What do you do when you travel?

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Anna K

Member Since 2014
Please don't tell me you just never travel!

I have a pet sitter who is very good. She says she's experienced giving cats insulin before and I believe her. BUT she is 70 years old with bad eyesight. I imagine she would have trouble seeing .75 of insulin (it's hard enough for ME to do and my eyes are good). Also, she has never done a home glucose test.

I know you are not supposed to pre-fill needles, but could I do that for her for 5 days perhaps? Or I think it might be possible to hire a vet tech to come to the house. I may have to look into that....
 
Don't ever count age as a factor since I know some pretty incompetent people in their 30's and older that have perfect eyesight that I would never trust. I'm in my 50's and most friends are 70's plus and I would count on them for everything. Buy a magnifying glass/stand and trust your pet sitter who is far more familiar with animals then someone who doesn't have them. Or the other choice is NO travel.............Nobody is perfect for our animals but there are choices and it just depends on how much you want to pay...........as they say everything is available for a price. Agree with Larry, not to prefill..........as I was told when I thought about it for 1 shot. Hope it works out for you
 
Well, her eyes are pretty bad. I do know that. And I hear you about not wanting an irresponsible person, agreed. The magnifying stand is a great idea. I will also think about other options, like hiring a vet tech (Expensive, I know. But there are vet techs here who do home visits on the side). Thanks.

Also, if anyone here is in San Francisco and has a good petsitter let me know. If they can do home glucometer tests even better. Thanks.
 
One option as well is to fill a syringe with some kind of colored water (coffee, water with food coloring, fruit juice, etc) to use as a sample for your sitter. That way the sitter can make sure each syringe matches the amount in the sample. I did that with my sitters just to be sure there were no mistakes! :-D
 
Hi Anna,

I have the same problem. I need to travel quite often and I still haven't figured out what to do when I travel. Juno was diagnosed in the beginning of February and I had to travel in the end of the month. In the end, I decided to take him with me, but this is not a feasible solution as I also need to travel quite often due to my work.

Juno is a pretty difficult cat with strangers. There's no pet sitter neither vet tech who could give him the shots and poke his ears, unless he is sedated. By the time when he was diagnosed, the vet said he has never seen a cat reacting so badly to vets :lol: In April, I will need to travel once again and I still don't know what to do.

Cristina
 
I'm so sorry Cristina. I hope you find someone. That sounds very hard.

Bruno is easy and puts up with all the poking. I've decided to relax and let my 70 year old regular sitter do the insulin. She won't be doing any glucose tests though. So, if his dose is .75 then I'll tell her it's .5. That way she may hit anywhere between .5 and 1.00. It's not ideal, but I think for a few days it will be OK and not cause a hypo event. She is very sensitive and I think she would pay attention to signs of hypo.

Let us know how it goes Cristina.
 
Also, if you have a pet sitter or a student from the Vet near you they can be trained to inject and test as we all had to be when we first started. Even if you have a close friend or neighbor who can come twice daily and they are willing to learn you have half the battle won. I end up paying $15/visit to my pet sitter and she only had experience with a diabetic rabbit (can you imagine) and with that there was no reason she couldn't give the shots to Davidson...........worked out well for me and she knew H&D before the DX was there, so it was an easy change. I know it will go smoother if the cats know who's looking after them since they have a comfort zone already established. Not easy, but no doubt you will find a solution based on some of the good advise given here..........
 
I've basically taught everyone who has come over to my house in the last year and a half how to test Michelangelo. :lol: So far, when I've had to travel, I've had my brother, my brother's girlfriend (unplanned, but she helped out in an emergency and youtubed how to test a cat), my cousin, my friend, and my roommate all test Mikey while I was gone. I also created this template to pin to the fridge as a reminder to whomever is looking after Mikey (and Henry) that might give you some ideas.

A few things I've learned:
  • Do a couple of trial runs with them so the cat is familiar with the new tester and they are familiar with the process.
  • As others have mentioned, leave a syringe pre-filled with colored water to show the current dosage so all they have to do is match it up.
  • Always decrease the dose by at least .25u. Mikey often drops lower when I'm gone (I think it's because he doesn't eat as much).
  • Be okay with skipped shots and realize it's not the end of the world. Mikey can be difficult to test and/or shoot when he doesn't want to be tested and/or given a shot (i.e. he hides or runs away). As long as he's getting at least a shot a day, I'm not too worried if they can't test him at one of his shot times and I'd rather they skip the shot than them both stress and freak out over it or have them shoot blind (especially since Mikey's numbers trend lower when I'm gone anyway). Once I'm back home, it usually only takes a day or two to get back on track again.
  • Be confident enough in the caretaker so that you're not worrying over your kitty the entire time you're gone.
 
Hi Anna!

There are all kinds of "Pet Sitting Services" around now too! Just do a Google search for Pet Sitters and you'll have lots to choose from!

Living in a big city will be really helpful too. Around here, there's just nothing, so it's either a kind neighbor willing to do it (and you trust) or leaving them at the vet and hoping the vet does things the way you want them done.....of course there's staying home or packing the cat up with you!
I did that when I was gone for a week when my mom had triple bypass surgery...I was shocked because China had some of her best numbers ever after being crated, carted over a hour away and dumped into a hotel room after living in the same home all her life!

But you can call around, find some you like and have them come meet Bruno and teach them what they need to know!

Here are just a few I found when I put in "pet sitters in san francisco" (there are a LOT of them)

Care.com pet sitters

The Petsitters SF

The Pet Nanny

Good luck with whatever you decide!
 
I lucked out in that I found a neighbor who works for a pet-sitting service and I hire her outside of the service. She comes in twice a day and feeds (all four cats) and shoots Alska. She has paw tested but I haven't let her ear-test Alska yet. She sends me daily emails and texts and even pictures while I am away. I love that she lives down the street. I pay her $25 a day and it is worth every penny because I know I can depend on her and this means I can relax when I go away.

More and more these services are offering FD care. You just have to be willing to pay $$ for the peace of mind. You also may need to have someone come in to visit your kitty so he gets to know that person. I had my sitter stop by to pet Alska and touch his testing ear so that he could get used to her.
 
Get some kind of magnifying glass and leave it beside the syringes and she can use it if she needs it.

Definitely decrease the dose.

Leave printed /detailed instructions including the phone and address and map to your normal vet, and emergency vet. Call both vets and give them your credit card and let them know you are away and she will be looking after Bruno.

remind her if he doesn't eat, don't shoot.

Since she isn't testing you could give him a medium carb instead of a low one. Means if she does do nearer 1 unit he won't be as likely to go low. Better too high than too low.
 
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