My first greyhound developed Fibrosarcoma. All my ex vet told me was that it was a form of cancer. Directed me to a surgon and sent me on my way. I hit cyberspace running spending close to 17 hours a day for a few weeks researching. My wife said she would divorce me if I didn't come up for air soon. LOL. When I got to the surgon I had seval questions. Not only about the cancer but about the drugs he wanted to use and follow up care. Funny thing was he had never heard of feeding raw (yes, this was several years ago) The likely hood of Indy living for a few more years. When it was all said and done the Dr. told me he had never had a client with so much information. He was glad to I had put the effort in. It made his job easier because I knew pretty much what we were in for. Indy lived for another three months. Since then I've educated myself to the point that I know side effect of popular drugs. All dogs are raw fed. No vacs after the puppy shots and as chemical free as we can be in this time and age. My new vet loves that I know what I'm talking about for the most part and that I give her a heads up on new drugs and possible problems with them. I have more time to surf than she does. That's what she tells me. So I guess it all depends on the vet and how they look at things.

Now this is a hot topic <g>. Until the time my Labrador was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease (almost 2 yrs ago) I never ever questioned my vet on anything, I did everything I was told for my dogs. When Raider was diagnosed I decided to “look it up online”. He was only a year old and since I would hopefully have him a long time I wanted to learn all I could.
I joined an online support group for owners with Addisonian dogs. When I told my vet she just raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything much except, be careful about where you get your info.
The info I got there made me realize that we were not managing his Addison’s the way it could be. I started asking for lab results, constantly pushed to increase his medication to get his lytes balanced. Generally I think I was a PITA Mom. After 7 months he was taking 22 tablets of florinef a day and still his lytes were not where they should be. Even my vet didn’t understand why he needed so much florinef. At that point I wanted to switch to another drug that I had researched. My vet however had never heard of the drug. I gathered all the data that I could find including product inserts and took it in to her. Do you know the look you get when someone thinks you are nuts but they are going to humour you? Well I got that look but she did agree to look at the info when she got time in the next week or so. Well I figured that went in the garbage, but surprise she called me later that evening. She had read all the info (there was a lot) and looked it up online as well and wanted to “go for it” if I was willing. This drug has been a miracle for Raider and I am so glad I went online to research. Not long ago there was a Veterinary Student working with my Vet and she introduced me as the one who is, “educating her on Addison’s”. I like to think I challenged what she knew and helped her see a better way to treat Primary/Typical Addison’s. Raider sent her flowers to apologize for Mom being a PITA.

You asked for it, you got it.

After my cat Toonces was OD'd on insulin by his vet, I clearly had a brand new and less trusting attitude toward veterinarians. And now, I found myself with a BRAIN DAMAGED cat I dearly hoped I could help. Unfortunately, because he walked in circles and was neurologically blind, and always had a blank stare, and stumbled often, AND was insulin sensitive after this OD, I realized that he was never going to give me the usual signs of hypoglycemia, so I was going to have to learn as much as I could and test him like a maniac.

Through an online list for diabetic pet owners, someone referred me to Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, one of the country's formost authorities on feline diabetes, and the vet who developed the original recipe for Purina DM (although since then it was bought from her and I suspect that recipe had been changed). She spoke with me at length on the phone for free when I was in crisis with Toonces home from the hospital, and his bgs were all over the place on Humulin L and force-feedings of A/D. She told me how bad the Humulin insulins are for cats and advised me to change Toonces diet to low carb and get him on PZI.

My new vet was not necessarily happy with me being in the drivers seat on requesting an insulin change, but she went along. I then found support at felinediabetes.com. Although this list is primarily comprised of diabetic pet owners, there are two vet techs and a vet there also. These people read the latest and greatest studies on feline diabetes like "The Rand Protocol." Most vets don't.

