Big mess with my Cabergoline prescription refill with Wedgewood and I basically only have 2 days left. I placed the refill order 2 weeks ago and they told me 9-10 days to compound and then ship. Well, I called today and it’s not scheduled in the lab to be compounded and ship until 7/20 as now they’re saying a minimum 15 business days due to material shortages. They will see if they can move that up in the schedule but I’m not holding my breath. Since Howie will definitely be out of it before the refill comes, what should I watch out for (symptoms, BG impacts, etc)? I have a call into my vet to talk about it but he is so backed up with being 2 vets down right now. And I don’t know if he will know anything as I’m his first patient to use it.
You should go to every other day starting now. It should be tapered off, plus will last a couple more days.
Thanks, Wendy! By my estimate I have enough for maybe 2-3 days. Should I decrease dose too? When I finally get my refill, should I administer it any differently right away?
I can't answer about reduce dose. I just know what someone else did at one point when supply was low. As for starting back up, you can go back to what you are doing, as that's what you did when you started it.
Near the beginning of June I was running low on cabergoline for my Snuffles and then received an email from Wedgewood that my refill was delayed. I called them about details and finally got connected to a pharmacist who said the delay was due to problem getting the cabergoline to compound into the liquid. They said they may have it is a week or two and would periodically call back with status.Thee has been a shortage of the table, one manufacturer has discontinued them and another has them on backorder. However, they seem to be available from two other manufacturers. https://www.ashp.org/drug-shortages...etail.aspx?id=692&loginreturnUrl=SSOCheckOnly Now back to Snuffles. I ended up giving him a reduced dose, abount ½, for 9 days until the new script arrived on 21 June. I was surprised how much I could get out of the bottle by letting it sit upside down. BGs/insulin dose did increase with reduced dose. I restarted with full dose when new script arrived and BGs/insulin did decrease. BG/insulin does has continued to decrease from that before I started with the reduced dose.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Larry! I knew you had gotten your meds so had assumed the shortage issue had been resolved. When I first placed the order and they told me 9-10 days, they just said it was because of how many orders they still had to process because they were backed up. So certainly a shock to hear that the issue was actually never resolved. Otherwise I would have been backing off a lot earlier. I have been storing it upside down so hopefully I can get as much as I can out of it.
Mr Kitty is a little different story since he's in remission, but at one point I had him tapered all the way down to 5mcg/kg every 1.5 weeks. Then I started thyroid meds which interfere with it so I brought it back to EOD, now I'm tapering off again since I was getting some pretty low BGs (that happened with one cat in South American study and they also tapered, so I'm trying it). I suspect it is better to give at least some vs none, so if it were me I would space out like Wendy said and do a reduced dose. His BG may start to run higher on you but hopefully temporary.
Crisis averted! My refill showed up this afternoon! Thanks to all of you for your help and recommendations! You are all greatly appreciated!
Hi Tracy. I was just thinking about you and Howie. You’re doing a great job if his numbers are any indication!
You are just the kindest soul for checking in! Thank you so much! We are doing fine although I believe he’s got arthritis in his front legs/shoulders. Lots of indications from what I’ve read. I have him on fish oil and Dasuquin capsules in hopes that helps before we move on to any meds. My work life (university) starts back up in full force next week so my lunches at home and getting home from work at a decent time will cease very shortly. I hope you’re doing well!
Here’s to a great school year for you! Do you teach, Tracy? I hope you find something to help with that arthritis. I’m well, thanks, and husband and kids and kitties are all pretty well, too.
