Tele-Consult for ongoing care?

Hi, I have a 14 years old Maine Coon cat that was diagnosed with diabetics 3 years ago. After a rough start, we have developed a system to maintain his BG levels. We use ProZinc, regulate his food and test (curves) regularly. I am happy to say that for the past 18 months, with minor adjustments we were able to keep him happy as a cat ---- My question is around the prescription, our Vet is insisting that we come to the clinic every 3 months for a full day in order to refill the prescription. Moyshe, who is an indoor cat, cannot stand the journey or be in a kennel for a whole day. It is a truly traumatic event, that breaks our hearts. We just did it the other day so we are good for the next 3 months, but is there a way to get insulin without a prescription? or can I get a prescription via tele-consult? I figured if Kaiser is doing it... I will be very grateful if anyone can help figure out how to either get insulin without a prescription (online) or if anyone knows of any tele-consult services that might help. thanks !

 

Hello! What a beautiful kitty you have! That just seems horribly excessive, having to go in every 3 months. Overall, I think it depends on your vet. My vet gives me a prescription that's good for 1 year. Originally she wanted me to come in for curves (testing the BG every 2 hours for 12 hours), but she was okay with me testing BGs at home. I just email the spreadsheet with his numbers as needed for her to review. It might be worth talking to your vet about the stress of these visits and verify how long your prescription is good for (do you have to get your Prozinc from the vet?). If they are unwilling to make concessions, it might be worth shopping around for another vet who will. I know you can frequently get supplies including insulin from our Supply Closet HERE. What country are you in?

 

Doing a cure at the vets every 3 months is excessive. If your vet is not the managing vet at the practice I would talk to the managing vet.
Have you talked to the vet and say you would do a curve at home every three months and send him the results instead of doing a curve at the vets.
Otherwise, I would find another vet.

My vets (I have some cats at one practice and some at another) just want an office visit at least every year to write a script for insulin.

 

My vet will consult by email and I send in the BG curves. She charges a one time yearly fee for the service. She also gives me an insulin prescription that is good for a year.

It sounds like your vet wants to make the money every 3 months with the office visit and doing the BG curve at the clinic.

I would look for another vet also. Over the last year and a half I went to quite a few different vets before I finally found a really great feline internal medicine vet at an AAHA hospital. She's the same vet that dose the email consults.

 

Jean,

Thank you so much for your response. Will you be able to share with me the cost for the email service (that might be what i need as well) also does she charge you separately for the prescription and the email service? or the prescription is part of your regular annual checkup? How often can you send her email? and are they limited to just the curves or you can ask her other questions, as they come up?

Thank you so much

-Hadar

 

Unless Moyshe has other medical issues I don't see the reason for this. The benefits definitely do not outweigh the risks.
We had the world's most nervous cat, had not been crated in 15+ years. Our vet knew this and renewed his scripts for both BUPE and insulin over the phone because she trusted me. Either your vet is being too cautious or just maybe a bit greedy. You have the option of obtaining his files, getting insulin from a closer vet and still keeping your original vet, no hurt feelings. Those records belong to you, they are not his to keep.
Too often we develop some kind of devotion to a vet (I've done it over and over again) until they really disappoint us. It's a business, not a church.

 

Hi Hadar,

Yes, the yearly service is called "diabetic consult" and she charges $110 for the year - less than $10 a month. This is especially great for me because my vet is 3 hours away.

The prescription is part of the regular exam. There isn't a separate charge for the prescription.

Nothing was said about how many times I can email her - I've emailed her half a dozen times in the last month. She is really good about responding quickly and gives detailed answers. The diabetic consult isn't limited just to curves - I've asked other diabetes related questions - really everything is related when they have diabetes. But nothing was said about which questions I can/cannot ask. This vet and this clinic have been really amazing so far.

@hadar Wissotzky - edited to add - they didn't say the diabetic consult is limited to email. As far as I know, I can call also.

Are you in the US? You might look for an AAHA vet/hospital in your area - AAHA Accredited Hospital Locator. That's how I found this vet and it's been a good thing.

Hope this helps.

 

This has happened to me also.

 

Sorry if I sounded nasty earlier about your vet and money. Some pets have such stupid caregivers a vet feels the need to take charge. I've seen it all; dogs swallowing watch batteries, cats swallowing pony-tail bobs and the owners just hope for the best. Without making this a sob fest Noah had to be cocooned in piddle pads and towels for any trip. We had to call ahead to make sure out vet was running on time and Noah would lose control of his bowels when he realized what was about to happen. There were times we thought he would have a cardiac event in the car. That trauma will mess up a curve for any cat, not just Noah, making that aspect of the trip useless.
We have the good fortune of being on good terms with two vets and they both know what we're doing. Vets can get real defensive and refuse to transfer files which is not in anyone's best interest. We've also brought 14 cats (2 diabetics) and 2 dogs to the same vet for 17 years so they trust us to do the right thing. I completely understand you might not have that same good fortune but there has to be a better way.
We can also help you set up a spreadsheet your vet can see electronically. You could buy a ketone meter for what you spend on gas, then your vet should see you're on top of things and don't need this kind of supervision. Good luck.