What vet services do we REALLY need?

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stacia

stacia

Member Since 2014
In the year since Tasha's diagnosis, we went from a vet who didn't seem to have a clue to one who seems to want to give the Cadillac (aka $$$) of services. But we had a run-in with a boarding bill in June because kitty went on a hunger strike and we haven't been back since. We've used our cat sitter instead but she's not available this weekend so back to the vet/boarding instead and they also say we're due for a bunch of services. They're fine with me testing at home, they see no point in an in-office curve but prefer to do a fructosamine,

Here's what the vet says she needs separate from boarding:

Diabetes monitoring
Blood pressure monitoring (I think this is mostly what they call the lengthy exam)
Renal profile/Kidney disease monitoring (she's stage 2/3)
Fructosamine

She's also due for her rabies shot and it will all come with an exam fee as well. And if she NEEDS all of that, ok, I don't care and I'll pay it but it adds up to several hundred dollars. But I don't want to be the chump paying for tests (and putting her through tests and pokings) she doesn't need.

She last had the renal and a urinalysis in May. A senior profile and fructosamine as part of the boarding debacle in late June. Blood pressure monitoring was in February. It looks like diabetes monitoring was last done in January and was due in July.

So what services actually make sense? Her numbers have been a little bumpy lately but she's on a very low dose (0.2 or 0.3u usually) and doing quite well. Thoughts?
 
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stacia said:
In the year since Tasha's diagnosis, we went from a vet who didn't seem to have a clue to one who seems to want to give the Cadillac (aka $$$) of services. But we had a run-in with a boarding bill in June because kitty went on a hunger strike and we haven't been back since. We've used our cat sitter instead but she's not available this weekend so back to the vet/boarding instead and they also say we're due for a bunch of services. They're fine with me testing at home, they see no point in an in-office curve but prefer to do a fructosamine,

Here's what the vet says she needs:

Diabetes monitoring
Blood pressure monitoring (I think this is mostly what they call the lengthy exam)
Renal profile/Kidney disease monitoring (she's stage 2/3)
Fructosamine

She's also due for her rabies shot and it will all come with an exam fee as well. And if she NEEDS all of that, ok, I don't care and I'll pay it but it adds up to several hundred dollars. But I don't want to be the chump paying for tests (and putting her through tests and pokings) she doesn't need.

She last had the renal and a urinalysis in May. A senior profile and fructosamine as part of the boarding debacle in late June. She also had a senior profile blood test run in June during the boarding debacle. Blood pressure monitoring was in February. It looks like diabetes monitoring was last done in January and was due in July.

So what services actually make sense? Her numbers have been a little bumpy lately but she's on a very low dose (0.2 or 0.3u usually) and doing quite well. Thoughts?
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First, whatever tests, results and numbers you can get from your previous vet will lessen redundancy and cost. If your vet gives you grief, stand your ground. This is YOUR information.
I will defer the rest of your question to those with greater knowledge.
 
How old is Tasha?
Have you been doing home BG monitoring? If so, I'm not sure why a fructosamine would be necessary. I would, however, have them do diabetes monitoring (assuming they mean BGs) while she's there, just in case.
 
Tracey - We had to fight but we got (most of) Tasha's records from the old vet. We've been with the new vet since January though and I'm not sure if they just have clients who can afford more or if we made too big of a deal about not being happy with our old vet's hands-off approach but they seem to want to order every test on a regular basis.

SpecklesandMe - Tasha is 15. We regularly monitor at home, though I'm not always great at grabbing mid-cycle numbers. I set alarms to remind myself during the day so the doctor has good numbers around appointment time though. I really don't get the point of the fructosamine. The diabetes monitoring is something they do every 6 months which I think includes the fructosamine, feeling around her kidneys, a thorough questioning/examination. When she's boarded, they do spot-check her BG if she's not eating or seems stressed or off but don't check it every time.
 
stacia said:
We regularly monitor at home
Click to expand...
My two cents is that the fructosamine is unnecessary if you're monitoring at home. All it does is give them a sense of how the kitty's BGs have been doing over the past two weeks, which you already have a sense of from you monitoring. Besides that, our kitty's fructosamine was not very accurate in my opinion... it came back normal a lot times when I knew he'd been in the 400s a couple times over the course of the previous week. Just my thoughts...
 
This is how I see it:

Diabetes monitoring
Yes, while she is boarding, though double check exactly what this means. Doing a curve? Or testing pre-shot and at nadir?

Blood pressure monitoring (I think this is mostly what they call the lengthy exam)
Did her last exam show a problem? Is she showing any sign of high blood pressure? If not, I would skip it.

Renal profile/Kidney disease monitoring (she's stage 2/3)
Because she is stage 2/3, this may be a good idea. Maggie was checked every 6 months for renal function.

Fructosamine
Not necessary since you are monitoring and can give them her numbers.
 
I agree with everything Maggies Mom Debby said. But it's been less than six months since her last renal check, so you could wait another month for that in theory. Does NC require rabies shots? In CA we don't have to give them to indoor cats.

Do you think you can find another pet sitter before your trip? This vet sounds a bit over the top... Or you can board her there but be specific about which services you will pay for.
 
The diabetes monitoring is more of an exam and completely separate of the boarding. I need to call them and remember exactly what it involves. It's something we always took her in for, even before we did any boarding there.

Her last blood pressure exam was just fine, which surprised me given her general feistiness during visits.

Her renal was due at the 6-month mark but they did it at 5 because she had quit eating while being boarded. I'm not sure why they're saying it's due again already so I want to talk to them about that.

At this point, I'm going to talk to them about the diabetes monitoring and renal/kidney. I'm leaning toward doing both of those, as well as just having a nice look-over and chat because her numbers have been a bit bouncy. Also, the rabies vaccination is required in our county/city (I'm honestly not sure they'll allow us to board without those being up-to-date and may force both cats to have those at drop-off this Friday). The fructosamine and blood pressure sound like I can skip them. The other factor at play is we're probably going to be moving out of state in the near-ish future and I want to make sure kitties are in good shape before we do that.

Unfortunately, finding another pet sitter this quickly isn't going to be an option. The other pet sitter, who was amazing, had been caring for them for years but Tasha's a tough customer. Once diagnosed, she refused to let the sitter inject her. We had to do extra visits and really work our way up to it. With the trip being this Friday, it's not going to happen. :( (Though we may cancel the whole trip for other reasons at this point.)

I appreciate all the help. My sweet girl is a tough cookie and this vet is great at calming her down. They just think they can do so by attacking our wallet so we have to be vigilant.
 
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