In 2016 our cat, Tigger, was diagnosed with Acromegaly by our vet at Wilbury Veterinary Practice. We were informed the condition could be managed with twice daily insulin injections and our vet demonstrated how to administer this.

We were shell-shocked realizing that this level of care was not going to be easy, but our vet reassured us that there was some support available and referred us to Carla Finzel, for this.

Tigger was very cooperative with the vet in her clinical setting but once home we realized that her ‘one-time’ demonstration was not sufficient for us to administer the insulin injections competently. Tigger would hear the EpiPen coming out and make a dash for it. He would struggle and, on a few occasions, I ended up missing him completely with the pen. With work being really busy our stress levels at home soared and of course, he picked up on this and became more stressed and difficult to handle. It was a vicious circle.

We also had a holiday booked and suddenly realized we could no longer just ask neighbors to pop in and help with his care.

Carla came to our house and spent time showing us how to calm Tigger (and ourselves) and helped us adjust, so that what was stressful became routine. She helped build our confidence by checking how we were doing the injections and was on hand (when she could be) when we were going away. The quick demo in the veterinary clinic, whilst an informative demonstration, was not close to being enough and Carla visiting us at home, as recommended by our vet, made a huge difference.

Carla continued to help with our cat’s care as his needs became more complex over the following couple of years, but always under the guidance and supervision of our vet.

We would have given up on Tigger without Carla’s support and we need, without question, more veterinary nurses like her to bridge the gap between vets and the communities they serve.

Mark, Tigger’s Owner