I watched on that list as owner after owner came on the list with bozo-headed treatment plans from their vet that involved prescription dry food, shooting insulin without testing first, changing the cats dose based on fructosamines or curves done at the vets (which typically resulted in ever-increasing doses of insulin until the cats were on 5, 6, and sometimes 10 or more units BID), of Humulin N often, no less - a very harsh insulin with a steep drop and poor duration and high risk of hypo. Many of these cats ended up in chronic rebound with chronically high BGs and the vets weren't seeing it for what it was and just kept increasing the dose more and more. Moreover, even as these cats got ketoacidosis and/or hypos, the vets were often reportedly entirely indignant when the owners came to them with information they learned online, and sometimes even threatened to dump clients if they insisted on home testing or not feeding W/D or some other such nonsense.

Needless to say, what I learned made me convinced that I had learned more about feline diabetes than even my new, rather likable vet knew. So, that PZI switch didn't work out well for my cat, and I pressured my vet to give me an RX for lantus because of what I'd learned about lantus on the boards. She had never used lantus before, but conceded and gave me the scrip. I later saw a rather snide note in my cats record about how many times I'd switched my cats insulin type, and how much I was influenced by a vet in California (Hodgkins) and a bunch of diabetic cat owners online. Needless to say, I didn't appreciate the snide note, but I was past the point of worrying about some vets judgment of me, and in no state of mind to go looking for a new vet given my vet-fear.

Ironically, she wrote in the record that SHE recommended to ME that I switch my cats insulin to lantus, when in truth, I had to really push her for this and it was my idea. Gave me a chuckle when I read that. She can make nasty comments about my reliance on internet communities of pet owners, while simultaneously taking credit for their good ideas.

Lantus worked well for Toonces allowing me to regulate him for the first time since the overdose. Not that it helped his brain damage, though. Too late for that.

AND, over the years on the feline diabetes list, I have seen owner after owner whose cats ONLY survived and thrived because of the advice they got from the PEOPLE on that list, who had to sound the alarm about dangerous and outmoded treatment protocols their vets are pushing. This still happens every day over there and I can think of one cat who last week was able to go off insulin and become diet controlled because of the counseling the owner got from the list. Her cat was in chronic rebound with relentlessly high BGs because the vet had raised his dose of insulin to outrageous levels.

So, vets don't like us getting info on the internet because it reveals their ignorance, triggers their arrogant defensiveness, and . . . embarasses them. When a patient's owner has read the RAND protocol and quotes it but the vet hasn't, the vet looks like exactly what he is: A lazy vet who is RX'ing without knowing what the best practice is.

I tend to be slightly sensitive to anything I read about canine health issues (in a hypochondriac kind of way....). So, rather than put my Vet through something unnecessarily, I tend to look things up after I leave. In other words, I let him do his job, diagnose my dog and talk to me....then I go home and Google like mad. Once in a while this results in a follow up call if I need more clarity/reassurance, or, I fax him and then ask him to call me when he has a spare moment that is convenient for him. Because I have a tiny dog, I tend to worry about the dose of medication she receives or some horror story I heard on a chat room about anesthesia or something.....
My Vet is more than clear on how crazy I am about my dog and respects the level of care I give her. So, I trust him/them. Every time I have gone home from an appointment, he's given me written instructions and often times, further reading/websites for my own edification. I've not had anything major yet, just things like kennel cough, HGE (that was major), and allergies. In terms of allergies, he seems to appreciate my continual search for answers.

I think it makes a differene on how you present your findings to your vet. If you go in and basically tell him/her that they are idiots, of course they will be defensive. If you start it as a discussion about something you've read, you and the vet can work as a TEAM to either discount the idea or to delve further.

In my case, my vets have asked me to please print out the info I've learned so they can put a copy in my cat's files and use it to help another kitty that might have the same problem. When we were trying to figure out why my Fletcher needed 50+ units of insulin a day and was gaining weight like crazy (6.5 pounds in 10 months), I researched on the internet, my vet's looked in their books and consulted with other vets, and we reached the conclusion that, since everything else had been ruled out, we needed to test him for acromegaly. I had all the info on how to submit the blood to Michigan State and my vet called to confirm how to do it. Crappy as it was to get the positive results...the more up-to-date internet info was what helped to form a diagnosis.

