Grayson & Lu
Very Active Member
I could swear I posted this last night, but I was exhausted from an entire day at the vet school, so I may have deleted it - no tellin!
As I've said previously, although the blood test at Michigan State U for IGF-1 is a good indicator of Acromegaly, it is not a "slam-dunk" diagnosis. Yesterday we met with the folks at NCSU Vet School for an abdominal ultrasound, to determine if his organs were enlarged. In addition, they ran a full blood panel, urine culture (C&S) and a 3-part test that checks B12/Folate/& something else - this one was run to determine if he has malabsorption issues like my dog Murphy had had. With this condition, they eat ravenously, usually have very liquid poops (his are large, but solid - normal), and their body is not getting the nutrients from their food. The B12/Folate/... was run to check for this, as his weight was the only thing really unusual for an Acro dx. Most Acros put ON weight!
So he had some enlarged organs, and some irregularities. Don't have a copy of the report yet, as it was nearly 8:30 when we finally wrapped up last night - should receive them today. Bottom line, not definitive, but in all likelihood, he's Acro. So, where do we go from here? First he'll have an insulin change. I can have my pick Lantus or Lev. At this point, I'm leaning toward Lev, but it's not etched in stone yet. The change will take place in a couple of weeks for scheduling reasons, and from an economic standpoint, it will enable me to use up most of my ProZinc - not that I couldn't find some willing recipients here! ;-). I'll crunch some numbers and then see if I can locate that machine in the basement Dad always talked about. :lol: If everything goes as I expect, we will probably proceed with the SRT. LOTS to read still, understand, consider... and even more, BIG decisions to make. So if I'm absent from the board, you'll know why.
Oh yes, one other thing... last night I gave more insulin than intended. I usually overfill the syringe, then push out some w/ the air bubbles. Anyways, as the last contents of the plunger went in, it occured to me - OH CRAP!!! Already exhausted, I managed to stay up w/ him til 1 am (+3.5 as his schedule got totally toasted by not being home to shoot at 6:30 - then he wouldn't eat - huh??? - is this the wrong cat?), then set the alarm for 2:45 (+5.3). He actually had some range for a change! Here are his numbers:
Thursday May 10
AMPS 517 Shot 4.0u
+.75 494
Vet school 10 am to 9:20 pm
PMPS (+15) 474
+2.5 396 RU371
+3.5 357 RU372
+5.3 307 RU319
...at this point, I'm thinking Limbo! How low will he go??? And at this point, I'm very thankful that he IS insulin resistant, as otherwise, I could've really had a hypo situation on my hands!
Friday, May 11
+11 297 RU 284 (thinking, "WOW, REALLY??? Yellow sure is pretty!!!"
AMPS (+12) 327 Shot 5.0u Wow, nice!
+3 301 RU268
I mistakenly thought that the larger dose broke the insulin resistance. It just demonstrated that he can handle those larger doses. But it sure was scary!!!
So - a good day to all - now let's get back to Chewy's party!!!
As I've said previously, although the blood test at Michigan State U for IGF-1 is a good indicator of Acromegaly, it is not a "slam-dunk" diagnosis. Yesterday we met with the folks at NCSU Vet School for an abdominal ultrasound, to determine if his organs were enlarged. In addition, they ran a full blood panel, urine culture (C&S) and a 3-part test that checks B12/Folate/& something else - this one was run to determine if he has malabsorption issues like my dog Murphy had had. With this condition, they eat ravenously, usually have very liquid poops (his are large, but solid - normal), and their body is not getting the nutrients from their food. The B12/Folate/... was run to check for this, as his weight was the only thing really unusual for an Acro dx. Most Acros put ON weight!
So he had some enlarged organs, and some irregularities. Don't have a copy of the report yet, as it was nearly 8:30 when we finally wrapped up last night - should receive them today. Bottom line, not definitive, but in all likelihood, he's Acro. So, where do we go from here? First he'll have an insulin change. I can have my pick Lantus or Lev. At this point, I'm leaning toward Lev, but it's not etched in stone yet. The change will take place in a couple of weeks for scheduling reasons, and from an economic standpoint, it will enable me to use up most of my ProZinc - not that I couldn't find some willing recipients here! ;-). I'll crunch some numbers and then see if I can locate that machine in the basement Dad always talked about. :lol: If everything goes as I expect, we will probably proceed with the SRT. LOTS to read still, understand, consider... and even more, BIG decisions to make. So if I'm absent from the board, you'll know why.
Oh yes, one other thing... last night I gave more insulin than intended. I usually overfill the syringe, then push out some w/ the air bubbles. Anyways, as the last contents of the plunger went in, it occured to me - OH CRAP!!! Already exhausted, I managed to stay up w/ him til 1 am (+3.5 as his schedule got totally toasted by not being home to shoot at 6:30 - then he wouldn't eat - huh??? - is this the wrong cat?), then set the alarm for 2:45 (+5.3). He actually had some range for a change! Here are his numbers:
Thursday May 10
AMPS 517 Shot 4.0u
+.75 494
Vet school 10 am to 9:20 pm
PMPS (+15) 474
+2.5 396 RU371
+3.5 357 RU372
+5.3 307 RU319
...at this point, I'm thinking Limbo! How low will he go??? And at this point, I'm very thankful that he IS insulin resistant, as otherwise, I could've really had a hypo situation on my hands!
Friday, May 11
+11 297 RU 284 (thinking, "WOW, REALLY??? Yellow sure is pretty!!!"
AMPS (+12) 327 Shot 5.0u Wow, nice!
+3 301 RU268
I mistakenly thought that the larger dose broke the insulin resistance. It just demonstrated that he can handle those larger doses. But it sure was scary!!!
So - a good day to all - now let's get back to Chewy's party!!!
... ) and decide what I'm going to do... although right now I have a pretty good idea.