Cabergoline questions

Hello! Just got cabergoline and will start tomorrow. How can you tell if it is effective? Simply by better glucose control? Or do you get IGF tested again? And do kitties stay on it forever? Little worried about possible side affects of vomiting/nausea. How did everyone's kitties tolerate it?

 

My kitty Darcy did not have side effects. I think he had diarrhea one day and that was it (when first starting treatment.). I knew it was working for him when his blood glucose started going down and I had to reduce insulin! A good side effect, huh? I don’t believe many people have retested the IGF-1 because it is said not to go down. Good luck. I’m excited to watch Pumpkin’s progress.

 

What strength did you end up getting? How many micrograms per milliliter?

 

You have to be patient to see the effects of cabergoline. I've seen some cats react (lower dose) in a week, and some take a couple months. Sometimes you will see some of the acro side effects diminish as well. You will need to test frequently. Some of the cats have a very strong reaction to it and need a lot of frequent reduction. But there is no pattern to predict how Pumpkin will react. I have seen some reference to cabergoline working better based on some aspect of the pituitary tumour, based on imaging. Most people don't get imaging first - too expensive.

And as Suzanne says, retesting the IGF-1 won't tell you anything. There does seem to be an impact on growth hormone, which we cannot measure.

Cats that experience GI effects seem to benefit from going to every other day dosing. And yes, it's kept up for the life of the cat, but the frequency could be reduced.

 

Snuffles has been on it since Dec. After starting insulin needs went up slowly and then went down a little. He is now on about 16 units twice daily. Bg control has also improved. PS' are 110-130. With my previous aero MurrFee (no treatment besides insulin) insulin needs just kept going up and at the end was up tp 50 units twice daily. He is on about 10mcg/kg.

 

It is 100mcg/ ml strength. Vet prescribed .7ml every 72 hrs. Pumpkin is 16 lbs. Would every other day be better? Vet has not had an acro kitty before nor prescribed cabergoline.

 

That dose is about 10mcg/kg. Snuffled on10mcg/kg once a day. You can start @every other day and increase to every day after two weeks or so if no adverse side effects.

 

Howie had diarrhea for about a week and then it subsided. He is on .7mL everyday (always has been in everyday dosing). I don’t know that I’ve seen a drastic impact on his acro, but I would be afraid to know what his BGs and insulin dosing would be without it. He is also IAA though, so is a high dose kittie. He’s been as high as 55 units BID and down to 17 units BID (this summer). He’s currently back to 39 units BID.

 

I originally started every day, then vet wanted me to do every other day just to be safe. I figured I'd listen to him for once since he humored me with the cab script

We were one of the oddballs, we achieved remission in about a month after starting cabergoline.

I recently dropped down to every 72 hours and within about a week he started blowing through food and water, which is usually a sign his BG is about to run away on me. I went back to every other day and he has been fine since. He does have some other issues so it's not a surefire thing they're related.

My two cents - start with every other day and stick with it for awhile, and go from there.