Pet Sitter

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mdodge

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Hello.

I am new to this forum. I have a kittie named Hettie who has been living with diabetes for over a year now. She is stable and doing well.

I don't know if anyone can help me but I am having a very hard time finding a pet sitter in my area of Arlington, VA. I have to leave for three weeks for work. Hettie has multiple health issues that complicates her diabetes so I am desperately looking for someone who has experience handling sick animals. I found a pet sitter that was a licensed vet tech but she is unavailable during the time I am leaving-- first three weeks in July. I have looked into standard pet sitting businesses and while I think they would be great pet sitters for healthy animals I worry they might not be equipped to handle Hettie's case.

I was wondering if there is anyone on this forum who might be able to recommend someone in my area or knows how/where to look for pet sitters that deal with diabetes. I have tried asking at vet's offices but for some reason here, vets are hesitant to recommend anyone for liability sake. It's making the search very hard.

Again, I appreciate any help.

Thanks
Martha
 
Hi Martha

welcome to the FDMB!

I'm going to cross post this thread to our Community forum, and we'll see if anything pops up!
cat_pet_icon
 
Oh how I wish you were farther south. I don't know anyone up there but I will call a friend and ask if she might. I'm not too hopeful, but you never know unless you try =)

What about boarding her at the vet's office?

If you have the time you might be able to train a petsitter. My petsitter (who I now work for/with) knew nothing about diabetic kitties but she was willing to learn. She came over several times to learn and practice home testing his bg. She learned to give his injections and keep track of his numbers.

I left her very detailed printed instructions of what to do in a hypo event, which foods were for which cats (only one of the five was diabetic) and every other detail I could imagine. Once I found the board here, I also left my laptop turned on with a page open to the forum where she could go to get dosing help if I was not answering for some reason. Later I left her contact numbers for other people who could help if something came up.

We had one hypo situation and she stayed as long as needed to test/feed him till his numbers were on the rise, also stayed in constant contact with me through it all. She also had authorization to take him to the vet or ER if need be though she has never needed to do so.

You can believe I was thrilled to have found her. She has a very real love of animals and she does what she does because of her love... not just to make money, you know? If you can find someone like that you could train them to deal with the medical stuff, like I did. My DPS didn't ask to be paid for the visits where she came just to learn but it might sweeten the pot if you offer her standard rate for educational visits. In this economy, every penny helps.

Those are all the suggestions I can come up with off the top of my head. Wish I could help more.

Edit to add: We get a lot of last minute calls and we do everything in our power to help out when there is any way possible... considering the training needed, that does kind of make this last minute. You might get lucky if you get on the phone now. Check Craig's List, google Pet Sitting Arlington, VA, and try to find someone who is licensed and insured etc.
 
You might try sending a PM to Larry and Kitties. He lives in the Arlington area, has several kitties with multiple health issues, and is a vet tech.
 
Thank you so much!

Still getting used to posting... Thank you for all the suggestions. I considered boarding her but she does so badly, health wise, when she stays at the vets. So much better once I get her home.

What is Larry and Kitties? I am not familiar with who he is.

Martha
 
Larry and Kitties is his user name. If you press on the Members button in the light gray area near the top of the page, it will take you to a list of members. Press the L and scroll down until you see Larry and Kitties. Click on his name and it will open his profile. You can send him a private message (PM) from there.
 
The other thing you might consider is asking the vet techs at your vet's office if any of them would cat-sit a diabetic. A lot of vet techs supplement their income by doing things like pet sitting in people's homes. Bonuses for you include that (in general):

they're experienced in giving shots; they may already be familiar with (and familiar to) your cat; they're already familiar with some of the things that can go wrong and may be able to catch problems earlier than a civilian pet-sitter; if something does go wrong, they may have after-hours access to your regular vet, plus they know who the bad ER vets are and which ones are good.

Hope you can find a good one!
 
Thanks so much. I have tried a few vets, including my own but either no one is available or the vet's office won't recommend anyone, even their own people, for liability sake. But I did just call a local vet tech school and may have some new leads there. Thanks again for your suggestion.

M
 
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