Keep or cancel appointment?

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Jajsmom

Jajsmom

Member Since 2020
After I took Jasper in to check his levels yesterday, they told me to come back in a week to see the vet and discuss his situation. Even though labs showed high glucose, he feels it could be something more as his numbers kept increasing after 3 days of testing. After finding this forum last night, I was going to cancel the appointment and home test him and keep a spreadsheet. Picked up the glucose meter tonight and will attempt to test in the morning.

1. Should I keep the appointment, see what the vet says? Tell him I am going to monitor him at home and will call if needed. Not sure what he'll think. This was a new vet so don't know them well. They may want to run other tests. I don't want any high cost if something else.

2. Cancel appointment. Call and tell them I'm going to monitor at home and will call if needed.
 
I would keep the appointment and tell the Vet you WANT to be PROACTIVE. You've been doing a lot of research and feel you can handle this by monitoring at home. Also tell them you intend to send them Jajs numbers. Make them understand you are gong to do whatever it takes. Surely they cant argue that.
GOOD LUCK!
 
Novolin insulin is not a great insulin for cats. It hits hard and fast and hasn’t got a great duration.
You would be far better off switching to something like Lantus insulin which is a gentle longer acting insulin.
Are you feeding a meal 1 hour before the shots? And offering food during the first half of the cycles?

I would just tell the vet you are going to test....you don’t need their permission and ask to swap insulins.
 
Is this the vet that put Jasper in the novolin or another? If another, I’d keep the appointment or you can call and explain what you’re going to do and see what vet says. Have you been to him/her at least once before? Sorry hard to remember the details :(
 
jt and trouble (GA) said:
I would keep the appointment and tell the Vet you WANT to be PROACTIVE. You've been doing a lot of research and feel you can handle this by monitoring at home. Also tell them you intend to send them Jajs numbers. Make them understand you are gong to do whatever it takes. Surely they cant argue that.
GOOD LUCK!
Click to expand...

Agreed, and Robyn it also may be helpful to reference industry guidelines rather than "some people on the internet". [To be clear, while almost none of us are vets...I think that there are 1 or 2...we do have more day-to-day experience with FD than most vets]. We also know, based on stories from newcomers, that vet's reactions to wanting to monitor at home based on "some people on the internet" is generally unfavorable, but surely they can't argue guidelines that they themselves should be following.

I haven't read these fully in a while, but you might want to give them a glance and reference them specifically when saying that you want to test and why. For example, from a quick glance back at https://www.aaha.org/globalassets/02-guidelines/diabetes/diabetes-guidelines_final.pdf :

"At-Home Blood Glucose Curves Obtaining a BGC at home is strongly recommended both for dog and cat owners, but even more so in the case of feline patients due to the chance of stress hyperglycemia in a hospital setting. For home BGC, capillary blood is suitable.37"

And also look at https://www.aaha.org/aaha-guidelines/diabetes-management/resource-center/ for a full overview. Best of luck to you, and Welcome!
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Novolin insulin is not a great insulin for cats. It hits hard and fast and hasn’t got a great duration.
You would be far better off switching to something like Lantus insulin which is a gentle longer acting insulin.
Are you feeding a meal 1 hour before the shots? And offering food during the first half of the cycles?

I would just tell the vet you are going to test....you don’t need their permission and ask to swap insulins.
Click to expand...

I was told to give insulin right after eating.
 
Jajsmom said:
I was told to give insulin right after eating.
Click to expand...

The concern there, especially with Novolin due to its hard-and-fast action, is...what if he doesn't eat? Whether it is because he just doesn't care for today's meal selection, or he is feeling "off". That's why it is a good idea to make sure that there is already food on board before giving the insulin**. If he doesn't eat, then depending on the dosage you intended to give, you could potentially lower the dose.

** Because some of the other insulins have a more gentle action, it isn't as critical that they eat right away as long as they do eat. For example, with Lantus (which is what we use), unless Whispy has been vomiting or I know that he has been having appetite issues in the previous 12 hours, I go ahead and give him whatever his normal dosage is whether he eats right away or not.
 
Go to the appointment and tell them that you are learning to test at home and happy to share the readings if he wants. If he gives you any hard time about testing (some do, it's crazy!), say I wouldn't inject myself or a child without testing first, and I feel the same about my cat.... I don't want to put him in danger. Say I've also done some research about insulin brands, and I'd like to switch to Prozinc or Lantus. (if he approves it, you can then order it online cheaper and wherever you order it from with contact him for approval.)
 
I agree with Sandi. I’m on Lantus too and even though it’s a more gentle insulin like she said I still feed before giving the shot. The advice we give here, regardless the insulin is always:
test -> feed -> shoot
You just never know and what if today is the day your cat wont eat and you already gave the shot?
 
Sandi & Whisper said:
Agreed, and Robyn it also may be helpful to reference industry guidelines rather than "some people on the internet". [To be clear, while almost none of us are vets...I think that there are 1 or 2...we do have more day-to-day experience with FD than most vets]. We also know, based on stories from newcomers, that vet's reactions to wanting to monitor at home based on "some people on the internet" is generally unfavorable, but surely they can't argue guidelines that they themselves should be following.

I haven't read these fully in a while, but you might want to give them a glance and reference them specifically when saying that you want to test and why. For example, from a quick glance back at https://www.aaha.org/globalassets/02-guidelines/diabetes/diabetes-guidelines_final.pdf :

"At-Home Blood Glucose Curves Obtaining a BGC at home is strongly recommended both for dog and cat owners, but even more so in the case of feline patients due to the chance of stress hyperglycemia in a hospital setting. For home BGC, capillary blood is suitable.37"

And also look at https://www.aaha.org/aaha-guidelines/diabetes-management/resource-center/ for a full overview. Best of luck to you, and Welcome!
Click to expand...

Brilliant!
 
So, I've canceled the appointment for now. I called to ask a few questions and the girl was useless. I think they originally wanted me to make an appointment to do further testing which I don't want to do at this time. Maybe check for cancer which I couldn't afford to treat. He seems to be doing well this week. I told her I was monitoring him at home and would schedule an appointment at a later date.
Thing is this vet has over 800 positive reviews other than long waits and front desk.
I think I'll recheck him at the vet in a couple of months. See how things go and switch insulin then if needed. Will give me time to get a good SS going.
 
JanetNJ said:
Go to the appointment and tell them that you are learning to test at home and happy to share the readings if he wants. If he gives you any hard time about testing (some do, it's crazy!), say I wouldn't inject myself or a child without testing first, and I feel the same about my cat.... I don't want to put him in danger. Say I've also done some research about insulin brands, and I'd like to switch to Prozinc or Lantus. (if he approves it, you can then order it online cheaper and wherever you order it from with contact him for approval.)
Click to expand...
Jajsmom said:
So, I've canceled the appointment for now. I called to ask a few questions and the girl was useless. I think they originally wanted me to make an appointment to do further testing which I don't want to do at this time. Maybe check for cancer which I couldn't afford to treat. He seems to be doing well this week. I told her I was monitoring him at home and would schedule an appointment at a later date.
Thing is this vet has over 800 positive reviews other than long waits and front desk.
I think I'll recheck him at the vet in a couple of months. See how things go and switch insulin then if needed. Will give me time to get a good SS going.
Click to expand...
i would switch insulins as soon as you use up the novolin. You don’t need a vet appt to do that when you’ll be monitoring at home and testing
 
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