7/21 Neko PMPS 392

7/21 Neko AMPS 196 +2.5 280 +6 153 +9 148

Yesterday http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75409 was a day bounce recovery cycle followed by a near perfect PM cycle.

7/20 Recap
AMPS 476 +4 310 +6.5 235 +9 161 +11.5 185
PMPS 199 +3 153 +5.5 92 :mrgreen: +6.5 91 :mrgreen:

What is amazing about last night's cycle is that it started and ended in blue. A new first for Neko! When I started Neko on Lantus (5 months yesterday), the locum vet who got us on Lantus said that I could expect cycles with PS of between 10-12 (180-216) and nadirs between 5-7 (90-126). Well it took us a while, but we just had our first cycle that fits that profile!

I had to pick Neko off the bed for our first after midnight pokie and put her back there after the +6.5 and she snoozed nicely against my feet the whole night. It took me a while to sleep. Last night I got an email from Dr. Timian about possible dates for SRT and my mind is spinning with all the planning to be done. I am a project manager by trade and this is my most important project so far, so it's hard to tell my brain to turn off for the night.

Neko is CPC so far, camped in front of the autofeeder and probably going to wait until after +1 meal for her yard patrol. She saw LB action last night, so no rush. I am going to a friends house for some sewing today after +2, part of me wants a bounce today. But I'll only be 20 minutes away and DH can test.

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196

Green bookended by blue - purrfect! Happy Caturday!
Liz

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196

WOO HOO on the bookend blue cycle. Neko - you so totally rock. Well done! And those greens last night - Awesome!

Good luck on the SRT planning. WOW!, and how exciting.

Enjoy your day today - it sounds like a good one. Sure do like the amps.

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196

Yay Neko! you and Rupert have a plan for today it seems! nice to see you in the blues... now go find your buddy on the green floor and do NOT challenge him to a bouncing contest.. okay?

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196

Nice cycle last night Neko! Sounds like you had a nice curve. Wohoo,you go girl!

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196 +2.5 280 +6 152 +9 148

+2.5 280 +6 152 +9 148

It turned out to be a blues kind of day.

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196 +2.5 280 +6 153 +9 148

Nice & blue Neko! Green in the PM cycle? Yes, you can do it! :mrgreen:

Re: 7/21 Neko AMPS 196 +2.5 280 +6 153 +9 148

a perfect kind of day for neko to give you!

i meant to give you the run-down of all of the acro effects - the hormones causes the body to want to grow, and the soft tissue is the most susceptible and enlarges first. you mentioned large poop to me earlier - a mega-colon can be one effect. fiber, either with pumpkin or added miralax if there is constipation, can help. i saw that in punkin earlier, but it's resolved.

thinking of other soft tissue - it includes any organs. some cats get a thickening of their heart muscles, punkin's tongue was enormous and it's also pretty much back to normal. another common soft tissue to grow is the respiratory passages, the throat and esophagus. that can cause "stridor" the sound like snoring that is from excess tissue rattling around.

after the soft tissue begins, bones also can grow, but because the ends of the bones are already fused (not sure if 'fused' is the right word, but they are already adult-sized and in place against other bones) it can cause the bones to distort. punkin's feet are huge and they haven't shrunk any, their foreheads can jut out over their eyes, so instead of sloped, they become more vertical. the lower jaw is a prime place to see growth, with it jutting out beyond the upper jaw. teeth on the upper & lower jaws can separate as the bone grows. spinal distortion can happen. the hormones also cause arthritis to accelerate. i think the reason we assume most acro cats to be in pain is from headaches from skull growth and their overall pain is from the arthritis.

there are no perfect painkillers for cats. the choices are bupe (a narcotic, $50 about every 10 days and kinda made punkin stoned or else didn't seem to help), gabapentin (for nerve pain, cheap, but didn't seem to help him), tramadol (also relatively cheap, but 1 dose caused punkin to have hallucinations), amantadine (i think that's the name, we haven't tried that one) and last but not least, acupuncture. it seemed at first that punkin had a good response to the acupuncture, but that response waned and we stopped it in may. he had begun to tremble when we went to the vet's and that disturbed me a lot, athough once the needles began he would melt with endorphins. i did a video of him getting the treatments at one point. that cost $65 a treatment, i think, starting at once a week and once you're seeing a good response you decrease til once a month. with the SRT coming so soon, you may want to wait til it's over before exploring options, but neko still might benefit from something. most of the acromegalic cats seem to use gaba or tramadol.

the last painkiller is metacam. it is controversial and the US has a black box warning on it against using it orally in cats. it is only authorized for one injection to ease pain for surgery. there is a website called "metacamkills.com" that has far too many horror stories of cats that have died from metacam. some of the people on this site, including carolyn/latte and others, perhaps ann/tess? maybe, have cats who have died from it. my acupuncture vet suggested we try it - i have not. but i recall seeing people with acro cats say in a discussion on it, either on the Think Tank or on the High Dose forum, that it was the only thing that helped their cat. the vet says that it's completely dose-related, and that he gives his own cat something like 3 drops every 3 days. just putting it out there for you, i'm not recommending it. neko is young enough that you might not want to risk it. i would consider it if punkin seemed more in pain, but not at this point.

ok, well another book! my lap is now hot from the computer! hope you enjoyed your day off!

eta: here's the acupuncture video if you want it:

[youtube]n5_ZiN0GHCo&feature=g-upl[/youtube]