1/20 Mary Grace AMPS 279 +1 304 +2 253 PMPS 343 +1 312

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marygracemom

marygracemom

Member Since 2013
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=112196

Happy Monday LL! Better numbers this morning for AMPS! :-D

Julie- I am going to read through the articles and links about other high dose conditions when I get home from work. I thought it may be Cushings because of all the high dose conditions, that was the only one that had any similarities (those being alopecia (but she has done that on and off her whole life), the pot belly, her skin is not thin as in the pictures, but she does cause scabbing when she is in one of her alopecia moments. (only one time since being dx with fd) and her coat, though not matted like the pictures, is not soft and silky as before (but I know that has to do with hydration).

Hope everyone has a great day!

Edited for PMPS, I also increased her dose to 6 units tonight at pm shot
 
Re: 1/20 Mary Grace AMPS 279 +1 304 +2 253

The skin of a cat with Cushing's is so fragile that people have trouble giving shots or testing the BGs. it's extraordinary. You hadn't mentioned trouble with her skin tearing.

Take a look at those links and holler if you have questions. acro is the most likely and most common. A sweet little potbelly is common with that. Punkin's jiggled when he ran. :lol: Even though it's predominantly male, there are plenty of female acros too. Pepper and Neko both have acromegaly.
 
Re: 1/20 Mary Grace AMPS 279 +1 304 +2 253 PMPS 343

Good decision on the dosecrease Elizabeth....it was time!

Hopefully you'll see some better numbers for Mary Grace soon!
 
Hey Julie and Chris, thanks for the visits.
I have read the articles and post links and I don't think its cushing now because she does not have thin skin or tearing of the skin. The acro talked about weight gain not loss. I'm so confused, and I know that every cat is different.
I haven't been back to the vet lately so maybe I should go and just start with the basics, like uti testing. I just can't afford a lot of testing, I had my civvies have a complete blood work because I was sure they were diabetic too...they weren't thank goodness. Any ideas on maybe just getting a urine test right now? And is that something I could take to the vet if I got a sterile cup from them?

Thanks
 
If I remember what I've read here correctly, it's important for them to get a sterile sample if you're concerned about a UTI, so they usually need to use a needle to get urine straight from the bladder.

Even if the container is sterile, you'd have to catch urine mid-stream (in something sterile) and get it to the vet quickly to get a fairly accurate test, so it's probably best to just take her in.

What makes you think she has a UTI? Is she straining in the LB? Is there blood in her urine? Is she all the sudden peeing somewhere unusual?

Testing for IAA and Acromegaly are done with blood work. Your vet will have to draw the blood and send it to MSU which is the only place that I know of that does the testing. It's about $100 for the testing, plus whatever you have to pay your vet to draw it and the costs of shipping.
 
Hey Chris,
No signs of uti, but just trying to think of an infection that may be causing this. I could catch her mid stream, it's just getting it to the vet in a timely matter won't work. I just didn't want to put her through it.
Her only symptoms that are her extreme hunger, pot belly with not much else, and the high dose of insulin she is requiring. She purrs, does preen though her coat sometimes looks and feels rough, some days not so much but that I'm sure has to do with her bs numbers. Her poop is normal, urine still high but somewhat better, and she will play for a few minutes when I engage her, very grouchy, which is obviously reaction to high bs...I know how it am when mine are high, not lethargic anymore than any indoor cat. So I'm just trying to figure out what to get her tested for. I will call my vet and get a quote on the draw and shipping for the acro test.
 
As long as you're calling, you might as well ask about drawing for the IAA test too. As long as you're paying for the blood draw and the shipping, you might as well kill two birds with one stone so to speak
 
Good evening Elizabeth. I meant to pop into your yesterday's condo, but was away most of the day. I noticed you had a comment about linking to yesterday's condo when using an iPad. I had to figure that one out lately too. If you bring up the previous day's condo, hold you finger on the heading for a few seconds, its the part above the Postreply box. A pop up window will appear with options, including one to Copy. Select copy, then start a new condo. Select the URL button, position your finger in the middle of the [url}put finger here [end of url], hold for a couple seconds, and you'll get a pop up for a paste option. Select paste, then go from there.

I don't know how up to date your vet is, but some people have experienced some push back from the vet on getting the acro tests done. In addition to Neko being female (90% of studies show acros are male) and long haired (80% are short hair), my vet thought you had to be at 10U before considering the tests. But she humored me, it was my money. And she was more surprised than me at the results.
 
