Finding a new vet

[Morgan Williams]

I posted a week or two ago about moving. Part of moving is we will be an hour away from Arizona's vet. Since she doesn't do well in cars I figured it's time to find a new vet. I'm still nee to the diabetes thing ( only diagnosed for about 10 months now) and looking for a vet is hard. I decided to ask about their routine glucose checks prices m our current vet just had her come in for a quick glucose test in between her shot times so she's most even and it costed $15 flat, mo vet fee. This new vet I was liking from the reviews makes your cat stay there all day to do a glucose curve and costs $162. Is this how vets normally do it? My girl is so sensitive we just now are able to go every three months for a check instead of every other week. I can understand doing the curve once or twice a year, but it seems a bit much to me every 3 months. I know her sugar is going to be off when we move due to the transition and adding a new (large hyper, but good with cats) dog to our household. Any advice?

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

This new vet I was liking from the reviews makes your cat stay there all day to do a glucose curve and costs $162. Is this how vets normally do it?

Unfortunately, yes. Most vets have their clients come in at least 2-3 times a year for glucose curves (and some want you to come in even more often!) BUT most vets also don't promote home testing which makes glucose curves done at the vet's office unnecessary (and unreliable anyway due to the amount of stress the cat is under)

If you learn to test at home, it's totally unnecessary to ever have a curve done at the vet

Are you still feeding the W/D kibble? That stuff is terrible. It's very high carb and contains some pretty lousy ingredients (including my personal pet peeve ingredient they laughingly call "powdered cellulose"....that's a fancy word for sawdust)

 

[Morgan Williams]

I had asked my vet about home testing when I first found out about and she didn't provide any information. She's already so stressed during her 10 minute visits now, I can't imagine her staying all day and being stuck several times. It takes two, sometimes three, people to take her blood now because she hates it so much. Her vet is good about getting her doen as quickly as possible. As soon as she's in the room, someone comes in and get the blood. They let her settle down and give her love the rest of the appointment. I just can't see how keeping her all day and doing that will yield good results.
I've been wanting to learn to do the at home tested, but the last year it has just been me at home and I doubt I am unable to do it myself. I'm moving in with my partner so I'll have more support to be able to do it.

I am still using Hills W/D. I didn't know it was bad. Her vet suggested a couple foods to try and they spiked her sugar. This was the only one that helped level her sugar out while also getting her digestive system back on track. She had lost down to 3.15 lbs while very sick and we couldn't get her to gain weight with anything we tried, but she was also having bad poops and pees due to everything. I think her digestive tract kinda shut down while she was sick and wasn't functioning correctly. She was able to gain her weight back up and then some ( she was a very small cat and is a good healthy weight now), and her poops are now healthy , yay. Do you have any suggestions ?

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Most of us feed our own cats Fancy Feast Classics, Friskies pates or 9-Lives ground because they're under 10% carbs, easy to find and affordable. Even Special Kitty pate's from WalMart are under 10% and better for cats than any kibble.

The W/D is about 35% carbs! Look at the ingredients...Brewers rice is the first ingredient...there's also corn and wheat which are all carbohydrates.

One very important thing though....be sure you are able to test before changing the diet. Dropping the carbs by that much should have a drastic effect on the amount of insulin she needs.

Lots of great information on feline nutrition on Dr. Lisa's website. It's well worth taking the time to read!