Been an eventful morning. Olive's numbers didn't sky rocket through the night. Since her BG didn't reach 350 by shot time last night, we didn't give her any further insulin until this morning and we think we gave her 0.25. I say "think" because Miss Olive decided to take off just as I was pushing the plunger in. Ugh! Her BG should let me know one way or another as I test today. I learned that my AT2 test strips have taken a side trip somewhere and now won't arrive until Monday after we were notified it would indeed arrive today. Thank goodness we have the Relion as backup. It's all set up and ready to go. Only thing is, once I have to start using it it's going to mess the spread sheet up since that's set for the AT2. I'm so used to this one that it's going to be difficult knowing just where her BG is by comparison with the Relion.
Thank you for the link to the EZ Complete. I'm going to research that. I have not been successful yet in obtaining the urine sample. I turned my back for a minute and she'd jumped in the litterbox and went. So I'll have to wait until tonight and try again.
The vet called me this morning and again, she was pushing for Olive to go on the Purina DM. She's a nice woman, she really is, but for lack of better words, we are butting heads. BIG TIME. I told her I'd researched that food and found that it contained such low quality ingredients that I couldn't understand how that could be beneficial to a cat. She said she wasn't going to debate that issue with me and that she's not a nutritionist and that Olive needs it because we could very possibly get her off insulin altogether if she ate it. She definitely wants her to get off the raw food at about 97% protein and and on something at least no higher in protein than 50-60%. Said again that Olive isn't getting enough carbs which is making her BG bottom out. I do understand where she's coming from and I do agree she needs more carbs right now, but I'm so on the fence about feeding her the DM. It's the polar opposite of good nutrition for an obligate carnivore compared to raw. Am I wrong? I value all your thoughts. We'd already set up an appointment on Monday morning for a BG check and weight check in her office. Our conversation wasn't at all going as she wanted and I know as nice a person as she is, she was and has really been tired of dealing with this since I'm not playing ball on the food issue and she doesn't know how we can proceed and get Olive's BG to stabilize unless we do as she wants. From her standpoint, I get it. So I told her I'd found a holistic vet about a half hour from here and that in her opinion would it be best for us to take Olive there??? She said she was all for it because she again admitted she knows NOTHING about holistic foods or that approach and if a holistic vet can get Olive on a better diet, then she's all for keeping an open mind even though it's clear that she has DM tunnel vision. She said we'd go ahead and cancel our Monday appointment. I'm not sure how long it will take to get Olive seen by the holistic vet, so in the meantime the vet said to keep giving her 0.25 units every 12 hours unless her numbers are below 350. So we are flying solo for a while now. So in your opinions, how often should we feed Olive through the day? She eats more during the day if we give smaller meals spaced out. Right now, until we can get her to eat more (she gets full FAST on raw food) she's eating a total of 3/4 c of raw a day. We give 1/4 cup at the morning shot and 1/4 cup at the evening shot, which leaves the other 1/4 cup I can either give all at once at the midway point or divide that up into 1/8 cup portions throughout the middle of the day.
I will add that she also doesn't like that we are testing her at home. She wants that curve done in office. I didn't understand that statement. I thought home testing was better for the cat??? Eliminates stress. Plus, she ended up charging me for two phone consultations when all I did was tell her that Olive had Hypoed and I thought a half unit of insulin was too much for her. Just to answer my questions on her care was considered a consultation. Vet offices aren't allowing people inside much here, so the phone is the go-to for answers. I thought that fee charge was pretty crummy, personally. It's not like she examined Olive or ran tests. It was asking how often to feed her and the insulin questions. I think it's best for Olive to see someone else. I just hope we can get her in soon and work on her diet approach.
Thank you for the link to the EZ Complete. I'm going to research that. I have not been successful yet in obtaining the urine sample. I turned my back for a minute and she'd jumped in the litterbox and went. So I'll have to wait until tonight and try again.
The vet called me this morning and again, she was pushing for Olive to go on the Purina DM. She's a nice woman, she really is, but for lack of better words, we are butting heads. BIG TIME. I told her I'd researched that food and found that it contained such low quality ingredients that I couldn't understand how that could be beneficial to a cat. She said she wasn't going to debate that issue with me and that she's not a nutritionist and that Olive needs it because we could very possibly get her off insulin altogether if she ate it. She definitely wants her to get off the raw food at about 97% protein and and on something at least no higher in protein than 50-60%. Said again that Olive isn't getting enough carbs which is making her BG bottom out. I do understand where she's coming from and I do agree she needs more carbs right now, but I'm so on the fence about feeding her the DM. It's the polar opposite of good nutrition for an obligate carnivore compared to raw. Am I wrong? I value all your thoughts. We'd already set up an appointment on Monday morning for a BG check and weight check in her office. Our conversation wasn't at all going as she wanted and I know as nice a person as she is, she was and has really been tired of dealing with this since I'm not playing ball on the food issue and she doesn't know how we can proceed and get Olive's BG to stabilize unless we do as she wants. From her standpoint, I get it. So I told her I'd found a holistic vet about a half hour from here and that in her opinion would it be best for us to take Olive there??? She said she was all for it because she again admitted she knows NOTHING about holistic foods or that approach and if a holistic vet can get Olive on a better diet, then she's all for keeping an open mind even though it's clear that she has DM tunnel vision. She said we'd go ahead and cancel our Monday appointment. I'm not sure how long it will take to get Olive seen by the holistic vet, so in the meantime the vet said to keep giving her 0.25 units every 12 hours unless her numbers are below 350. So we are flying solo for a while now. So in your opinions, how often should we feed Olive through the day? She eats more during the day if we give smaller meals spaced out. Right now, until we can get her to eat more (she gets full FAST on raw food) she's eating a total of 3/4 c of raw a day. We give 1/4 cup at the morning shot and 1/4 cup at the evening shot, which leaves the other 1/4 cup I can either give all at once at the midway point or divide that up into 1/8 cup portions throughout the middle of the day.
I will add that she also doesn't like that we are testing her at home. She wants that curve done in office. I didn't understand that statement. I thought home testing was better for the cat??? Eliminates stress. Plus, she ended up charging me for two phone consultations when all I did was tell her that Olive had Hypoed and I thought a half unit of insulin was too much for her. Just to answer my questions on her care was considered a consultation. Vet offices aren't allowing people inside much here, so the phone is the go-to for answers. I thought that fee charge was pretty crummy, personally. It's not like she examined Olive or ran tests. It was asking how often to feed her and the insulin questions. I think it's best for Olive to see someone else. I just hope we can get her in soon and work on her diet approach.
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A lot of us had to go through a period of "differences" with the vet. My vet and I agreed on where we would disagree and where we wouldn't. Diabetes treatment was mine, she got everything else. But that was after she's seen what I was doing and getting copies of the spreadsheet weekly for a while, along with copies of the dosing method I was using. I was her first client to home test - it took her a leap of faith, but she was up to learning.