When I adopted my Greta a year ago, I knew she had diabetes insipidus. The standard, old-school way of treating that is with desmopressin (DDAVP) drops in the eye and/or nose daily. Well, we all know how difficult that can be to do to a kid...let alone a cat with claws! I already knew of this disease AND knew that subcutaneous injections of the desmopressin were much, much more effective. Within 24 hours of Greta coming home, she was down to drinking less than 1/4 cup of water a day...she had been drinking/peeing 5+ cups. At adoption, her USG (urine specific gravity) was 1.001---basically water. A week later it was 1.038--beautifully concentrated! My vets were amazed at what I learned (that and the fact that there are soooo few true DI cats) and they are now going to start a DI doggy on the subq injections to see if it can have as good an effect as it did for my kitty.

So...to make a long post longer ;) I think people just need to work WITH their vets (and don't try to use info you've found on page 467582674 of a Google search since it probably isn't relevant!). Respect each other, learn with each other...but don't be afraid to seek out a second or third opinion. And present your findings in a conversation..not an inquisition!

Dr. Steggy re:

" I kind of look at it this way--while I DO go to continuing education every year, there is FAR MORE out there than I can possibly stay on top of and not lose family/friends/etc."

Thank you so VERY much for that attitude, for being open minded and admitting that you have your own human limitations. This is a great attitude that I wish all vets had.

This is of course true of human doctors as well, and pretty much every profession: Things are progressing at a pace that we cannot keep up with. Why not just admit it and learn to use the technology and resources that are available? And be open minded when clients etc. bring new treatments and methods to your attention.

I believe if everyone had your attitude things would be a lot better.

Dr Steggy and Dr Khuly: thanks for keeping an open mind on this. I like to think that my vet and I are on the same team and that my imput as an owner is welcome. I think its impossible for vets to keep up on everything new for multiple species - and its my responsibility to make sure my pets are being well cared for. I generally present information from vet web sites or other vets, but if my cats were in trouble, I wouldn't hesitate to bring in info from a user's forum.

When the pet food crises occurred last year I switched my cats from dry to mostly wet holistic food. I got a little bit of invisible eye rolling from my vet, but I gave him a can for his cat - and he immediately saw the difference in quality and his cat's reaction to it. He's also seen the difference in my cats' coats and energy levels. We've also had some discussions about dry/wet food and tooth decay and his opinion has certainly changed over the last few years (from dry dental food to wet).

Guess you can teach an old vet a new trick or two.

Great article and great comments. I do use the Internet somewhat for research, but I am also part of a large group of Sheltand Sheepdog rescuers/lovers who exchange information about our breed. Some of this is through an e-mail list, other is through a monthly club meeting.

One of my shelties started losing hair and getting thickened skin across his shoulders and down his spine. So, I took him to my vet's office. My normal vet was on vacation and the vet that I saw said that I wasn't bathing him enough. So, I gave little Robbie a bi weekly bath with a special shampoo (which, was a pain, due to the long hair). His hair was so sparkly and soft, but it didn't clear up the problem and so I asked around at my club meeting.

Another lady had a sheltie mix who had the same symptoms and it was due to the low thyroid. So, I scheduled another appointment with my regular vet and we ran a thyroid panel. He was in the low normal, which, for shelties, is too low (they should be high normal). We started him on thyroid meds and the patch is slowly clearing up. He is due for another test soon to see if we have the dose correct. An added benefit is that Robbie's barking has calmed down (he had a little aggression issue that cleared up with the meds and training).

My vet is a long time sheltie owner and he hadn't seen this before. Now that I bring him foster shelties, he says he has seen it all in the Sheltie world! And, since I am also aware of classes and seminars, he asks me what is scheduled so he can send his techs to them.