Feedback on BG Curve results requested

[Kimberly J]

Hi all,
I posted the following on the main forum, but I thought I would post here too, since the insulin my newly diagnosed kitty, Coltrane, is taking is Vetsulin. He was diagnosed on 4/27/20 and began Vetsulin 2 units bid on 4/30/20. Today we went for his glucose curve. Due to covid, my Vet has limited hours so it wasn't a full 10-12 hours. My Vet, who we were already losing some confidence in, is admittedly confused by the results. Here is what I posted on the main forum:

Coltrane update: So last we left off, our Vet had quoted a very high price for a blood glucose curve, between $475 and $675. We confronted the Vet about this pricing and were told that it includes $125 hospital stay fee (not overnight, remember they were taking him between 11 and 5 pm), and $50 per glucose test. Arguing was not successful, but because we wanted to know how our boy was doing, we decided to go forward, and then seek out a new Vet when our area opens up again. We also convinced them to let us bring him in at 10 am instead of 11. He gets his insulin (Vetsulin, 2 units) at 6:30 am :-( Best we could do for now. Here are the results: Our Vet was confused. He believes that we did not administer the morning dose. We strongly disagree. We have had no trouble with the insulin administration, we tent, inject, check for wetness. Coltrane is easy peasy with it. Our Vet then said he doesn't know what to make of the results. I thought I would post here, in case anyone has some ideas. We have some ideas but are very new to this.
Breakfast 6:20-6:30 am: 5 oz Friskies Pate, 2 units of Vetsulin insulin
10:20 am: Blood glucose 217
11:20 am: Blood glucose 246
12:25 pm: BG 292
2:39 pm: BG 472
4:35 pm: BG 479

typical dinner time: 4:45 - 5:00 pm

these results, to me, seem to suggest that he needs a different insulin, and/or a higher dose. My Vet feels strongly that Coltrane didn't receive his morning insulin, and the 10:20 am BG of 217 was "carry-over from the previous evening" !!! which would have been about 5 pm yesterday. So given this, he wants to repeat the test. He did discount the price to $227 because no results were obtained. At this point, we have decided to immediately move on. We just haven't decided if we should just go to another Vet, or see a specialist. But I was curious if anyone had any thoughts about these results. Thanks, Kim

 

[Panic]

Good gracious that price was highway robbery. I think I paid $50-$75 for glucose curves at the vet before I started testing at home. That vet should be ashamed of themselves.

Since you did post and get answers in the Health Forum I'll link it here so people don't think your post went unanswered.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/coltrane-update.229284/#post-2569825

 

[Oliver the Roman]

Hello Kimberly, I am far from being an expert like some of the folks here, but one thing is stridently clear, as Panic said, the charge is beyond ridiculous. When I went in for a curve initially (which was two years ago), they let me occupy the office of one doc who was absent that day, because I wanted to stay with my cat. I was there for 10+ hours, including 7 readings plus 1 extremely stressful attempt to administer some sugar water because he was nearing hypoglicemia, plus a vial of caninsulin - charge was about 150€ all together (about 160 USD)
From my limited experience most veterinarians are almost as confused as the patients are - feline diabetes is a complicated subject, each cat reacts differently to the treatment, no immediate black & white answer/solution. So I tend to trust the advices I receive on this forum, from people who have plenty of first hand experience with feline diabetes. But do look for another veterinarian, this place seems to be a rip-off. You can try to do a search for a vet specializes in diabetes, but I am not sure how common it can be. (I live in Rome, Italy and I had no luck in searching for such a specialist!)

I strongly suggest you to try home testing. Apart from the obvious savings on your wallet, you will save loads of stress for your cat and yourself. When cats are stressed and nervous the numbers tend to go up, for the first week or two we had to bring him in repeatedly to have him tested, and the numbers were almost always way too high, only after I started to home test the reading has significantly improved and stabilized.
It's terrifying of course. I myself didn't believe I would be capable of it, and asked my OH to do it. But surprisingly you will get the hang of it pretty quickly and people on this forum will help you step by step - they all know everything about the difficulties and complications a beginner might encounter. There are many helpful articles to be found here, too. It will be the best especially for your boy - don't worry, it won't hurt him!