Vet Suggestions

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DebG

DebG

Member Since 2016
I travel a lot and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a vet in Washing state that understands and has experience with diabetes, I've been to two vets in Arizona with no success.
My kitty Fritz and I are new to the forum and this diabetes.
We need as much advice as we can get.
I appreciate felinediabetes.com and it's members so much!
Thanks
Deb & Fritz:)
 
DebG said:
I travel a lot and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a vet in Washing state that understands and has experience with diabetes, I've been to two vets in Arizona with no success.
My kitty Fritz and I are new to the forum and this diabetes.
We need as much advice as we can get.
I appreciate felinediabetes.com and it's members so much!
Thanks
Deb & Fritz:)
Click to expand...
Dear Deb,
it might be very difficult to find a vet who knows how to treat FD.
What you need is a good vet who is prepared to work with you, take your opinions and suggestions into consideration and give you a prescription for insulin.
If you could read all information on this forum (yellow sticky etc.) and print that out and than go to the vet very well prepared and ready to home test. Read about insulin and decide with the vet which one would be most appropriate for your cat (I would suggest long lasting one, maybe Levemir), prepare your supplies like syringes, glucometer and testing strips. You could start testing yourself with the meter to get an idea what it's like and how it feels, you need to practise a lot! This is what I've done and it helped me enormously.
After reading about experiences with vets on this forum I would be very careful with their advice!
Good luck and let us know how it's going for you and your kitty.
There is a lot of people on this forum with bags of experience and they will guide you, you will not be on your own!
Best regard,
Marlena
 
I can't help with recommending a vet in Washington state. Sorry, maybe others here will soon chime in on that. However, it's been my experience that I've gotten as much help from the good folks here as I've gotten from our vet. He tries his best, but feline diabetes is such a specialized disease, it's difficult for some vets to keep up on treating it. Hannah and I are lucky! Our vet knows I come here for advice and he supports that. He loves the spreadsheet idea. I think he's actually learned a few things through the suggestions I present to him. He's so easy to work with. If you can't find a vet that specializes in feline diabetes, I hope you will luck out and find one that is supportive and open to suggestions. Best wishes.
 
Marlena
Appreciate the excellent advise.
I've been to two different vets in Arizona. Like you mentioned they had way difference ideas in treating him.
The first put him on Lantus 3 units twice a day Bgs remained high and their office was unable to successfully do a 12 curve.
So off I went to a second vet who put him on Prozinc 3 units twice a day then up to 4 units a day.
I have been doing the Elizabeth Hodgkins sliding scale, his Bgs are still high and spike.
I'm at a loss as to how and when to inject him. Do I continue the sliding scale whuch appears to not be working or go back to twice a day which wasn't lowering his Bg
I'm just now tapering him off his predisolone hoping that will help lower is bg.
I am looking forward to getting him on a nice gentle curve.
Thank you!
 
Blamethecats and Hannah said:
I can't help with recommending a vet in Washington state. Sorry, maybe others here will soon chime in on that. However, it's been my experience that I've gotten as much help from the good folks here as I've gotten from our vet. He tries his best, but feline diabetes is such a specialized disease, it's difficult for some vets to keep up on treating it. Hannah and I are lucky! Our vet knows I come here for advice and he supports that. He loves the spreadsheet idea. I think he's actually learned a few things through the suggestions I present to him. He's so easy to work with. If you can't find a vet that specializes in feline diabetes, I hope you will luck out and find one that is supportive and open to suggestions. Best wishes.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply!
What I'm looking for is help with getting him regulated.
He's on Prozinc. I'm doing the sliding scale. I'm having a hard time keeping his bg they hover around 350 to 400 sometimes we get lucky and see upper 200's.
I'm doing a curve today
Amps 254,246,299,376,355 what the heck does this mean? I'm struggling to know what and how to get to be below 200 most of the day every day. Isn't that the goal if a diabetic cat?
I make raw air chilled antibotic hormone free chicken and once a day he gets Fancy feast classic chicken for small amount of carbs.
Would appreciate your imput as I see your kitty us Prozinc. (Right)
 
So thankful for prople who take the time to help others.
Sue us going to help me with a spread sheet this evening.
I so much appreciate all the support I am receiving :)
I now know Fritz is going to get better!!!!!
That makes me happy after weeks of frustration and not sleeping much or doing anything else.
Have a fantastic day!
 
Dear Deb,
it might take a lot of time to start seeing better curves!
Please post on PZI forum, there are many people there who will help you. Start a new thread with HELP! at the beginning, you will soon get replies.
I can only offer you moral support and shoulder to cry on.
Best of luck, do not get frustrated as you will get a fantastic support here.
In the meantime have a look at my cat's SS (spread sheet with blood glucose values) and it will be apparent what I'm going through!
Please read everything you can on this forum, it will help you understand that high BG you are seeing might be due to few problems:
1. not enough insulin
2. too much insulin
3. health problems causing spikes in blood glucose
4. wrong insulin for the cat
5. caregiver (you) problems like not testing enough, wrong food, incorrect injection technique etc.
6. some medication like steroids
I'm glad you found this forum and let me welcome you very warmly.
Please post any questions you might have.
Marlena:cat::cat::cat:
 
Blamethecats and Hannah said:
I can't help with recommending a vet in Washington state. Sorry, maybe others here will soon chime in on that. However, it's been my experience that I've gotten as much help from the good folks here as I've gotten from our vet. He tries his best, but feline diabetes is such a specialized disease, it's difficult for some vets to keep up on treating it. Hannah and I are lucky! Our vet knows I come here for advice and he supports that. He loves the spreadsheet idea. I think he's actually learned a few things through the suggestions I present to him. He's so easy to work with. If you can't find a vet that specializes in feline diabetes, I hope you will luck out and find one that is supportive and open to suggestions. Best wishes.
Click to expand...
Carole appreciate the reply!
 
