2/27 Chino|AMPS=369|+8=349|PMPS=384|+2=347|+4=278

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Adrian and Chino

Adrian and Chino

Member Since 2016
Yesterday...

2nd cycle on 6.5 units.

I think I might start looking for a vet that specializes in endocrinology or internal medicine. What I like most about his current vet is that the office is less than 5 minutes away from where I live, but we're not going to make any progress toward acro treatment as long as the vet won't admit that there is literally nothing else that would cause an IGF-1 of 2420 ng/mL.
 
Ugh on the current vets lack of knowledge, or even worse, not willing to learn. :arghh: I didn't go to an IM vet when Neko was DX'ed, although her vet set up an appointment for one. I decided instead to take Neko on the road to CSU and see IM vets that were regularly treating acrocats (and got SRT at the same time). Your regular vet wouldn't do any treatment anyway but for some treatments you need a vet to help.

My local IM vet wouldn't have treatments either, other than tell me she had acromegaly and what the possible treatments were. No matter whether or not you treat, the first objective is to keep increasing til you get to doses where they spend the majority of time under renal threshold. After that, the treatment options available in North America are SRT (stereostatic radiation therapy), Gammaknife (like SRT but on steriods), hypophysectomy (surgical removal of the pituotary) - only done at Washington State U, or drug treatments. Recent research at RVC (Royal Veterinary College) has found that the drug paseriotide has good results, preferable the long acting version. But it's very $$$ and my vet had a hard time even finding out how to get it - though that was two years ago. RVC is also trialling a new drug to see if it works, called cabergoline.

Anne/Hyde started a thread that lists some places and costs for treatment in the US. Whether or not you chose treatments depends on whether you can travel (for radiation therapy or surgery) and cost. Some of the treatment options also require time. SRT usually involves a week (one day exam followed by 3 days of radiation is typical), and I've heard the surgery can take up to two weeks stay for recovery.
 
Thank you for all of that information! I know that getting his BG under control is the top priority, but he's still far from regulated after 3 months on insulin... I start to feel like it's never going to happen without some type of divine or dramatic intervention. Every time I've seen green, I've held the dose for 6-8 cycles as advised, but I see nothing but pink and red until increasing again.
 
Well look at that...Chino & Doodles are dose buddies :rolleyes: The good news is you know he can work the juice. It's not "if" it's when will he do it the next time and hope it's soon. 3 months on insulin is nothing honestly especially with 2 additional medical conditions. Give him extra scritches for me.
 
Take a look at Neko's first year. It took much longer than 3 months to get regulated. And a lot of dose increases after first seeing green. But I was sometimes slow to increase and didn't have the support group or experience we have now with the numbers of acrocats here. And Karen is right, people with "just" diabetic cats often take longer than 3 months to see regulation. The favourite phrase around here for high dose kitties is that you have to be a tank. A tank aways gets where it's going. Just keep on going. You WILL get there. :bighug:
 
I fell asleep at some point around 1945 and woke up at 2050, thinking I'd missed my morning alarm and was 2 hours late with Chino's shot! Then I noticed that it was dark outside and remembered checking his BG earlier. His +2 was lower than the PMPS, which doesn't necessarily mean he'll go under 300 tonight, but it means there's at least a chance of it...
 
You'll get him to the dose that moves him. My opinion is that once you've seen what doesn't work - ie, holding the dose for 6-8 cycles when you first see green - it's ok to modify what you do to make it work for Chino. Go towards the shorter end of that range, say 6 cycles, and then increase if he hasn't gotten back to green during that time. That's being a tank, and that's what it takes for some of our high dose kitties.

hehe just saw your 201 pop up on his ss as I was looking for it. Looks like he's clearing a bounce tonight.
 
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