That sounds like a good plan. I wouldn't let anyone talk you out of it frankly.

I can remember like it was yesterday instead of 9 years ago the day I realized I was going to have to start making decisions for our diabetic dog Chris. We had seen the guy who wrote the book on diabetes at the teaching hospital and his response to curves going from 100 to as high as 500 in 12 hours was "Don't change a thing! It's working!" His goal for diabetic regulation was the dog stops urinating in the house and becomes an acceptable pet again. Well, Chris had never urinated in the house so that wasn't a very helpful standard.

So I'm in the car on the phone with the GP vet and the GP vet isn't confident enough to counter the Teaching Hospital vet's advice and refuses to try a different insulin.

I knew in my gut as strongly as I have ever known anything in my life that what we were currently doing for Chris wasn't the best that we could do. I hung up the cell phone, looked at my husband in the driver's seat, and said "We have to find a new vet."

I have to tell you that it wasn't easy. I was disagreeing with the advice of one of the top vets in the country on endocrine disorders and had to change vets despite the fact that the GP vet was and is a smart, kind, compassionate and caring doctor who had done great things for our dog in the past.

From that day forward, I went with the attitude that the vet works FOR me and my dog and we make decisions together or we don't work with the vet at all. And every day thereafter Chris' regulation got better and better.

I recognize that I've had the luxury of concentrating on one disease, diabetes, and associated conditions like Cushing's and that that has allowed me to dig deeper into it than a GP vet generally has time to do, with the added advantage that I know my dog better than anyone on the planet and, through home blood sugar testing, knew my dog's blood sugar patterns better than anyone on the planet.

Dogs don't read the book, or even care much at all about the book! So you learn to read your dog's book and be an advocate for him and learn as much as you can on your own so you can recognize poor care when you see it.

I hope the IMS is good. But if not and you don't get a satisfactory approach and answer, you are in an area with lots of choices and no need to settle.

Natalie