Lovey do Vet Curve or Find Another Vet?

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lovey11

Member Since 2013
I found another vet through the yellow pages and asking a few questions to their secretaries. I have seen her once in the office. She gave me a prescription for Lantus which my first vet didn't think was good for cats. She asked me to change from ff chunky to ff .classic. She wanted to try to get Lovey diet controlled. So her ideas were more in line with mine.

Anyway, now she wants to do a curve on my cat in her office. I called to ask if I could do a curve or two and drop it off with my spreadsheet. The vet tech or secretary called me back and said that the vet would not give me any input on BG readings until I brought Lovey in on Monday or Tuesday. She did mention when I got the prescription for Lantus that she wanted to do a curve to make sure it was done correctly.

I have a timid cat who hides under the bed if you raise your voice, the doorbell rings, or a new person enters the house. She has never been out of her home environment besides vet visits in 10 years. I really don't want to have her stay at the vet'.s office from 8:00 to 6:00. However, I need prescriptions for Lantus, I want to have a vet look at lovey's teeth, etc. Should I suck up the curve or find a another vet that will work on my terms? Can I ask the vet if I can visit Lovey during curve? I don't want to overly stress her. I know if Lovey needs dental work she will stay at the vet.
 
Hi again, Catherine,
There is no earthly reason why you should have to bring Lovey to the vet to have a curve done! You can do one perfectly well yourself. I think we touched on this topic the other day. It might be time to find a new vet. Where do you live in NY State? Someone on the board may be able to recommend a vet if we know where you are located. Perhaps post a question in the Health forum asking if anyone in _______ (insert your city or area) can recommend a vet.
I wouldn't worry too much about your Lantus prescription. Surely it is re-fillable at your pharmacy? That should buy you a lot of time to find a new vet.

Wishing you good luck. Many people here manage their kitty's FD primarily with the help of the board and go to the vet for non-FD issues. Some vets have a problem with this, but many do not. It is best to find a vet who is willing to work with you, but not dictate how FD should be treated (most vets are not up-to-date on the recent trends in FD treatment and think Lantus should be handled the way the older insulins are).

Hang in there!

Ella & Rusty
 
Hi Catherine,
If it were me, I might be tempted to find another vet. It sounds like this vet does a lot of things right, but I would want someone that would be willing to look over my SS. Any curve you do at home will likely be more accurate than a curve done at the vet's while your kitty is stressed. Our vet has welcomed our SS and taken time to look it over and made personal calls to our house to discuss it. Even if you stick with this vet and don't get dosing advice from her, will she even prescribe more Lantus, if you need it, without doing a curve? Good luck, I'm sorry the vet isn't cooperating more.
 
Ugh on the vets attitude! Have you dropped off Lovey's SS so far to the vet? Once my vet saw Neko's SS and realized how much I was testing, she was fine with me doing the testing. I'd call and ask to speak to the vet directly instead of the tech or secretary. I'd want to know why the vet thinks the curve at the vet office will be better than one at home. You've give all the right reasons. Last time my civie had bloodwork, his BG was 120 higher than when I tested him at home. He is also the timid type.

I wonder if the vet would be happy with just doing a physical exam of Lovey and talking to you about the SS without leaving Lovey there. Especially if you want her teeth checked anyway. It's an option you could offer, but I would ask the vet in person. Is Lovey due for bloodwork yet? That's the other thing that helped my vet. I tested just before I went in, and told the vet what the number was. When the bloodwork came back almost the same, she knew my numbers were OK.

The only time I had a curve done at the vet's office, they did 3-4 tests during the day and charged me $120. That's a lot of strips!
 
I showed her my SS at first vet and bloodwork done in June and September of this year from my vet. I asked her to do a urinalysis. I mentioned that I wanted her to check Lovey's teeth in case that was causing poor insulin response. When I showed her my spreadsheet. . She got her glasses and looked at it, but said that my doses were off because you can't do .25 increments. I explained they were estimates and that they do have needles with half unit markings to help guide a .25 approximation. At the end, she told me not to make myself crazy and just test before each shot.
 
How about asking to speak directly to the vet? Having a few minutes of the vet's time vs. the techs or secretaries can be invaluable. Either the vet will listen or if she's impatient, you will have your answer about whether to look for a new vet.

I can understand why the vet would want to see your cat at least once a year -- it's actually unprofessional to continue to renew prescriptions without seeing a person or animal after a year (and it's a huge liability to not do an exam and continue to renew a prescription). I think telling the vet how timid Lovey is and that the effect of vet stress is likely to yield artificially high numbers on a curve. The outcome of a curve at the office is likely that the vet will tell you to increase Lovey's dose which would probably be a really bad idea if she compared the results of her curve to yours. If she agrees, then what was the point of the vet doing a curve if yours gives you numbers that are more reliable? (I really like confusing professionals with the facts!)
 
i guess i would decide mostly based upon whether or not i liked the vet overall. i have heard very few reports of people whose vets were on board with the Tight Regulation Protocol and home-testing. I switched to our current vet because she had 2 diabetic cats of her own - but she never hometested and didn't encourage me. i could see she was skeptical about it being important.

however, she worked with me - i was in charge of his dosing. she is good in everything else and i like her. she was also willing to do things that i wanted.

so . . . you'll have to weigh out the whole thing.

what i can't tell from reading your posts is if this particular vet has actually examined Lovey or just wrote the prescription and gave it to you. if the vet hasn't examined Lovey yet, i think it's reasonable, and really a good idea. in oregon they can't prescribe without seeing the cat at least once a year. from your post, i'm thinking a different vet started the process, saw her, did labs and got her started on insulin and now you're at a different vet. i'm not sure though.

if you could afford it and the vet is insistent, and you like the vet otherwise, i'd probably take in lovey's ss and say i don't want to pay for this, you can see how often i hometest, but if it's required, i'll do it. if you can't afford it, i'd just say no and that if it's required for her to get her insulin prescription, you'll have to find another vet.

the vet should be able to make an initial determination on her teeth in a regular office visit. if she needs a cleaning, that is a separate appt with anesthesia.
 
I will call her. I saw her once in September and the sub vet there another time. I just changed over last month in September so I only met her one time about 5 weeks ago. My old vet gave me Prozinc. I went to this new vet in September with Lovey and she wrote me a prescription for Lantus after a physical exam, a urinalysis, and looked in her mouth. She didn't think Lovey had cavities, but I am sure she needs a cleaning. I asked the vet about cleaning her teeth at the time.
 
does her breath smell?

so this same vet did the exam in sept 2013, including labs and all, including writing the Lantus prescription and now wants to do a curve?

and you saw a different vet in the same practice since September 2013?
 
Yes, her breath smells. No I just had bloodwork done at my old vet before switching over. I brought the bloodwork to the new vet. The new vet and I wanted a urinalysis. She looked over Lovey and did an urianalysis. Lovey needs her teeth cleaned. I saw a different vet because the new vet was on vacation. It was a sub vet. Lovey was constipated and I wanted to practice shot technique also in September.
 
i don't know. as sienne said, i don't know what you learn by the numbers if the cat is timid and they are likely elevated. i'd resist it based upon that and the cost and the fact that i have the data done at home.

on the other hand, if i were a vet, i'd probably want to do a thorough exam, including my own labs, on any diabetic patient.

i like the idea of talking it over with the vet so you can explain your concerns and hear what the vet is thinking.

i think it will boil down to how much you like this particular vet and if you have another one you would prefer that wouldn't require the same thing. you could call around to other vets and ask if they would require re-running labs and doing a curve if you switched over to them. my guess is they might.
 
I was open to rerunning any labwork, but this vet didn't feel it was necessary besides the urinalysis. I had the superbloodwork, fructasomine, and the pancreais test. I just don't want to overly stress Lovey with staying at the vet's all day.
 
so you did a fructosamine a month ago?

doing a curve now seems like overkill to me, especially given that she had a fructosamine last month, no doubt they also checked glucose in the last lab work.

i don't know - that conversation with the vet sounds good. i'd ask what the vet is hoping to learn from it that you can't already provide with your spreadsheet.
 
When Furball was first diagnosed with FD, I took my meter to the vet and tested Furball in front of the vet. She also got a reading with the meter they used at the vet office. That way the vet could see I knew how to test and see how close the readings were on the two meters. Maybe you could suggest that to put your vet's mind at ease that you do know how to test properly and are getting good readings.
 
I think the other factor to keep in mind is that all of us here are outliers. The average caregiver with a diabetic cat does not home test. Many that do home test, may get a pre-shot test only. For most vets, this is what they've come to expect. And then there's all of us here. We walk in the door with a color coded SS, we talk about nadirs and Tight Regulation, we know about low carb food, etc. We've educated ourselves. We are not the clientele that a vet is used to dealing with. And on top of all of that, we ask questions. We let our vets know if they're saying something we don't agree with our runs counter to what we've learned. Many of us will push back in order to insure that our cats get the best possible care. Our cats are not pets, they are members of our families. So, if you like this vet and she treats you with respect, is good with Lovey, answers your questions, etc., you'll need to decide if you're willing to put up with getting a curve. If she wants to do one on a regular basis, then that's a different discussion.
 
I just don't want to overly stress Lovey with staying at the vet's all day.
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I think you summed it up best here.
It's a rare cat who isn't stressed at the vet.
The dental surgery is stressful enough.

I shared all my numbers with the vet and mine was happy enough with my data.
Its difficult to be assertive with the vet but ultimately you hire her for help with the parts you can't do on your own.
 
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