? 02/13/21 Buddy AMPS 232 +2 154 +4 99 PMPS 255

Sandra And Buddy (GA)

Member Since 2019
Last Condo

Cant seem to catch a break, each new dose appears to do some good but only for 1 cycle.

Today I will call the vet about testing for Acro and Iaa, But then what? I know it is outrageously expensive to treat.
 
I just talked to my vet, They are clueless. Told me that was a human disease and is not something I need to be concerned about. WOW really? Now how do I find a new vet that actually has a clue?
 
My vet had a similar reaction - not many vets are well versed in FD in the first place. I had to produce research and cite journal articles and then I followed @Wendy&Neko advice and asked the vet to "humor me" and just send the samples away. It's my money that I'm spending. When the results came back, my vet had obviously done some reading as he was a bit more up to speed on acromegaly. Vet was surprised because Freckles was not showing any physical characteristics of acro but as I found out, there are many cats who don't have the big paws or the protruding lower jaw.
 
My vet had a similar reaction - not many vets are well versed in FD in the first place. I had to produce research and cite journal articles and then I followed @Wendy&Neko advice and asked the vet to "humor me" and just send the samples away. It's my money that I'm spending. When the results came back, my vet had obviously done some reading as he was a bit more up to speed on acromegaly. Vet was surprised because Freckles was not showing any physical characteristics of acro but as I found out, there are many cats who don't have the big paws or the protruding lower jaw.


That will probably be the case with my vet. The tech I talked to basically laughed at me over this. I told her that I am looking at the studies as we speak, and she said she would have the vet call but she had already spoken to him and said it was nothing I needed to worry about. I don't want to have to find a new vet but will if they wont "humor me" UGH! so frustrating.
 
Lots of articles listed in this post Acromegaly - the basics The one in post 7 is reasonably current and might be useful to send to the vet. This post is multiple topics, but current, and the second topic is about acromegaly (caused by hypersomatrotropism) and lists current treatments. (2020) Updates in Feline Diabetes Mellitus and Hypersomatrotropism

My vet was taught "here is acromegaly, it is rare" - as were most vets of a certain age. She thought I didn't need to test for until Neko's dose was much higher. It took a few tries and finally asking her to humour me to get the "exotic tests" done. She was surprised when I was right. Then did some research and found another acro at the clinic. I was glad she was up to looking things up, she also did a consult with the local internal medicine vet.
 
don't want to cause any trouble.

I just got an ear full from an angry woman in a facebook acro group. I don't have time before shot to go into details but she did bring up a point I would like to address.
back in july/aug I started upping buddys dose because I wanted to see "green" numbers but she said acording to the guidlines I never should have done that. His nadirs were low 100's and then when his numbers went all wonky I kept increasing the dose.
Um, Have I messed up and am now giving him too much?
 
Let me guess, her initials are GC? I wouldn't listen to people there on dosing, they don't think acrocats can be regulated. It's not true. Many of our acros (including Neko) do very well following Tight Regulation. The splinter group that started the FB group left here just before I started. They have some different ideas on many things. Regulation is good for higher dose cats too, especially acrocats. Acromegaly is hard on kidneys with physical changes possible, keeping them in high numbers is even harder on the kidneys.

The nature of insulin resistance, whether it be glucose toxicity, insulin auto antibodies, acromegaly that causes is, means that you can be constantly be changing doses as you chase good numbers. As an example, see Neko 2015. She was reasonably well regulated, though I was inching up in dose, the end of July her tumour growth took off again and I had to chase after the greens with dose increases.

If you want, feel free to PM me details. I won't do any dose discussions over PM, but I can talk about personalities/history.
 
@Wendy&Neko Thank you! I have absolutely no reason not to trust what you or anyone else here says. She just got my mind thinking. What if its not Acro? what if I have messed up. Would it be reasonable to want to back the dose off and see if that is what it is. In my mind I see that this wildness started when I got impatient that he wasn't going into remission, and not that his numbers were too high. Do I make sense?
 
Well She also told me that I shouldn't be following some sticky that "Jill" wrote and then gave me the "correct" guidelines. Which of course were the same guidelines. :/
 
Whether he's acro, IAA, glucose toxicity, or something else, the TR guidelines work. If he was overdosed, at some point you'd see him below 50. I might have held the 5.25 a little longer. He did get down to 54 on it which doesn't leave a lot of room for an increase, and we generally hold doses with green nadirs for 10 cycles. But if it was too much, Buddy will tell you.
 
Dang that's another place I missed. the one 50, for some reason I was thinking 3 to 5 cycles after the last green. Ugh. Is there any truth to the "Too much can LOOK like too little" ?

Also @Wendy&Neko just so you know after the way she spoke to me and about this forum I have no intentions to stick around in that group. I was just gathering info on acro and she hit me like a ton of bricks. But yes she got in my head and will take a bit to shake it off. I put on my best customer service hat and smile and let her rip, Meh. I am still a little lost. But I can't express how much I appreciate FDMB and everyone here.
 
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Is there any truth to the "Too much can LOOK like too little" ?
Only if either you start at too high a dose, increase by too large an amount, and don't test to see how low the dose is taking the cat, ie. primarily look at just preshots. None is true in your case. It's unfortunately one of those urban myths that floats around too much.

The reason I never went to that FB group was because of her "bedside manner" when here. :mad: Made me cry and almost give up. Let's just say I'm opinionated. :p
 
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