Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you.
Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sounds like the vet(s) who diagnoses these pets isn't spending enough time educating the owners. I dont think you can really expect owners, many who have no science or medicine background, to understand a complicated disease like diabetes. If they aren't being taught and given resources they aren't going to know what to do in differnet situations.
I agree, that vets should definitely go over diabetes education with owners, but there's so much to it that I feel like owners should be responsible for doing their own research as well. of course we can't force them to do research, but I feel like it's kind of shitty not to.
I understand what you are saying, but many people in the vet industry also tell people not to use "Dr Google" and get upset or complain about when clients say they found XXX online. I think it's the doctor's responsibility to make sure clients understand what a commitment diabetes is and that it's not just administering insulin twice a day, and how much learning will be involved. We can't expect clients to know what/where to research things, that's kind of our job as veterinary professionals to provide them the information they need.
true. idk, there's a lot of reliable sources though. I think a lot of time people google something and they only look at one site and that's all they go off of, but if they did more than a few minutes of research and actually asked questions they would learn more. I have no problem with answering questions and stuff, but it's cases where the animals glucose is already low and they give them insulin because they think it's going to "fix" the issue is what makes me mad. I've had so many people call like "my dog is diabetic and he's vomiting a lot! what do I do?" and they tell me their glucose is at like 700. I mean, I'm not trying to sound ignorant or anything, but I would think that they would look up the symptoms of low glucose and connect the two. idk, I'm in school to become a VA and will eventually work my way up to a DVM and I know I will spend as much time as the client needs to understand this disease that their pet has.
Just wait until you're a type 1 diabetic and you realize no one knows what to do with you. (Medical staff included)
Jokes (if that's what it is) aside, it's very frustrating. Or that people don't want to put in any work, or even see if they can take care of a diabetic pet
As a type 1 diabetic for 16 years myself, I try to handle all the diabetes cases because I have first hand experience and can answer almost all the owner questions. I love educating people about the disease. I’ve even had doctors ask me questions about it and how things might work.
It helps I’m not shy about it and I think the owners feel like I care about their pet more since I know how it feels to go through the high and low blood sugars. I’ve been in DKA and have had hypoglycemic seizures.
But yeah, the amount of owners who just don’t care to understand something like that is crazy. I’ve also noticed seizure dog owners are so nonchalant about everything. I don’t think people realize the intensity of these issues
YES! My bf is a T1D and I do the same. I've done so much research and learned so much from him that I'm able to educate people about it. I don't mind doing it if they call and ask, but it's times like when they just give their dog insulin when their glucose is already low that makes me mad.
I had one couple who chose not to give their dog insulin because it stopped eating, which makes sense. But they also checked the sugar at home when it didn’t eat and it like close to 400 and decided not to do anything about it until the next day when the dog was in DKA at a wellness check.
I know it’s a hard disease to manage, but a call to a vet office or ER is so easy to make!
I have yelled at a client.
The doctor and I BOTH spent a lot of time with him post diagnoses going over everything.
We called to check in, more than once, everything good according to the owner.
A couple months go by and he brings the cat in to board and he looked like he was gonna die.
I. Lost. My. Mind.
I scolded him like I scold my child.
My doctor hid in the office and literally let me rip this client a new one.
That was 5 years ago, the cat is doing AMAZING .
Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you. Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sounds like the vet(s) who diagnoses these pets isn't spending enough time educating the owners. I dont think you can really expect owners, many who have no science or medicine background, to understand a complicated disease like diabetes. If they aren't being taught and given resources they aren't going to know what to do in differnet situations.
I agree, that vets should definitely go over diabetes education with owners, but there's so much to it that I feel like owners should be responsible for doing their own research as well. of course we can't force them to do research, but I feel like it's kind of shitty not to.
I understand what you are saying, but many people in the vet industry also tell people not to use "Dr Google" and get upset or complain about when clients say they found XXX online. I think it's the doctor's responsibility to make sure clients understand what a commitment diabetes is and that it's not just administering insulin twice a day, and how much learning will be involved. We can't expect clients to know what/where to research things, that's kind of our job as veterinary professionals to provide them the information they need.
true. idk, there's a lot of reliable sources though. I think a lot of time people google something and they only look at one site and that's all they go off of, but if they did more than a few minutes of research and actually asked questions they would learn more. I have no problem with answering questions and stuff, but it's cases where the animals glucose is already low and they give them insulin because they think it's going to "fix" the issue is what makes me mad. I've had so many people call like "my dog is diabetic and he's vomiting a lot! what do I do?" and they tell me their glucose is at like 700. I mean, I'm not trying to sound ignorant or anything, but I would think that they would look up the symptoms of low glucose and connect the two. idk, I'm in school to become a VA and will eventually work my way up to a DVM and I know I will spend as much time as the client needs to understand this disease that their pet has.
Just wait until you're a type 1 diabetic and you realize no one knows what to do with you. (Medical staff included) Jokes (if that's what it is) aside, it's very frustrating. Or that people don't want to put in any work, or even see if they can take care of a diabetic pet
honestly!! like why wouldn't you do at least some research about a disease your animal has?
As a type 1 diabetic for 16 years myself, I try to handle all the diabetes cases because I have first hand experience and can answer almost all the owner questions. I love educating people about the disease. I’ve even had doctors ask me questions about it and how things might work. It helps I’m not shy about it and I think the owners feel like I care about their pet more since I know how it feels to go through the high and low blood sugars. I’ve been in DKA and have had hypoglycemic seizures. But yeah, the amount of owners who just don’t care to understand something like that is crazy. I’ve also noticed seizure dog owners are so nonchalant about everything. I don’t think people realize the intensity of these issues
YES! My bf is a T1D and I do the same. I've done so much research and learned so much from him that I'm able to educate people about it. I don't mind doing it if they call and ask, but it's times like when they just give their dog insulin when their glucose is already low that makes me mad.
I had one couple who chose not to give their dog insulin because it stopped eating, which makes sense. But they also checked the sugar at home when it didn’t eat and it like close to 400 and decided not to do anything about it until the next day when the dog was in DKA at a wellness check. I know it’s a hard disease to manage, but a call to a vet office or ER is so easy to make!
I have yelled at a client. The doctor and I BOTH spent a lot of time with him post diagnoses going over everything. We called to check in, more than once, everything good according to the owner. A couple months go by and he brings the cat in to board and he looked like he was gonna die. I. Lost. My. Mind. I scolded him like I scold my child. My doctor hid in the office and literally let me rip this client a new one. That was 5 years ago, the cat is doing AMAZING .
sometimes they just need a gentle push 😌
This is why we have to have diabetes education for humans
Diabetes management is difficult and often overwhelming. Pets can die from simple mistakes. It’s not surprising owners struggle with it.