The Technician’s Role in Diabetes Management

NOW AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND

Our diabetic feline patients require a team to care for their needs. Veterinary professionals and compliant caregivers are all pieces of the puzzle for successful treatment. Once the patient has received an accurate diabetic work up, continued care consists of repeat hospital visits and home care. A veterinary technician is involved in every step of the patient’s journey from performing proper diagnostics to caregiver education and follow up care during rechecks. Attend this lecture to refresh old knowledge and pick up new tips and tricks to share with caregivers and their beloved feline family members.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, the participant will:

  • Understand the accurate process to perform accurate diagnostics related to diabetes mellitus in the feline patient
  • Understand the basic concepts of performing accurate glucose curves on feline patients
  • Be able to properly educate caregivers on the importance of nutritional management of the diabetic patient
  • Be able to outline the importance of proper home glucose monitoring for the feline patient
  • Be able to effectively communicate the proper steps of home insulin administration to caregivers of diabetic patients
  • Understand the importance of the caregiver keeping proper medical records for home care for the newly diagnosed feline diabetes mellitus

Speaker Bio

Paula Plummer, LVT, VTS (ECC, SAIM, CP-Feline)

Paula has been at Texas A&M University since 2007, first working in the small animal intensive care unit and then moving to the feline internal medicine service in 2011 and currently is the Staff Development Coordinator for the Small Animal Teaching Hospital. She graduated from Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, and has been a registered veterinary technician since 2000. In 2011, she earned her veterinary technician specialty in emergency and critical care; in 2014, her second specialty in small animal internal medicine; and in 2022, her third specialty in clinical practice-feline. Paula has spent most of her career working in academia teaching veterinary students tasks that will help them be better patient advocates when they graduate. Paula is also involved in teaching technicians in online programs and a guest lecturer and lab instructor at local, regional, and national continuing education symposiums.


RACE Credits 

This program 20-974812/20-974910 is approved by the AAVSB RACE to offer a total of 1.00 CE Credits (1.00 max) being available to any one veterinarian: and/or 1.00 Veterinary Technician CE Credits (1.00 max). This RACE approval is for the subject matter categorie(s) of: Medical using the delivery method(s) of: Non-Interactive Distance. This approval is valid in jurisdictions which recognize AAVSB RACE; however, participants are responsible for ascertaining each board’s CE requirement