excess of cortisol, growth hormone or inflammatory reaction

[Marshmallow's Mom]

I wanted to relate something from my excellent all-feline vet:

"It is strange that he was better with the lower dose than the current dose so there may be some other factors that we can't control for. There are more hormones that increase blood glucose and only insulin which decreases blood glucose. (If he is producing excess of cortisol, growth hormone or has an inflammatory reaction it can make it much harder to regulate with insulin.)"

How does one test for excess of cortisol, growth hormone or an inflammatory reaction? I'm going to look into it and will report what I find.

 

[Kris & Teasel]

Cushing's disease - excess cortisol
Acromegaly - excess growth hormone
Inflammatory reaction - pancreatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, any type of infection
Auto-insulin antibodies can also form and cause very erratic responses to insulin.

There are tests that can be done for Cushing's and acromegaly, although they might have to go to specialty labs. There are quite a few "acro" cats here on FDMB. Some the owners have had the special testing done and some treat "as if" with high doses of insulin. True acro cats usually have physical signs like enlarged jaw, thickening in throat tissues, etc.

 

[Marshmallow's Mom]

Thank you, Kris!

I asked my vet if he thought what I should do next, other than raise his dose of insulin.

I think that Marvin shows the general symptoms shown here, but he doesn't have an enlarged jaw or thickening in the throat issues that I can tell, although he does eat very slow and somewhat tentative. His teeth should be ok, they were cleaned in December and checked again late May at his physical.