Just bring in the card when you pick up (or get a new one at the clinic) and we will mark off the nights invoiced out.

What is diabetes? When our pets eat, digestion breaks down the food into smaller components for their bodies to use. Carbohydrates, one of the broken down components, are converted into various sugars, including glucose. The hormone called insulin, which is produced by specific cells in the pancreas, allows the glucose absorbed from the intestines into the blood stream and throughout the body to provide the energy that our pets need.

In diabetic pets, these cells in the pancreas produce little or no insulin. When this happens, glucose cannot enter into the body’s cells and it accumulates in the blood, causing the condition known as diabetes mellitus. Simply put, diabetes results from a shortage of insulin.

What are the signs? Signs of diabetes are excessive thirst, excessive urination, excessive appetite, weight loss despite good appetite, cloudy eyes and vision loss (diabetic cataracts), and deterioration of the condition of your dog or cat’s coat.

An examination and blood test can confirm a diagnosis of diabetes. When glucose levels are found elevated in both the blood and the urine that means your dog or cat has diabetes. We will perform a thorough examination to determine that your dog or cat is also suffering from other conditions, because some diseases can make it more difficult to treat diabetes.

What is the treatment? Diabetes is not a death sentence. The disease can be regulated with special diets or insulin.

Vetsulin, the only FDA approved insulin designed specifically for treating dogs and cats, has been used successfully to treat pets for more than 15 years. Our veterinarians will determine the dose that’s right for your dog or cat and teach you everything you need to know about administering the injection and monitoring your pet’s blood glucose level. After initiating the insulin therapy, your pet will need further evaluation to adjust the level of insulin based on blood and urine glucose levels to make the correct dose is being given. The time period for this testing can vary from 1 week to 2 months depending on your pet’s clinical status.

Diabetic animals’ exercise should remain consistent. A nutritionally complete, dry or canned pet food such as Hills w/d, Purina DM, or Royal Canin Diabetes Control should be fed in consistent amounts at the same time each day.

As with many diseases, the risk of diabetes can be lowered by keeping your pet at a lean weight.

There are several ways that some disreputable companies use to obtain these products and that will look like the real product.

A black market exists where companies search to purchase large quantities of medications from veterinarians without a prescription or the legal doctor patient relationship (this was recently tried on our practice and we reported the situation to the authorities). The veterinarians that sell these products are subject to legal action and can loose their license.

Products can be purchased from overseas where they are manufactured without the safety standards that we have here in the United States. Poor safety standards may cause a product to be unsafe.

There are counterfeiters that produce products that may actually have a package that is exactly the same as the real product, but in reality does not contain the medication listed.

Several companies have identified this issue and are trying to implement safety measures to help keep your pets safe. Summit and Fort Dodge now have tracking labels on their products to prevent illegal distribution of their products, but they still have to be vigilant for counterfeit products. Also, several manufactures will not stand behind their products if they are purchased without agreement from online pharmacies. The problem is that the pharmacies do not share this information with their potential patrons.

As your pet’s veterinarian, we have a personal commitment to ensuring the health of your pet and we are concerned that by owners trying to save money in good faith, they may be actually putting their pets at risk.

As of May 15^th, the core vaccines, Rabies, Bordetella, DHPP and FVRCP will be included in the price of the exams. However, the lifestyle vaccines, Leptospirosis, Lyme and Rattlesnake vaccines for dogs and Leukemia vaccine for cats, will be invoiced out at full price when it is determined that a particular pet would benefit from their administration. The vaccine prices are dependent on the wholesale prices, but the current prices are below:

Leptospirosis $13.41
Lyme $20.17
Rattlesnake $15.50
Leukemia $16.79