"But I trust my Vet"

This post is for all of you who are on the fence about home-testing and/or being told to increase your dose every time you bring your kitty in for a blood glucose curve/check. If they are not doing a fructosamine test and just going off the blood test they do while you are there with an AlphaTrak, then you are putting your cat in danger if you blindly increase the dose per your vet's instructions based on this inflated number.

Most cats HATE going to the vet and the number you see when they are there is usually a lot higher than what it would have been at home as stress causes a huge jump in that number you see. My cat has only been over 400 two times at home. At the vet, he is ALWAYS over 400 due to the stress.

The reason for this post today is that last night my cat dropped on a DECREASED dose. He was in the 70's for several hours and was in the high 100's on pre shot. Had I not decreased his dose (and truth is I should have decreased even a little further) I shudder to think what would have happened. I would have gone to bed and I don't know what I would have found in the morning.

My vet increased my cat's dose to 3 units from 2 within ONE week of his diagnosis. I am still not at 3 units yet based on the advice of this board. I dropped Simon down to 2.25 after being told to give 3 and have SLOWLY been raising it based on testing, not on one inflated test. He only had that dose of 3units once. That was the morning of his vet visit when the vet told me to increase it. I have not been back since as I have chosen to manage Simon's diabetes with the help of this board and with diligent testing and feeding only low carb wet food.

My vet wanted Simon to eat Purina DM food only, both wet and dry. I shudder to think about the consequences of that too having read Dr. Pierson's website thoroughly and the fact that liver is not all that good for a cat to eat often and my vet was advocating for feeding ONLY this food. My cat voted with walking away from it after the second day and turning his nose up. Luckily I knew from coming here that I could feed him FF classics and he loved them from day one.

If you have chosen NOT to home test and are allowing your vet to increase the dose based on numbers they get while at the office from a blood test, you are really doing this blindly. I am not judging anyone. You all have your limits on what you can/can't do. I just know that I HIGHLY recommend listening to the extremely knowledgeable people on this board over listening to your vet. They are so much more well versed in feline diabetes than your vet is. They see hundreds of cats per year and follow them while a vet only sees a few and could not possibly have the expertise of these people.

So, if you are on the fence, get a meter and start poking your cat's ears. It really does get easier in a short amount of time and the ears bleed much easier and your kitty may end up like mine and actually look forward to test time (for the Pure Bites chicken treats of course) You won't be sorry. It may save their lives or get them OTJ!

So, this is not about "trusting v not trusting" your vet. I do trust mine. Just not as much as I trust this community when it comes to FD management.

OFF my FDMB soap box now. Just wanted those of you who lurk and are not home-testing to know just how important it is in the management of this disease. Can make a difference for your and your sugar baby big time.

 

I am fortunate in the sense that my vet is a cat specialist, with a diabetic cat of her own, and follows this board and catinfo.org very closely.

She even borrowed me a meter when first diagnosed, showed me how to use it, how to draw blood, give shots, etc.

As new as I am, whenever I read a post from someone saying they don't home test or their vet says not to, my heart drops into my stomach.

Every human diabetic out there tests themselves, at minimum, before a shot, and why anyone thinks it's any different for a cat...or a dog...or any creature taking insulin....is beyond me.

If I could, I would put signs in all the stores that carry pet food and/or diabetic supplies along with any vets office screaming the importance of home testing.

I'll get off the soap box too now :mrgreen: