? 02/18-Freckles/Judy - PMPS 157, 191@+2, 209@+5

Judy and Freckles

Judy and Freckles

Very Active Member
yesterday's post

Spoke with the vet and he got the email results back yesterday which showed high numbers for both acromegaly and IAA. He is going to be sending me the test results. He has a very strong accent so he is difficult to understand but he was ok with trying Levemir and thought Freckles' glucose numbers were currenty "OK".

Definitely not the results I wanted to hear, so it is a sad day here. :(

I will be needing more guidance from this group now that I know what I'm dealing with.
 
Hi Judy, I'm sorry that you didn't get the report you wanted. But as you already know there are many knowledgeable people here who are experienced with acro and IAA. You will have lots of support. As I understand it, Levemir is a better choice for higher doses because Lantus stings. Good luck with the switch.

:bighug::bighug::bighug:s for you and scritches for Freckles
 
First off, give Freckles some scritches from me. She is lucky she has such a great caregiver.

I am curious on what the results numbers say. I remember one other kitty who loved yellows as much as Freckles did, Polly had IAA and acromegaly too. So did Neko, but she was dubbed the Rainbow Queen.:rolleyes: ECID.

Switching to Levemir is a good start. You will likely be around the same dose, but some IAA kitties have a good reaction to the insulin change. Time and treatment of the acromeglay will take care of the IAA.

You also need to think about acromegaly treatment and whether it's something you can do. Not all can, so it's a personal decision. Where you are located, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Saskatoon does SRT. We had one member here have her dog go there for another kind of condition a couple years ago. I haven't heard of anyone doing SRT for acromegaly yet. There is a definite cost associated with SRT - I don't have any idea what it costs at Saskatoon. If you are up to it, you could call and ask. Typically it's 4 days of anaesthesia. Day 1 is a CT scan to map the tumour, days 2-4 are radiation on the tumour. Some places do a 1 day option for the radiation, which costs less, but is a higher dose of radiation. Neko had both the 3 and 1 day version 3 years apart. She was one of the unlucky few whose tumour came back.

The other treatment a number of people here are using is cabergoline. It's a medication usually compounded into a liquid and given one a day. A lot of cats on it seem some of the acro symptoms reduce and the dose go down as well. Frankly, getting rid or or reducing the acro symptoms is the most important thing. We have had 3 cats go OTJ with cabergoline. Current active users here @Olive & Paula @Pamela & Amethyst. I can point you to other spreadsheets if you have interest.

And lastly, some people just treat the cat with as much insulin as they need and manage the side effects as they arise. Again, that's ECID.

You probably have questions, fire away. I want to help. :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
Wendy&Neko said:
You probably have questions, fire away. I want to help.
Click to expand...
Thanks Wendy,

I will post the test results when I get them. I did mention cabergoline to the vet when I spoke with him on the phone and he said Freckles would have to have an MRI in Saskatoon before he would prescribe cabergoline because it "is a very dangerous drug".
 
:banghead::banghead::banghead:
Your vet is wrong, haven't had a single cat here on cabergoline have an MRI. For heaven's sake - it's given to pregnant female cats to induce abortion, that's it's original use. Pretty sure they haven't had MRi's first. :rolleyes: There are a couple papers on cats using cabergoline, where the cats had MRI's. They were part of a research study (ie. free MRI's) and researchers were gathering data. The Royal Veterinary Clinic was most interested in changes in IGF-1 over time.

The only side effects of cabergoline, according to the RVC researcher I corresponded with, are some possible GI issues. Some cats have had some mild GI upset at the beginning, but it went away.
 
Since I found out the test results today, I've been reading up on cabergoline and haven't found anything with listing major side effects. Maybe he misunderstood or maybe I mispronounced cabergoline? I will send him some links on using cabergoline with acro cats so he is better informed. I will look up the RVC and see if I can find those studies.

I phoned up to Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon and they aren't able to tell me any information as they wanted to speak directly to my vet, so I will get him to call and ask about SRT. They said it wasn't something they normally do, so were hesitant to give me any information.
 
One of the reasons I went to Colorado, rather than Calgary which was closer, was the level of experience in treating acro cats. Oh, plus they were half the cost even with the US dollar exchange. Cabergoline papers are linked in this post.

I was just rereading my email from Chris Scudder of RVC on side effects, sounds like there is a possibility of heart issues in humans with cabergoline. In which case an echocardiogram might be warranted, though most people here haven't done it. And RVC didn't mention it as a side effect subsequently. If you are interested, PM me your email addy and I can forward the email to you. Which you can forward to your vet if you wish as "private correspondence" with RVC. Chris has now graduated and moved on, so sadly no longer at RVC. Changes to hearts are one of the possible side effects of acromegaly too, not a bad thing to have an echo regardless. Mostly places doing SRT will want one done.
 
Sorry to hear about Freckles. Seems like there are some options that seem promising. Thinking of you and wishing all the best for your good kitty.
 
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