10/30 Chewie AMPS 109/ +2 96/ +3.5 78/ +6 92/ PMPS 112/ +3 113

Angela & Cleo said:
Phew! So happy to read this. :bighug::bighug::bighug:
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Thank you Angela :bighug: I was so worried and sad yesterday, cried so many tears wondering if maybe she was trying to tell me that she was done with all of this… Feeling more hopeful this morning. I am by nature very skeptical, but several friends highly recommended this animal communicator and we have a short phone call with her this afternoon to check on Chewie’s quality of life and wishes. Part of me chides myself for being so gullible, but the other part really hopes this does work and gives me a better idea of what Chewie wants. She’s always been very opinionated, no reason why she wouldn’t want to tell me what to do!
 
78 at +3.5 despite eating an entire can for breakfast and sooo many bites of scrambled eggs at +2.5
We need to leave in 30min to pick up a table and will be gone for a couple of hours so I’m going to give her a big mixed LC/MC snack to keep her from dropping too low.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
:bighug::bighug::bighug::cat: Please let us know how tomorrow's visit goes with the vet and what the Animal Communicator days today ♥
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I went into it SO skeptical... Did not give her any info at all, besides Chewie's name and the fact she was a cat, and that I was worried she might be nearing her time to go. I don't use social media, the only place public I talked about Chewie on would be here (but that would be quite an elaborate scam, and also she didn't mention diabetes). As you can see my skeptical brain is hard at work trying to second guess what was a truly amazing experience.

She opened directly by saying Chewie complained about her back legs and her back and how hard it was for her to get up. Since she hurt her back in March it's been difficult for her to get around, she was doing better before we moved, but I was afraid that the long drive plus having stairs here now might have re-aggravated it. I have been giving her gabapentin for the past two days, and it was on my list of things to address with the vet tomorrow.
Like I said in a previous post, I have been worried about her possibly having heart issues - the noisy, sometimes labored breathing, the heart murmur, her insulin resistance... the communicator said she feels pressure in her chest and it's harder to breathe and she felt her heart might be involved. That also was on my list for tomorrow, I wanted to ask the vet to run a NT-proBNP test and to evaluate her for possible cardiomyopathy or heart failure.

And then more incredibly specific, spot-on things: she wants her birdfeeder and her seat by the window (in our old apartments she could take her pet steps to coffee table, onto the couch and to the cat tree where a bird feeder was hanging, we haven't had time yet to set it up here), she hated the needles for her back (we tried acupuncture and laser therapy, I also tried massaging her) but loves the massage, I stopped giving her treats and that makes her sad (I did stop giving her glycoflex for fear of impacting her BG, and rarely give her freeze-dried for some reason)... the list goes on. I was dumbfounded. She vehemently isn't ready to go, so tomorrow I'll be focusing on getting her back pain treated (prescription for more gaba and maybe more laser therapy) and getting a thorough heart checkup. To be continued!
 
Virginie said:
I went into it SO skeptical... Did not give her any info at all, besides Chewie's name and the fact she was a cat, and that I was worried she might be nearing her time to go. I don't use social media, the only place public I talked about Chewie on would be here (but that would be quite an elaborate scam, and also she didn't mention diabetes). As you can see my skeptical brain is hard at work trying to second guess what was a truly amazing experience.

She opened directly by saying Chewie complained about her back legs and her back and how hard it was for her to get up. Since she hurt her back in March it's been difficult for her to get around, she was doing better before we moved, but I was afraid that the long drive plus having stairs here now might have re-aggravated it. I have been giving her gabapentin for the past two days, and it was on my list of things to address with the vet tomorrow.
Like I said in a previous post, I have been worried about her possibly having heart issues - the noisy, sometimes labored breathing, the heart murmur, her insulin resistance... the communicator said she feels pressure in her chest and it's harder to breathe and she felt her heart might be involved. That also was on my list for tomorrow, I wanted to ask the vet to run a NT-proBNP test and to evaluate her for possible cardiomyopathy or heart failure.

And then more incredibly specific, spot-on things: she wants her birdfeeder and her seat by the window (in our old apartments she could take her pet steps to coffee table, onto the couch and to the cat tree where a bird feeder was hanging, we haven't had time yet to set it up here), she hated the needles for her back (we tried acupuncture and laser therapy, I also tried massaging her) but loves the massage, I stopped giving her treats and that makes her sad (I did stop giving her glycoflex for fear of impacting her BG, and rarely give her freeze-dried for some reason)... the list goes on. I was dumbfounded. She vehemently isn't ready to go, so tomorrow I'll be focusing on getting her back pain treated (prescription for more gaba and maybe more laser therapy) and getting a thorough heart checkup. To be continued!
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Wow, I’m a total skeptic but I know lots of equestrians who use animal communicators and say it’s been life changing! If it helps why not!? Pretty amazing. Wishing you and Chewie a positive vet visit tomorrow!
 
