? Vet recommendations after relocation

[AlphaCat]

Hi everyone.
I used to be a frequent flyer here when my Fabby was alive and dealing with diabetes. It looks like I might be more active soon, as my Crookshanks is popping up with numbers that are making me nervous.

TL/DR: Does anyone have a vet they love around Denver, CO? Or is there a list in the forums somewhere for vets who provide excellent care for diabetic cats?

We moved to just outside Denver Colorado in August of 2023. I chose a vet office due to their equipment in handling Don Juan’s GI cancer.
now Crooks has to go in because his skin cancer on his nose is back, and this is the 3rd year in a row. His blood work in August came back as diabetic, but he gets very stressed going to the vet, so I bought a new meter and did a curve at home and sent those results to the vet. To me they appeared at minimum pre-diabetic, at worst diabetic. The vet reviewed them and said he’s fine. Here we are 4 months later having blood work run so he can go under anesthesia to remove his skin cancer growth, and it comes back high, as well as glucose in his urine. It’s definitely higher than normal because of stress, but I expect if I did another curve at home, it would still show high, or borderline high. The only symptom he’s exhibiting is from August until now he’s lost a whole pound of weight. He was close with Don Juan who passed, so it could be part grief, part move, and possibly part diabetes.
The thing is the vet we saw for both his skin cancer and who ran the blood work was too nice. We weren’t given options, she didn’t seem to comprehend the root of the concerns we expressed, and even over the phone with the blood results she seemed non-confident to diagnose and make a treatment plan. Honestly the whole office operates a bit this way. Other doctors diagnose, then they suggest a treatment plan, then they put it all into their computer which has a giant monitor that faces us where they show all the pricing. Is all very transparent which is good… but then they say, “The total for this course of action would be $XXX.00. Is that okay?”
We’ve always said yes, but I wonder what happens if we say no. Do they then haggle the prices? Do they not haggle prices, but the services that are offered, so you get only half the treatment or something? It’s just weird, and it doesn’t impart confidence in their commitment to care. So I’m looking for a 2nd opinion, as my poor Crooks is not going to have any nose skin left if his cancer were to come back a 4th time, but also because we may need a better focus of care on diabetes.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

One consideration may be a consultation with someone at the vet school at Colorado State. The drive to Ft. Collins may be a bit much. The other option would be to look for a vet that is a feline only practice.

Vets tend to use a higher range for normal than we do. They are not used to having clients who home test so they prefer to have cats in higher than normal range to give a margin for hypoglycemia.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

You might want to start a thread called "looking for vet recommendations in Denver" as that is more likely to catch eyes. I know we've had members in the Denver area, but can't remember if there is anyone current.

Side note, I can strongly recommend the veterinary teaching school at CSU. My Neko went there twice - it was around 26 hours drive from Vancouver 1st time, a flight the second time. But that's because they had some specialized equipment needed to treat my cat. The drive after the flight from Denver didn't take that long. I met with both internal medicine and radiation oncology vets and specialists in training. At the time, you could do a phone consult with them first, before committing to go there.

 

[AlphaCat]

One consideration may be a consultation with someone at the vet school at Colorado State. The drive to Ft. Collins may be a bit much. The other option would be to look for a vet that is a feline only practice.

Vets tend to use a higher range for normal than we do. They are not used to having clients who home test so they prefer to have cats in higher than normal range to give a margin for hypoglycemia.

Thank you. May I ask why you recommended looking for a cat only vet? You’re the second person in my life to suggest this. (The other is a vet tech friend out of state.) I am researching 2nd opinion options today to call tomorrow, and I’ve seen adds for a cat only clinic, so they’ll go on my list.

Funny enough, I was just explaining that exact situation to my spouse about vets liking higher numbers to avoid hypoglycemia. Thanks again!

 

[AlphaCat]

You might want to start a thread called "looking for vet recommendations in Denver" as that is more likely to catch eyes. I know we've had members in the Denver area, but can't remember if there is anyone current.

Side note, I can strongly recommend the veterinary teaching school at CSU. My Neko went there twice - it was around 26 hours drive from Vancouver 1st time, a flight the second time. But that's because they had some specialized equipment needed to treat my cat. The drive after the flight from Denver didn't take that long. I met with both internal medicine and radiation oncology vets and specialists in training. At the time, you could do a phone consult with them first, before committing to go there.

Thank you! I’ll go start that thread now. I’ll add the teaching school to my list in making.
I do feel a little silly going to an oncologist for a skin cancer issue. (Even with humans skin cancer can usually be treated by the dermatologist.) It’s like this isn’t a “bad cancer” so would be a waste of time for someone so specialized. I suppose that’s the same feeling of diabetes treatment. Diabetes can be managed. When is not able to be managed it can get very bad. But for the most part it’s not.
I appreciate you sharing your experience. It helps!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I tend to like cat only vet practices for a few reasons. First, there is a veterinary professional organization where a practitioner has to meet criteria to be considered a cat only special practice so that the office environment is calm. In other words, no barking dogs to freak your cat out. However, the major reason is the specialty nature of what they do. A multi-species vet means that the vets are obligated to treat cats, dogs, birds, snakes, ferrets, etc. for any condition they walk in the door with. I don't think any human being can stuff that much knowledge into their head. Cats are not small dogs. The medications that work for snakes is unlikely to work for ferrets, etc. If you compare it to humans, we're all one species. MDs generally limit their practice by age group -- how children respond to medication differs from how adults or older adults do. In human medicine, there are a range of specialties -- cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, radiology, etc. Some of those same specialties exist for animals, as well. A vet that treats cats only has a more limited body of research and treatment literature to stay on top of.

My work is such that I work with tons of medical specialists. As an example, with the cardiologists I work with, the heart failure MDs don't presume to know as much about arrhythmias as the cardiac electrophysiologists, neither of them would think about doing interventional procedures (e.g., putting in a stent), or treating a heart attack. I would not want a general internal medicine MD to be treating cancer. (I also work at a med center where there's a major cancer center.) It may be a matter of preference and what the MD says they are able to treat. The difficulty is if the vet says they can treat your cat's skin cancer, how do you know if the vet has the necessary expertise?