DebG said:
Thank you for the reply!
What I'm looking for is help with getting him regulated.
He's on Prozinc. I'm doing the sliding scale. I'm having a hard time keeping his bg they hover around 350 to 400 sometimes we get lucky and see upper 200's.
I'm doing a curve today
Amps 254,246,299,376,355 what the heck does this mean? I'm struggling to know what and how to get to be below 200 most of the day every day. Isn't that the goal if a diabetic cat?
I make raw air chilled antibotic hormone free chicken and once a day he gets Fancy feast classic chicken for small amount of carbs.
Would appreciate your imput as I see your kitty us Prozinc. (Right)
Click to expand...
Deb,
my Rocky is on different insulin which is available in Europe (UK) and called Hypurin bovine U100 insulin, very long lasting and not the same as US Prozinc.
 
Deb, it is hard to find a vet well versed in FD. As Marlene said, one who is willing to work with you, supportive with home testing, help you find answers, listen to your concerns and suggestions is worth their weight in gold.

My vet is supportive of home testing once I asked about it. He doesn't bring the subject up as most customers are put off. He waits till they ask. He loves the spreadsheet, I email it to him, he knows I belong to this forum and my questions are because of suggestions from others here. He wasn't aware of Lantus insulin only the Vetsulin which wasn't working. I had to show him how the pen was used. He wasn't aware of the 1/2u marked syringes until I showed him. He loves them. I do wish he was a little more concerned when I mentioned some new symptoms, but he said all blood work was normal, therefore Smokey was okay. I pushed the envelope and he agreed for further test and well now dealing with pancreatitis. He did apologize to me for only considering lab work and not symptoms. Before the Good Friday weekend he even called me to let me know he would be in another office that weekend and asked how Smokey was doing and if I needed any med refills before the weekend. He made sure I had everything the following morning. No other has ever done that. I also think he does not treat many chronically sick animals as the owners choose the other option.

A really good vet is your friend. Keep looking until you find one.
 
I had a feeling I made the right decision to approach this felinediabetes.com site.
I am so grateful for each one of you members who take your time to help others and share your daily experiences.
I felt so lost till and aloneon this mission with my kitty till now.
With the help from you and others I now know Fritz will be on the road to feeling better.
Thank you!
 
Deb,
I like this very positive attitude!
Just sharing your problems with people who know how you feel is a big step forward!
Lots of love to you and your kitty
Marlena:)
 
DebG said:
Thank you for the reply!
What I'm looking for is help with getting him regulated.
He's on Prozinc. I'm doing the sliding scale. I'm having a hard time keeping his bg they hover around 350 to 400 sometimes we get lucky and see upper 200's.
I'm doing a curve today
Amps 254,246,299,376,355 what the heck does this mean? I'm struggling to know what and how to get to be below 200 most of the day every day. Isn't that the goal if a diabetic cat?
I make raw air chilled antibotic hormone free chicken and once a day he gets Fancy feast classic chicken for small amount of carbs.
Would appreciate your imput as I see your kitty us Prozinc. (Right)
Click to expand...
Deb, it can be tricky, this regulation thing. Yes, Hannah is also on ProZinc. And we also use the sliding scale and at times have had a fair amount of success with that. I think it's a very good insulin, although some have suggested we try something else. However, I'm not convinced Hannah's lack of regulation is the insulin itself. Since the start, we've had an awful time getting her to eat. She is a diagnosed anorexic. I find that on the days she eats fairly well, her numbers are better. Then there's her ongoing insistence to bounce after getting some really nice numbers. If she'd just stop that, I think we could get this under reasonable control. And when she bounces, she will continue to do so for a couple of days, sometimes longer. Even though it's not a laughing matter, we've somehow managed to joke about it... like she's going for some kind of bouncing record, here. Unfortunately, I'm thinking she's in contention to be the winner of that contest.

@Sue and Oliver (GA) and others on the ProZinc / PZI forum can be of wonderful assistance to you when it comes to advice and dosing. Kudos to you on doing that curve, even though the numbers seem a bit wonky. Been there, done that, so you're not alone with that, either. Without knowing exactly when Fritz's numbers happened after insulin and what size dose took him there, it's hard to say what's going on. Would it be possible for you to set up a spreadsheet so it's easier to help you and Fritz? Instructions are here. Also, it's likely that once he's done with the Prednisone, you may see better numbers. Corticosteroids are famous for elevating BG levels.

Good choice on Fritz's food, as well. Looks like you've done your homework, there, too. Again, best of luck to you and your sugar kitty.
 
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