Vet Bashing—Not Really Productive

By Venita Wood, Diabetic Cats in Need's Founder and Director

In the online world of feline diabetes care, DCIN Case Managers often, way too often, see experienced caregivers on Facebook and forums bashing a newly diagnosed diabetic cat’s veterinarian for the recommended/prescribed protocol. For example, the cat’s vet:

• Prescribed an inappropriate insulin.
• Wants the cat to come to the office once a week for a month or so for a dose-adjusting blood glucose (BG) curve.
• Did not explain to the caregiver that he could test the cat’s blood glucose levels at home.
• Recommends an inappropriate diet, usually a prescription diabetic diet, and sometime a prescription dry food.

I understand those criticisms. But I also have learned from being a DCIN Team Member and observing interactions on various Internet sites that those kinds of comments, especially when delivered with the gusto that some use to deliver them (“Your vet is an idiot”) don’t necessarily improve the situation for a diabetic cat or its caregiver.


Someone recently asked on DCIN’s Facebook site why vets don’t talk about Methylcobaline (Methyl B12), which can help with diabetic neuropathy. I replied “Some vets may not know about it. Most vets are GPs and have to know a lot of stuff. The nitty gritty minor stuff like Methyl B12 just may not make [their] knowledge or memory threshold.” A “like” of my comment came from a veterinarian.

What I have learned from my time on the DCIN Team and the Internet sites is that one should not immediately undermine a caregiver’s relationship with the cat’s veterinarian. For example, the caregiver may have:

• Told the vet he could not afford a more-appropriate (and expensive) insulin or hometesting equipment.
• Been so overwhelmed with the thought of giving insulin shots that the vet felt she was keeping the cat safe from being destroyed by not suggesting BG hometesting.
• A cognitive impairment that will keep him from understanding the complexities of insulin therapy or a physical disability that will prevent him from hometesting BG levels.
• Told the vet that the cat would eat nothing but dry food or lives with other pets that will eat nothing but dry food.

The DCIN Team members work in depth with the caregivers and veterinarians for the cats in our Financial Assistance Program. M’s Dad is elderly and arthritic, but he has taken his bed down off the frame so that M can’t hide under it at BG testing time. E’s Mom has multiple physical disabilities that keep her from testing at all, so DCIN sends E to the vet for a fructosamine test a few times a year. D’s Dad has an anxiety disorder that makes the insulin shots difficult and hometesting (except by urine stick) impossible. But the DCIN Case Managers love these cases because these caregivers are giving the best they can to their diabetic cats. Not a single one of them has asked DCIN to find a new home for their beloved pets.

So my message is think about the potential larger picture before you type. Please encourage people to give the best care they are able to—and don’t just jump in and pronounce their vets “idiots” based on what you perceive to be less than optimal treatment plans. Even though you may know quite a bit about the daily care of a diabetic cat, the vets likely know more about the overall situations.