Hi guys! I'm Tama Tama!
Was reading the forum and saw that you guys prefer people to say hello here and introduce themselves before posting elsewhere so I want to make sure I do the right thing.
A little background on us, I'm in (human) nursing school but I was a vet tech for many years prior. My husband is in IT. We currently live in Denver, CO but we are from Portland, OR originally. We have 4 wonderful cats that we treat like our children because they are. Just before Christmas we started noticing our little Persian mix, Tama Tama, was losing some weight and was a bit lethargic. He has never been a hyper cat and we honestly just thought maybe he was getting bored of his food. We left the "kids" with some good friends for a week while we went out of town for the holiday and when we returned it was obvious something wasn't right. It was nothing our friends watching him had done wrong, perhaps it was simply that time away that really brought it to our attention. Tama Tama, who is only 4 years old, looked like a little tiny old man cat with renal failure! You guys know what I'm talking about here. We saw him and I instantly thought it was either his kidneys or his thyroid. We took him to the a vet I used to work for and we did bloodwork and rads (he's got a murmur too....oh and he's a tad asthmatic....yeah he's our "problem child"). Two days later the results came back. Blood Glucose: 502.
This website and forum and all the people who have contributed have really helped make our lives easier. So much of the research I thought I would have to do on my own has already been done and everyone is so willing to assist. It's really amazing to me that people can come together to help each other out like this.
So far the worst part has been the sticker shock. I know, I know, I should know better having worked at for a number of vets, but the thing is, when you work for them you don't pay full price! Apparently, that doesn't matter for me. These old clinics I used to work for don't mind charging me full price. I shouldn't complain honestly, we are comfortable enough that taking care of our little diabetic guy is not going to break us, but it really hurts me to know that there are diabetic babies out there that have good and caring owners who can't afford this outrageous cost.
The run down so far:
$200 -- Bloodwork/Rads
$80 -- Urine culture
$20 -- tiny bag of Science diet diabetic formula
$120 -- 100units of Lantus
$87 -- BG Curve #1
$87 -- BG Curve #2
$87 -- BG Curve #3 (upcoming)
----------------------------------------------------
$681
So. Just to get him diagnosed and not quite fully regulated yet....we are at almost $700. That's a lot of money for most folk I would say!
What the above numbers aren't showing you is the monthly cost. If I just simply did what the vet told me to do this is what I would be paying PER MONTH.
Tama is currently on 3 units BID. Total of 6 units per day which equals 180 units a month. If I bought 2 vials of insulin a month from the local pharmacy like my vet told me I would be paying $240 a month for insulin alone. (Give a little for needles!) On top of that, I have 4 cats that free feed very well, none are over eaters. There is no way with what they are used to and our lifestyles that we could feed Tama his diabetic food only and the rest of the cats their regular Royal Canin. So. I sorta did the math. We generally buy a 17lb bag of Royal Canin for them and it usually lasts just under a month. The Royal Canin Diabetic food is sold locally in only 5lb bags for $27. So I could be looking at an additional $108 a month just to feed them.
So if I did what my vet said, without having the support of you guys here and a little healthcare knowledge, I could be spending upwards of $350 a month. Jeeze. Most people I know would have a hard time swinging that.
Thanks to this forum though my cats are currently trying the EVO low carb high protein diet and seem to be liking it fine. I think I am going to try ordering the Lantus pens from the Canadian site http://www.pharmacyrxworld.com which will save so much money.
Wow long post! Sorry about that! But I wanted to say hello, thanks for all the awesome work and effort you all have put into making this site awesome and keep the tips and tricks coming!
Was reading the forum and saw that you guys prefer people to say hello here and introduce themselves before posting elsewhere so I want to make sure I do the right thing.
A little background on us, I'm in (human) nursing school but I was a vet tech for many years prior. My husband is in IT. We currently live in Denver, CO but we are from Portland, OR originally. We have 4 wonderful cats that we treat like our children because they are. Just before Christmas we started noticing our little Persian mix, Tama Tama, was losing some weight and was a bit lethargic. He has never been a hyper cat and we honestly just thought maybe he was getting bored of his food. We left the "kids" with some good friends for a week while we went out of town for the holiday and when we returned it was obvious something wasn't right. It was nothing our friends watching him had done wrong, perhaps it was simply that time away that really brought it to our attention. Tama Tama, who is only 4 years old, looked like a little tiny old man cat with renal failure! You guys know what I'm talking about here. We saw him and I instantly thought it was either his kidneys or his thyroid. We took him to the a vet I used to work for and we did bloodwork and rads (he's got a murmur too....oh and he's a tad asthmatic....yeah he's our "problem child"). Two days later the results came back. Blood Glucose: 502.
This website and forum and all the people who have contributed have really helped make our lives easier. So much of the research I thought I would have to do on my own has already been done and everyone is so willing to assist. It's really amazing to me that people can come together to help each other out like this.
So far the worst part has been the sticker shock. I know, I know, I should know better having worked at for a number of vets, but the thing is, when you work for them you don't pay full price! Apparently, that doesn't matter for me. These old clinics I used to work for don't mind charging me full price. I shouldn't complain honestly, we are comfortable enough that taking care of our little diabetic guy is not going to break us, but it really hurts me to know that there are diabetic babies out there that have good and caring owners who can't afford this outrageous cost.
I'm good at helping with homework!
The run down so far:
$200 -- Bloodwork/Rads
$80 -- Urine culture
$20 -- tiny bag of Science diet diabetic formula
$120 -- 100units of Lantus
$87 -- BG Curve #1
$87 -- BG Curve #2
$87 -- BG Curve #3 (upcoming)
----------------------------------------------------
$681
So. Just to get him diagnosed and not quite fully regulated yet....we are at almost $700. That's a lot of money for most folk I would say!
What the above numbers aren't showing you is the monthly cost. If I just simply did what the vet told me to do this is what I would be paying PER MONTH.
Tama is currently on 3 units BID. Total of 6 units per day which equals 180 units a month. If I bought 2 vials of insulin a month from the local pharmacy like my vet told me I would be paying $240 a month for insulin alone. (Give a little for needles!) On top of that, I have 4 cats that free feed very well, none are over eaters. There is no way with what they are used to and our lifestyles that we could feed Tama his diabetic food only and the rest of the cats their regular Royal Canin. So. I sorta did the math. We generally buy a 17lb bag of Royal Canin for them and it usually lasts just under a month. The Royal Canin Diabetic food is sold locally in only 5lb bags for $27. So I could be looking at an additional $108 a month just to feed them.
So if I did what my vet said, without having the support of you guys here and a little healthcare knowledge, I could be spending upwards of $350 a month. Jeeze. Most people I know would have a hard time swinging that.
Thanks to this forum though my cats are currently trying the EVO low carb high protein diet and seem to be liking it fine. I think I am going to try ordering the Lantus pens from the Canadian site http://www.pharmacyrxworld.com which will save so much money.
Wow long post! Sorry about that! But I wanted to say hello, thanks for all the awesome work and effort you all have put into making this site awesome and keep the tips and tricks coming!
In order, that's me with my older 15-year-old sister Kemuri, then me and my little brother Teppou (2) and my youngest sister Eliza (1)! They keep me busy!
