I would encourage you to review these
guidelines from the American Animal Hospital Association on the treatment of diabetes. These guidelines largely support the information we provide. This board has been in place for over 25 years. We do our best to stay current with information about feline diabetes. Given the number of people who subscribe to this board, there is usually someone who raises a really good question that gets many of us researching. Several members have access to medical and veterinary libraries at major academic medical centers/universities. The vets who are in private practice may not have that resource accessible to them. The members here are a cross section of professionals -- there are MDs, vets, vet techs, scientists, nurses, and a lot of curious people who read and do research to learn more about feline diabetes. It is an incredible community of people who ask questions and provide feedback. It's more than what one vet can do.
Vets can have an impossible job. They are expected to know everything about every illness in any species whose caregiver walks in the door. I would have no idea how a vet with a multi-specialty practice stays current. Trying to get the required continuing education credits may mean that a vet hasn't been attentive to a "common" problem like diabetes for years. A good example is that many vets in the US are still prescribing Vetsulin. It's not been endorsed since 2018. In contrast, we're all about feline diabetes all the time.
Many vets don't tell people about the importance of home testing. Usually, their rationale is that "your cat will hate you." If you were to take a poll of members here, you would not find that to be the case. To be honest, if a vet told someone to not test their cat at home and the cat became severely hypoglycemic and died, I would hold the vet responsible. There is enough information published in vet journal dating many years back that supports home testing. Just as a comparison, could you imagine a pediatrician telling parents to not test a diabetic child? Human diabetics routinely test their blood glucose levels. The reasoning is the same -- you need to know if those levels are too high or too low and make adjustments to the insulin dose. There are any number of vets who take the position that they are the only people who can adjust an insulin dose and it's, "my way or the highway." It's not what happens with humans -- people adjust their insulin doses all the time. (Just a personal example... I made a major move along with my diabetic cat. When I relocated, I found a vet who had a specialty cat practice. She took one look at my spreadsheet and stated that there was no need for her to adjust Gabby's insulin dosing. I was doing a fine job with diabetes management.)
The other issue is that insulin needs change. A cat has a distinct advantage compared to a human. Cats can go into remission. If your cat's pancreas is healing and you are not tapering back the insulin dose, there is a very high likelihood that you will overdose your cat. Home testing is the best and the only way to know if your cat is in safe numbers. In my opinion, you run an unnecessary risk to your cat's wellbeing if you are not testing.
I don't know if your vet is up to date with contemporary thinking about managing feline diabetes. At a cynical level, having caregivers bring their cat to the vet's office for a curve on a routine basis is expensive. It's a way for vets to make money. Telling caregivers that feeding a prescription diabetic diet that they can only purchase at the vet's office is also a way to make money -- it's also wildly inaccurate in that there is nothing requiring a "prescription" in a prescription diabetes diet (and in fact, the carbohydrates in many of the dry foods are outrageously high) and there was a class action law suit that the pet food manufacturers lost. Vets need to make a living. But, there are things that any of us can do at home to keep our cats safe and healthy. Part of what a vet provides should also be education. It frustrates me to no end that people walk out of an appointment with their vet without any knowledge about how to manage their cat's diabetes.
I still listen to the recorded instructions, until I found this Forum is when I began to understand everything, it was so confusing and overwhelming at first, my nerves were a reck, sleepless nights, and everything that comes with a newbie. When I understood the need for low wet carb foods between 0-10%, I immediately transitioned, not knowing the danger it could cause, yet all cats are different, they all are a pandora's box, gladly, both cats were transitioned without any side effects, it is highly recommended to transition slowly, and you are doing that, try to take that 1/4 cup of dry away bit by bit, knowing that you should test after dosing every 1/2 hour to make sure the BG does not lower dangerously without you knowing, before you know it as you start seeing your Spreadsheet's numbers for the day you will start to see a pattern, and you will know you are doing the right thing.
we have people here who can set one up in a jiffy of you encounter any problems.
