Does Acromegaly run in families ?

John Irene and TITAN

John Irene and TITAN

Member
Our two cats are from the same litter of five. Here they are, Titan the male with the grey nose, and Misty the intelligent one, a female.

When we told their owners we wanted two, they said we should take Titan and one other, because he was the runt of the litter, and needed a sibling to take care of him. When we got them home, he didn’t even know how to eat solid food ! (aged six weeks) and Irene had to teach him.


In this picture, Titan is front right, and Misty is rear middle. Rear right is Tilly, who went to the parents of John’s sister-in-law. Those parents are sadly now both deceased, and after they died, Tilly was diagnosed as diabetic. She was given insulin injections, but was never controlled, and the injections were apparently ever-increasing. Eventually she became so unwell that she was put down.
With the benefit of hindsight and our experience with Titan, we are practically sure Tilly was an Acro cat. If not for google and finding you good folks of the FDMB, Titan may well have suffered the same fate as Tilly. We now have to watch out for Misty; but we have no idea how the other two litter mates are getting on.
Does anybody with an Acro cat have any history of litter-mate or sibling cats with the same affliction?
 
I have read in one of the RVC papers that there may be some heridatary component. But also environmental, possible exposure to PDBEs. The answer is not clear yet. That doesn't mean all siblings get it. You might want to ask the RVC doc when next you talk to them. I have heard of one person with an acro who recognized acro symptoms in a brother, but tested Ok for blood sugar. She had the cat tested, the IGF-1 was positive. There have been cats with pituitary tumours that are not yet diabetic, that was one of them.

And you can post kitten pictures anytime!
 
I don't know either. I do agree with Wendy - those are some very cute kitties. Titan was a cutie when he was a baby.
 
Last edited:
I had 3 cats from 1 family pass from endocrine neoplasias. The mother passed at 15 from a chemodectoma, an endocrine neoplasia on her heart. Very unusual in cats. One daughter may have passed from complications arising from Cushing's disease. Yum had acromegaly.
 
@Wendy&Neko , I am curious - are maine coons more likely to have acro? I am wondering since I've noticed a few Maine Coons on here have Acro, and since it's a large breed, I wonder if it's part of their (favorable) genetics?
 
I don't know what the percentage of Maine Coons (Neko was a cross) are of the general cat populations but this article has a table showing the break down of breeds in the large 1200 cat study done at Royal Veterinary College. Go down to Table 1 in the results section. 7% of the acros were long haired, 1.6% Maine Coon. Of course the data also shows no siamese acros, but we've had at least a couple, both female and they are also supposed to be in the minority.
 
I wouldn't be surprised. I know of sibling cats who were diabetic, so I wouldn't be surprised if the tendency for acromegaly is genetic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top