Izzy Vet Vist today 8/9

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Janet and Izzy (GA)

Janet and Izzy (GA)

Member Since 2013
Tomorrow is Izzy's 4 week follow-up since her last visit...which was 11 days after she was dischaged after spending a week with them and us finding out she was now diabetic.

Is there any questions I should be asking?

I am hoping my spreadsheet with convince them I don't need a Fructosamine test.

Should I bring my Relion with me and have them test against their Vet track (or whatever it's called)...just to see how much of a difference there is? Is it worth it?

Her Phosphorus was high at her last bloodwork/visit...and I have had her on aluminum hydtroxide for about week. Is it worth a new blood test to see if it has gone down? Is it too soon to see any results from that?

They are great there. I will be asking for my next prescription to be the pen refills. I don't know that I need "the pen"...but I do know that I want vials that last longer :-D And I know you don't need the pen to use the vials.

I'm going to take a picture of the saline the pharmacy gave me to make sure the case of fluids I have are the right ones. I can't believe I paid $22 for a full case and the iv sets are $3 at thriving pets. That's like $5.00 for fluids to go that they chart $28 for! ohmygod_smile why didn't I do that earlier! The down side is...I should have asked for a longer experiation date...the case expires January 2014 :( I will not use 12 bags in 5 months. :-x

Anything else you can think of?
 
Re: Izzy has a Vet visit tomorrow...any questions to ask?

With those fabulous numbers you are getting the last 5 days, the SS should convince them Izzy is doing very well and does not need a fructosamine test. You can always say "No, thanks. My daily testing gives me real time numbers instead of an average. My data is more accurate than the fructosamine test."

Can't think of any other questions to ask the vet. Except how the CKD is doing.
 
Re: Izzy has a Vet visit tomorrow...any questions to ask?

Janet, do NOT be bullied into a test you don't need! If they suggest the Fructosamine test, tell them "No thank you....We're doing fine with home testing for now"

Definitely take your spreadsheet in! Mine made a GREAT impression on my vet! He had thought China would need at least 4 units/day and was shocked to see how well she was doing at much lower doses! He asked to keep the pages I took in her chart (and of course I was happy to do it)

If you haven't already done it, you might want to print out some of the information here so "at his leisure", he can look over it. If you present it the right way, maybe he'll read through it. Something like "I just wanted to show you the protocol that seems to be working with Izzy if you'd like to take some time to look at it. I know it's next to impossible to work at a busy practice and do a lot of research on every disease every animal that walks in might have"...so it doesn't sound so much like you're "telling him" his job

I take my Relion with me, but when we first talked about home testing (all he'd ever heard of was the Alpha-Trak too), I just told him that lots of people are using home meters at home and that the most important thing was to be able to see what she was doing..going up or going down...and since the FDA approves of the human glucometers, they had to be pretty accurate. This last time when we were discussing it, I told him the Relion tests about 30 points lower if he was interested in trying to convert the numbers to something he was more familiar with, but he was happy to see that we had been testing enough to know how she was doing which was more important to him than to have an "exact" number from "his" meter. I even offered to show him how I test her, but that her numbers would be higher in his office just because of the stress of the drive.

Will the pharmacy you bought the saline at take some of it back if it's still unopened? Might be worth asking since you paid so much for it and the expiration is so soon.

I will have to let the members who are more experienced with Phosphorus levels advise you there. So far that's one problem we don't have.

Izzy is doing so great! I can't see how your vet would be anything but pleased!!!
 
Izzy had her visit. They were very impressed with her spreadsheet.

I didn't have to ask about testing because the vet said, "I don't need to do a fructosamine. All it is going to do is give me an average and your spreadsheet is great."

I did have them run a BG test using their AlphaTrac and using my Relion Micro. AT showed 146, Relion was 178. So...how should I consider that information ? Normal variation? Not sure how an AT reads...but I was curious so I had them compare. No one seemed concerned by the variation.

The tech saw the spreadsheet and said OMG. this is so awesome....I wish all of our clients did this.

So..happy day.
 
That's fantastic Janet!! Looks like you and I are both "training" our vets on what can be done by a "normal" (well, as normal as any of us crazy cat people are) can do!!

From what I remember, they say the AlphaTrac tests about 30 points higher than the human glucometers, so I'm not sure how to take that one, but the numbers are close enough that it'd make me believe that it really didn't matter which one you use at home...and the Relion is a lot cheaper!

Great vet visit for Izzy!! :-D :-D
 
Sounds like Izzy had a nice vet visit, wish my vets would look at Lucky's test inn that way, I get well your not using alpha so we don't know. keep up the good work, yeah
 
Hi Janet,

Vet visit sounds like it went well, and your vet was open to learning from you! My vet listens, but I can tell that she still thinks I am some kind of "extremist" with how much I was testing! LOL And she wanted me to get the ketostix that also test for sugar (ketodiastix?) even though I was BG testing. So in some ways I like her a lot, and in others, not so much~

Glad Izzy is doing so good!!

Jane
 
I'm super lucky. I haven't had to train my vet's at all.

From the get go my vet himself, was all over testing at home. Most of his clients don't want to so they do it in house but he is all over the fact the numbers are higher from stress. He had told me previously they used to use human meters but have switched to the Alpha Trac because it is more accurate, but he didn't seem concerned about the variation.

From day 1 he has said some cats come off insulin with changes in food etc. Course..I was already feeding 98% wet. She would nibble the other cat...my kibble crack head's food a little, but mostly ate wet.

I know they haven't seen the spreadsheet before...so I did expose them to that. And I did tell the tech if they have anyone else with a diabetic cat interested in that spreadsheet to send them my way....so I can of course...send them HERE.
 
Great vet report...sounds like you really have a super vet.

I think one week is a little too soon to see changes in the phosphorus yet.
 
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