Sorry I'm just catching up to Chewie's woes. Volunteered at a youth regatta yesterday and I am wiped! Anyway, a lot of what you described with Chewie really makes me think you should get the IGF-1 test done for acromegaly. If positive, there are treatments. And those treatments really do help some of the side effects, to the point they either diminish or go away. Knowing what you are dealing with gives you a path forward. Good luck with that vet appointment tomorrow.

Regarding the pain, Neko had bad arthritis, and adding buprenorphine to her list of meds made a world of difference. Greatly improved her QOL and got her playing and interacting with us again. I hope the vet goes for that gapabentin. She's still on a fairly small dose. Taking away pain can make a huge difference.
 
Virginie said:
I went into it SO skeptical... Did not give her any info at all, besides Chewie's name and the fact she was a cat, and that I was worried she might be nearing her time to go. I don't use social media, the only place public I talked about Chewie on would be here (but that would be quite an elaborate scam, and also she didn't mention diabetes). As you can see my skeptical brain is hard at work trying to second guess what was a truly amazing experience.

She opened directly by saying Chewie complained about her back legs and her back and how hard it was for her to get up. Since she hurt her back in March it's been difficult for her to get around, she was doing better before we moved, but I was afraid that the long drive plus having stairs here now might have re-aggravated it. I have been giving her gabapentin for the past two days, and it was on my list of things to address with the vet tomorrow.
Like I said in a previous post, I have been worried about her possibly having heart issues - the noisy, sometimes labored breathing, the heart murmur, her insulin resistance... the communicator said she feels pressure in her chest and it's harder to breathe and she felt her heart might be involved. That also was on my list for tomorrow, I wanted to ask the vet to run a NT-proBNP test and to evaluate her for possible cardiomyopathy or heart failure.

And then more incredibly specific, spot-on things: she wants her birdfeeder and her seat by the window (in our old apartments she could take her pet steps to coffee table, onto the couch and to the cat tree where a bird feeder was hanging, we haven't had time yet to set it up here), she hated the needles for her back (we tried acupuncture and laser therapy, I also tried massaging her) but loves the massage, I stopped giving her treats and that makes her sad (I did stop giving her glycoflex for fear of impacting her BG, and rarely give her freeze-dried for some reason)... the list goes on. I was dumbfounded. She vehemently isn't ready to go, so tomorrow I'll be focusing on getting her back pain treated (prescription for more gaba and maybe more laser therapy) and getting a thorough heart checkup. To be continued!
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This is fantastic! FWIW i contracted an animal communicator once for Lando as a very big skeptic. Even though i did not get soecific info that changed my mind, i found it comforting and reassuring to have someone tell me that Lando knew and felt that i loved him. That was worth the money whether it was real or not ;). I hope you had a similar feeling. KEEP UP THE GOOD STUFF CHEWIE!!
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Sorry I'm just catching up to Chewie's woes. Volunteered at a youth regatta yesterday and I am wiped! Anyway, a lot of what you described with Chewie really makes me think you should get the IGF-1 test done for acromegaly. If positive, there are treatments. And those treatments really do help some of the side effects, to the point they either diminish or go away. Knowing what you are dealing with gives you a path forward. Good luck with that vet appointment tomorrow.
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Glad you had a good time at the regatta - sounds like fun :)
For the acromegaly, the more I read about symptoms the more confused I get. Chewie has none of the physical features described, and she did lose a good bit of weight before getting on insulin. Is it common for acrocats to have very few outwardly symptoms? Maybe when the disease occurs at an older age?
The Portland vet kept trying to dissuade me by saying it was a very expensive test and treatment wasn’t very helpful or affordable. Would you be able to give me pointers on that front? I started reading the acro forum stickies, but already know I wouldn’t want to do surgery or radiotherapy. That leaves cabergoline?
 
Never mind I’m reading through all the super detailed info in this thread now :cat:
I will ask the vet for the test tomorrow. I’m most worried about Chewie’s breathing, does the cabergoline help relieve cardiac issues or do they need different meds still?
Also forgot to say, Chewie had bupe right after her injury and it really knocks her out. Both her and her brother seem to do a lot better with gabapentin than bupe, not sure why.
 