Chris, that's a good point about doing them together
Wendy, thanks for the iPad lesson. Slowly but surely I am getting it!
Luckily, my vet is feeling me, so to speak. I switched vets after Mary's dx and wasn't thrilled with the doctor who I got. Pushed the rx dry food, etc. but when I took my civvies there, I got another vet and she was great. I had a bit of a moment in there and we bonded. Her husband is a type one diabetic, like myself and she's pretty much letting me call all the shots once I explained what I was doing and showed her my ss and told her about the fdmb. So I don't worry about that, if I would have kept with the second vet maybe another story.
 
one thing that often drives up blood sugar is dental infections. can you look at MG's teeth and see if you see any red around the gumline? it's very common in diabetic cats because of the sugar in their saliva.

another common thing is pancreatitis. it can be an acute attack, which you would've noticed, or it can be a chronic simmering kind. general grouchiness might point to that. cats don't feel good, might lose their appetite, or just seem really off.

punkin had the bad hair thing going for a long time before he died. i think he'd just stopped grooming, maybe because it wasn't comfortable to twist? i don't know. His acro symptoms were the increasing dose, a pot belly, a giant tongue (he'd wash Anya, our civvie), large stools from his bowels enlarging, stridor (the snoring sound while awake) and his voice really dropped in timbre. marje said he sounded like a pack-a-day smoker. :sad: his muzzle spread, although it happened slowly enough that i didn't notice it except in looking at pictures from several years before. some cats have their teeth spread. some have their forehead push forward so it's more vertical than slanted from the eyes to the ears. punkin's pupils eventually blew open from the tumor pressing on his optic chiasm. Do any of those symptoms sound familiar to Mary Grace? Many cats don't have all of them.

so far when cats have exceeded 6u and gotten their cats tested for acro and iaa, as far as i can recall all of them had one or the other or both. i'm not aware of any that came back completely negative, although perhaps someone else knows of one.

Here's the link for the testing. Hang onto it and take it to your vet, because she will likely never have heard of how to do the testing. http://animalhealth.msu.edu/Bin/Catalog.exe?Action=Search&SPECIES=Feline&PAGE=6&Page=7

you want the insulin-like growth factor-1 for acro and insulin autoantibodies for iaa. the acro tests are run on Wednesdays and the results are available to your vet on Fridays. the iaa test is run when the sample arrives.

also, elizabeth, be prepared that if you do the testing and get back positive results, you may very well have a condo like Ole's yesterday. Don't let it freak you out!
 
Good evening Julie, I'm trying to stay up past my bedtime to see her nadir. Yawn...
None of the symptoms you describe fit Mary except the potbelly. She is a small cat and it jiggles like you said punkin's did when she runs. I will check her gums at next bs or if she gets up. I believe the first vet had said she needed a cleaning but nothing sounded dire. I haven't noticed any symptoms of pancreatitis, still eating like a wild wolf and no other off points except her being grouchy. Now she grooms all the time, all over, stretches better than I could! She does have longer stools than her brothers though. I took a picture for you guys to see but it said it was too big to upload. I think she doesn't look healthy but nothing abnormal.
I saw the post today from ole's mom, felt really bad for her.
Thanks for the link to give to my vet. I am going to call tomorrow and see if I can bring her in this Saturday. I also think after five days I might should increase by .50 if needed.
 
i have 2 kittens that are 10 months old who have a bit of a swinging belly already. :lol:

i forgot to mention the most common of the acro symptoms is the ravenous appetite. cats who are willing to eat almost anything. even non-food things! punkin never did that, but i've heard of it. he did eat everything food and always wanted more. some acro cats will continue to gain weight even when they aren't regulated - that can point towards acro. most non-acro diabetic cats will lose weight when they aren't regulated yet, even though they are also ravenous.

some cats with acro seem to have very few of the symptoms.

if your vet said that she needs her teeth cleaned, then she no doubt does. usually they can't see much until the cat is under anesthesia. for whatever reason, cats have trouble with resorption lesions.

my DH just brought home dinner, so . . . i'll stop now!
 
Chris, that was a great info about the pot belly, I've always wondered why that stayed when she has lost so much weight.
Julie, hope dinner from dh was divine! Two kittens!! How fun, I love that stage!! Especially when they are litter mates. Oh so cute.
Mary is very very hungry but hasn't gone after non food items but went crazy through the trash when I left it for a few moments while I gathered the truckload of litter bags, luckily there was no food in there for her to eat only the smells, but she is crazy hungry. I have had to walk around while eating because she is so wild and jumpy. But she has probably lost a couple of pounds since dx. I am feeding her 12 ounces a day, split up between shots and +1, 2, 3.
 
was she overweight? if not, you want to give her enough food to maintain her weight. if she does need to lose weight, it has to be very slow. cats are prone to fatty liver (Feline Hepatidosis - sp?) which is very serious and comes about if they lose weight too quickly.

that's actually quite a bit of food, although it depends on the calorie content. punkin ate about 9-10oz per day, although he'd have been happier if i gave him more. How much does she weigh?

oh - and the reason i mentioned my crazy kittens is that they are starving, poor little things. :lol: don't tell DH, but McGee got on the counter today, ripped open a plastic bag holding the banana bread that DH made last night. i just told him that i moved the banana bread, not that McGee was licking his lips after eating a bunch of the bread when i got home. then - guess what - it gave him an upset tummy. silly cat.

they aren't litter mates but i got them at the same time and they were born a week apart. McGee is a little tuxedo boy and Frodo is a medium haired, halfway between buff and orange. He's got a huge fluffy tail. McGee is very sleek. They make me smile.

If $ is an issue for the testing, you could wait a little longer. if she keeps going up then it becomes more urgent to know what the cause is. we don't have to make any critical decisions with her right now.
 
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