since Tuesday morning.

Switching him from dry to wet food (Friskies Pate) seems to have him in normal range. (Using Relion Classic meter)

He's scheduled for an in office curve Monday. I've been advised by the FB FD group to skip it and find a new vet. I'd love y'alls opinion on that.

I'd like to do an at home curve tomorrow regardless. From what I've read, I should test every 2 hours, is that right? Any other advice? What should we be looking for? What should we take away from the results?

TIA!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I've been here a long time. There's no way I would give a newly diagnosed cat any insulin, let alone Vetsulin, with those numbers. They are all normal range numbers. Did the vet happen to get a fructosamine level when your cat was diagnosed? And if so, what was the result? If the vet was basing the diagnosis on the blood glucose that was an in-office test, my hunch is that your cat was quite stressed out at the time and the results were due to the stress. (It's called "stress hyperglycemia.") Of course, the change to low carb food looks like it is doing good stuff!!

The way the numbers go into the spreadsheet is as follows:

• AMPS and PMPS are your cat's "pre-shot" numbers for the morning (AMPS) and evening (PMPS) cycles
• The +numbers indicate how many hours past shot time your tested. So if you tested 3 hours after you gave Punkin insulin, that would be a +3.
• There are two, 12-hour cycles
• The "U" column is for the units of insulin you administered

The way I would read your spreadsheet is that you were testing in the morning at what would have been shot time and gave no insulin.

As for the vet tech, if she continues to be snarky, this is a link to the American Animal Hospital Assn guidelines for the treatment of diabetes. There's an entire section on monitoring -- including home monitoring. If you decide to keep the appointment, you may want to bring a printout of the article along and give her a copy. Perhaps she could do a bit of reading and stay current on the literature.

I think it's entirely up to you whether you go to the vet appt. Your vet may be wonderful when it comes to treating any range of conditions and be less wonderful about diabetes. The vet may also be wonderful with treating Punkin's FD but if you have a vet tech running interference, you may never know that. The other issue is the vet tech. The vet likely has no clue how this person is treating clients. If you like the vet, then it may make sense to have a frank discussion about how you were being treated. I doubt you are the only person this tech is being condescending to.

 

[Buffy C]

I've been here a long time. There's no way I would give a newly diagnosed cat any insulin, let alone Vetsulin, with those numbers. They are all normal range numbers. Did the vet happen to get a fructosamine level when your cat was diagnosed? And if so, what was the result? If the vet was basing the diagnosis on the blood glucose that was an in-office test, my hunch is that your cat was quite stressed out at the time and the results were due to the stress. (It's called "stress hyperglycemia.") Of course, the change to low carb food looks like it is doing good stuff!!

The way the numbers go into the spreadsheet is as follows:

• AMPS and PMPS are your cat's "pre-shot" numbers for the morning (AMPS) and evening (PMPS) cycles
• The +numbers indicate how many hours past shot time your tested. So if you tested 3 hours after you gave Punkin insulin, that would be a +3.
• There are two, 12-hour cycles
• The "U" column is for the units of insulin you administered

The way I would read your spreadsheet is that you were testing in the morning at what would have been shot time and gave no insulin.

As for the vet tech, if she continues to be snarky, this is a link to the American Animal Hospital Assn guidelines for the treatment of diabetes. There's an entire section on monitoring -- including home monitoring. If you decide to keep the appointment, you may want to bring a printout of the article along and give her a copy. Perhaps she could do a bit of reading and stay current on the literature.

I think it's entirely up to you whether you go to the vet appt. Your vet may be wonderful when it comes to treating any range of conditions and be less wonderful about diabetes. The vet may also be wonderful with treating Punkin's FD but if you have a vet tech running interference, you may never know that. The other issue is the vet tech. The vet likely has no clue how this person is treating clients. If you like the vet, then it may make sense to have a frank discussion about how you were being treated. I doubt you are the only person this tech is being condescending to.

You interpreted my attempt at the SS. Correctly. We have not dosed him at all since Tuesday morning. We were blindly dosing him up until that point per vet orders. My gut was telling me something wasn't right Tuesday afternoon, he hadn't been himself since we started dosing him. He was just sleeping all the time, not cuddling, not playing...that's why I decided to bite the bullet and test him. My gut was right and after seeing the 87, I was pretty sure I shouldn't dose him so I asked the FB group and got confirmation.