Virginie said:
Is it common for acrocats to have very few outwardly symptoms?
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I've seen a paper that said only 35% had clinical symptoms on diagnosis. You've seen stridor, that's a common one. Neko's only symptoms were her dose, hunger, and one teary eye - which I didn't find out until much later was from soft tissue growth on her tear duct.

I haven't seen a lot of cabergoline cats with cardiac issues, so can't answer that question. It may help prevent or reduce ongoing organ growth making progressions slow. You may need both types of meds eventually. The first ever cabergoline kitty here, Marvin, who went OTJ, did eventually have heart issues while in remission. Stridor or noisy breathing is not be heart related, but rather due to soft tissue growth in the pharynx. I've heard of cab cats having that get better.

Some cats do better on gaba, some on bupe. Gaba did nothing for Neko. You also have to get the bupe dose right, or it will knock them out. Had an emergency weekend vet give me some bupe for my non diabetic cat, and it was way overdose. He walked like a drunken sailor until it wore off.
 
Virginie said:
I went into it SO skeptical... Did not give her any info at all, besides Chewie's name and the fact she was a cat, and that I was worried she might be nearing her time to go. I don't use social media, the only place public I talked about Chewie on would be here (but that would be quite an elaborate scam, and also she didn't mention diabetes). As you can see my skeptical brain is hard at work trying to second guess what was a truly amazing experience.

She opened directly by saying Chewie complained about her back legs and her back and how hard it was for her to get up. Since she hurt her back in March it's been difficult for her to get around, she was doing better before we moved, but I was afraid that the long drive plus having stairs here now might have re-aggravated it. I have been giving her gabapentin for the past two days, and it was on my list of things to address with the vet tomorrow.
Like I said in a previous post, I have been worried about her possibly having heart issues - the noisy, sometimes labored breathing, the heart murmur, her insulin resistance... the communicator said she feels pressure in her chest and it's harder to breathe and she felt her heart might be involved. That also was on my list for tomorrow, I wanted to ask the vet to run a NT-proBNP test and to evaluate her for possible cardiomyopathy or heart failure.

And then more incredibly specific, spot-on things: she wants her birdfeeder and her seat by the window (in our old apartments she could take her pet steps to coffee table, onto the couch and to the cat tree where a bird feeder was hanging, we haven't had time yet to set it up here), she hated the needles for her back (we tried acupuncture and laser therapy, I also tried massaging her) but loves the massage, I stopped giving her treats and that makes her sad (I did stop giving her glycoflex for fear of impacting her BG, and rarely give her freeze-dried for some reason)... the list goes on. I was dumbfounded. She vehemently isn't ready to go, so tomorrow I'll be focusing on getting her back pain treated (prescription for more gaba and maybe more laser therapy) and getting a thorough heart checkup. To be continued!
Click to expand...
Wow some of what she said was amazing
 
Wendy&Neko said:
I've seen a paper that said only 35% had clinical symptoms on diagnosis. You've seen stridor, that's a common one. Neko's only symptoms were her dose, hunger, and one teary eye - which I didn't find out until much later was from soft tissue growth on her tear duct.

I haven't seen a lot of cabergoline cats with cardiac issues, so can't answer that question. It may help prevent or reduce ongoing organ growth making progressions slow. You may need both types of meds eventually. The first ever cabergoline kitty here, Marvin, who went OTJ, did eventually have heart issues while in remission. Stridor or noisy breathing is not be heart related, but rather due to soft tissue growth in the pharynx. I've heard of cab cats having that get better.
Click to expand...

Wow, vets are so far behind (again) on that condition… listening to them, a cat could not have acromegaly without all those symptoms.
Chewie (and her brother Wicket) have always been loud breather, but over the past few years hers has become progressively louder, on one occasion she even “lost her meows” for over a month. Could only let out short squeaks (and this is a cat who has spent her entire life yelling at everything all day long). The vet was stumped and didn’t seem super interested in figuring it out. Said it was probably allergies. If she turns out to have acromegaly, this being related would indicated it has been so for years.

I took videos of her breathing at rest Saturday, to show the vet today. I really hope the visit will be productive.

On a gross and unrelated note, we paid dearly for using MC yesterday: Chewie woke us up at 6.30am with the absolute foulest diarrhea I have ever had the misfortune of smelling. I guess we are stuck with LC and honey now. This wasn’t even FF, but a Wellness minced flavor she used to occasionally eat with no issues before her diagnosis. What a way to start a Monday :blackeye:o_O
 
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