Chester - Need Advice

[Loripopernik]

Hi, all!

First time posting, thanks to my friend Jill and her sweetie Jade for the heads-up about FDMB.

Our 9 year-old cat, Chester, was diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago. His BG was over 500 and he was peeing a lot. We started him on one unit of Lantus 2x a day and immediately changed his diet to Fancy Feast wet cans. We tested his BG at home and about two weeks ago, his levels were in the normal range. Since then, we have given no insulin and thankfully his BG is still normal (I’ve been checking daily).

I was pretty excited about the possibility of remission, until today. I noticed he’s kind of losing his meow. He also seems to almost burp or gulp a bit when he’s purring. Also throwing up a couple times a week at night. I looked it up on the board and acro was mentioned. The thing that doesn’t make sense is that it sounds like acro is also when cats need high dosages of insulin, but Chester’s not on any insulin and has normal BG.

I’m going to call the vet tomorrow to check in... Anyone have any thoughts/advice? Thanks!

Lori

 

[Idjit's mom]

Hi and welcome Lori. A big hello to Jill and please thank her for referring you here. I remember Jill and Jade (with the beautiful green eyes very well).

It would be very helpful if you could create a signature so that Chester's information is available whenever you post:

Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

Now, since you have been testing Chester's blood sugar at home could you set up a spreadsheet and enter testing and insulin data so we can see how the last month progressed? I'm not sure it's going to relate to your recent concerns about Chester vomiting and the throat issues, but someone might ask to review and it will be available.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

I hope you can find some answers for sweet Chester, and can celebrate being OTJ (off the juice).

 

[Wendy&Neko]

One in four diabetic cats have acromegaly. If a cat has a higher dose, six units or above, it is likely they have a high dose condition, of which acromegaly is the more common. IAA and Cushings are the other. However, not all acros have high doses. There have been some on as little as one unit. Actually, there have been a few cases of acromegalic cats that were not diabetic. The pituitary tumour causing acromegaly can wax and wane, and there have been cases of a few cats reverting to non diabetic.

Having said all that, burping or gulping when purring doesn’t sound like a common acro symptom. What you hear is more like heavy breathy breathing and loud snoring. That is from soft tissue growth in the throat. Not all acros have the same symptoms.

You can get your vet to request the IGF-1 blood test to see if he does have a it. The blood goes to Michigan State University for the test.