Do many of you

Use a feline diabetes specialist?

Just curious about the general thinking and experience with feline diabetes specialists. I'm seriously considering looking for one. I like both of my vets - I think they are mostly really great but they don't seem to have tons of experience treating diabetes.

What are your experiences? Please share.

 

I use the Folks here as my “diabetes specialists”. I go to a clinic w/ 3 vets. The first two were not much help. The third is better but in my opinion could learn a bit more. I took care of dosing and learning everything I know of of FDMB for the first 2 months after Dx. It wasn’t until last week I decided to have a sit down with the third vet. Here is the link to my story if your interested:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...t-and-lantus-figured-out.192957/#post-2155254
My cat doesn’t have any other health issues other than being fat. I’m working on that. In my opinion I feel I’m in good hands with the peeps here and our regular vet.

 

I mainly use this forum but recently got a new vet, yesterday was our first visit, I just wanted one who wanted me to be hands on and do testing myself I just have to send him bellas spreadsheet once a month

 

I do, only because my vet gave up on me and Rufus. But that's ok, it was totally worth it! I actually use this forum for most everything now, and only contact the internal medicinist when other issues arise.

 

my vet was honest about his lack of knowledge when it came to treating diabetic cats so he referred us to a diabetes specialist the day tux got diagnosed.
I read everything on here, catinfo, etc. before our first visit with her and knew what insulin i wanted to use, type of food i was going to feed and that i was going to test my own cat's BG at home but, i prepared myself for being told by her that i needed to feed prescription food and blah blah blah and was pleasantly surprised that she recommended pretty much what i wanted to do before i even mentioned it! she is great and even knew of catinfo and FDMB. Do like that she keeps an eye on tux's spreadsheet and allows me to email or call instead of making me come in for visits.

quite honestly other than what dosage to start tux on, when not to shoot and when to half dosage, i didn't learn anything new from her that i had not already learned from the folks here but, if tux ever gets sick and so forth, i will be taking him to her instead of our regular vet.

 

Mia's vet is an internal medicine specialist. I went through two 'regular' vets before going to him. I wanted someone who had some experience with and accurate knowledge about feline diabetes and who would not have a problem with me being very involved in Mia's care. I do not think that necessarily has to come from a specialist; if you can find it in a regular vet, great. I do want to say that I do not interact with the vet very much at all. Most of diabetes care is done at home, by the caretaker. So, ultimately, I think it is most important that you educate yourself and do home testing. Basically, our IM specialist said, here's an insulin prescription, keep doing what you are doing, and I am here if you have issues and need me. It has been four months since I last spoke to him. Unfortunately, he has moved on to do national consulting, so next time we go, we will be trying out his replacement.

 

Due to some major differences of opinion I changed vets just after Squallie was diagnosed. I love my "new" vet, he is reasonably knowledgeable about FD and is willing to learn what he doesn't know. He has never treated Squallie for his diabetes but he has a link to his spreadsheet and follows his progress. He is wise enough to recognize, as FurBabiesMama said, that most diabetes care is done at home, and tells me to keep doing what I'm doing, it's obviously working (the one problem he has is trying to wrap his head around using a human meter-the numbers mean nothing to him except they look frighteningly low compared to a feline meter!). I think I was a surprise to him, though, when we first started going to him, I don't think he was at all used to owners who wanted to be "hands-on."

 

My vet is great - she encouraged testing at home and she loves cats!!! Has about 4.

I got the monitor she recommended because I wanted the same one she used so she would trust my results. My vet does not sell monitors.

HOWEVER this site especially with food which my vet recommended going to “Binky’s” site for the avoid list, this site has been amazing! Just the data alone from all the testing is priceless. The SUPPORT is amazing and so helpful most especially when new and starting out.

SUMMARY: it would be great if a vet knew all that this board knows collectively! The testing processes recommended by this site are key to successful outcomes in utilizing insulin.

WEIGHT: even though it was recommended Magic go on a diet with a recommend “diet food” or her weight might lead to diabetes- I didn’t really understand the full impact of that. If someone had explained all the poking prodding testing wrestling with this and the degenerative health of my cat over time and what it REALLY MEANT to have diabetes I believe I would have made changes.

I wish to god that I had not gone on UR food as these seem to be HIGH CARB even if wet! I wish I had just gone to FF and used smaller portions and added water - I believe while predisposed as a Siamese mix -I believe diet and dieting alone could have stopped this

I wish vets would educate more... I thought Magic could take a pill like some humans do to cure diabetes if she ever got it

NOW she is permanently on a diet and extremely low carb to prevent relapse - I think mine coulda been prevented.

 

My vet, whose Dad was a vet, is totally open minded and always eager to learn new things. I think that's the hard part for vets and much more so for doctors because you have to admit you didn't actually "know it all". I come here for education but I've also been incredibly lucky because I've never had a hypo episode or seen a seizure. Noah is way past his best-before date, still unregulated, has some form of PTSD and is a high dose bouncer. No specialist can help him, he just wants his to sleep in his basket.

 

Thanks for all the thoughts, input and experience. I appreciate it.

Much as I like both of my vets I may very probably find an internal medicine specialist. I also think Pretty Girl could have been regulated with diet and diet alone if I had known more about this. I knew almost nothing and went through 2 different vets before arriving at the 2 I have. None told me much at all about feline diabetes or the importance of diet, etc. They just said here's insulin and prescription food put her on this. She didn't like the prescription food and I didn't either and found it to be fairly high in carbs. One of my current vets pointed me to Fancy Feast and that's been very helpful. Now I'm looking for a premium cat food that is low in carbs and and has no carrageenan (sp?). While premium food is expensive, it's so much less than the enormous vet and hospital bills I've been paying.

 

I dislike sounding negative about this but I've had awful experiences with specialists who got it all wrong. Feline diabetes is just not a priority in veterinarian colleges and even my own vet can't find techs who won't accept an alternate view of the world. That's another good reason to stay here, it's free. It can be annoying searching old posts here but as far as I know threads never get deleted, they can be a gold mine for odd-ball stuff.

 

my experience with vets was to be honest very difficult...I had six different opinions from six different vets...it caused me intense anxiety as my kitty's bg was dangerously high and I needed proper advice before beginning insulin...I never got it and my Bubbies had all but stopped eating at 17 and I felt it best to put her to rest as force feeding her simply wasnt an option...none of the vets suggested that home testing was necessary...without it l believe you put your cat at a huge risk of going hypoglycemic or hyper...I told my vet about this site and she said "but we are educated and trained...blah blah blah" and to not read the internet...wow...
I wish you all the best...apparently it can become quite routine to treat FD...