OTJ trial day 6 -- Joe's going strong!

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WV Mom

Member Since 2014
Eleven cycles with bg readings from 54-80. Go Joe!

I think his vet is in shock. She told my daughter to increase Joe from 1.0U bid to 1.5U bid on September 12. Lolo tried it and he bounced like the big, red India-rubber ball. So we came here for guidance and then dropped his dose. And then we dropped it again. And again. And the further we dropped it, the more beautiful, and stable, the readings became.

His vet will consider him in remission when he's been OTJ for 30 days and she's run another fructosamine on him. Seems like an excessive amount of reassurance to me, which is why I think she's in shock. Assuming he stays OTJ, I wonder if this will change her outlook on how to treat diabetes. Maybe she'll quit telling cat guardians to "not test so much" ... ? One can only hope.
 
Fingers crossed that your vet will see the light and embrace home testing, sadly mine even with 4 cats (2 of mine and 2 for another client) in remission by using what I learned here, she just doesn't want to learn. Still prescribes a lousy insulin, still advises against testing at home, and still shoving expensive prescription food down their necks, which is exactly while I love her to death as a person she is my ex-vet.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Is it typical on this board for people's vets to be so ... what's the word? ... closed? ... to what's taught here?
 
I hate to say it, but I think there are two reasons they are resistant to this information:

first, a good deal of their self worth is tied up in being "the learned doctor". The vet wants to be the authority, and to be in control.
Secondly, money. There is lots of money to be made in Rx food, lab tests, exams. If you do all the testing at home, they cant charge you for it.

I took a print out of my spreadsheet and my meter to the vet with me the last time I had Sammy there. He insisted he wanted to run a BG test, and also frucosimine. I told he he is more than welcome to do so if he wishes, for his own sake, but I was not going to pay for it since i had more than enough data to know she is fine. He was pissed.
 
There are a sum total of 3 vet offices in this town (Ya I live in the sticks) and two have no clue what to do with a diabetic cat, one flat out refused to learn and even refused to release one from the hospital until I signed a release form saying I couldn't sue them for malpractice because I was taking her out against medical advice yet they were the ones that didn't follow my instructions to force feed, and even though she was going into DKA never gave her insulin while she was there.

The second was better and also a close personal friend, she pretty much never told that I couldn't do whatever I was doing and even has asked me to foster another client's cat while he was having surgery because I am good with diabetics, just can't get her to budge on how she starts treatment with new clients. But at least she admits she's old school and this is what she is comfortable with and what she knows. She has never given me a moments flack about testing, and has always written me a script for Autumn's Levemir no questions asked.

Now we come to the third and our new vet....Just about did cartwheels when she saw Autumn ate Friskies pate, was delighted that I was testing at home, and when I asked to do a side by side test with my meter and theirs so we would have a baseline to compare with in the future, whips out the exact same meter as I'm using the Relion Micro, well hers was a Confirm but same strips and basically the same meter just different sized package. Which gave us a good chuckle. She didn't know Levemir but she does use Lantus and was extremely curious to learn more about Levemir. But she is also the youngest age wise of all the vets I've seen. And when I asked her the same question, why do I have to fight with these other vets just to work with them on the care of my animal her answer was remarkable....Money, but what they don't realize is if you make this disease cost the owner an arm and a leg to treat most won't or can't so the animal dies, and while they have raked it in for a few weeks or months that patience is lost forever because the owner eventually euthanizes but if I keep the costs down by using a good insulin, letting them manage at home and be the support staff the animal gets better, and I continue to see this animal for years to come, I don't make as much up front but I make more in the long haul and I have a client that will bring me this animal, and when this one leaves for the bridge their next animal. And I don't have a bunch of useless inventory clogging up my storage area...She carries no prescription food there other than like the AD and Recovery type stuff for animals that do need something other than their normal diet (feeding tubes, orphaned kittens etc) So I start to tell her about here...."Oh I know I send clients there, and it's where I did some of my own research when I decided to specialize in Feline Medicine" She just never realized there was a message board attached to the main site.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
hmmmm, the back of my brain has this little light struggling to shine..... an idea is trying to form about a campaign to educate vets...... oh dear, quiet down ideas, I have a busy day already today
 
So, the response we're getting isn't unusual? That's a shame. I'll sure be curious to see what Joe's vet does/says if he stays OTJ. Will she learn?

Joe's still doing great! Yesterday's PMPS was 66. Today's AMPS was 63. We've started joking that perhaps this is just a bad batch of test strips, but we know it's not. He's perkier, more playful, his fur looks better, and there's less pee in the litter box.

I've gotta find a picture of him and make it my avatar.
 
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