New Acro diagnosis...Breathing issues

Howiesmom

Howiesmom

Active Member
My Howie just got a diagnosis of acromegaly after a retest. His original test results were an 83 in September but his new results came in at 532 today.

He has recently started snoring and sneezing a lot lately and I know that acro kitties can have changes in their tongue/palate that can cause snoring. However, it now sounds like he is wheezing while he is breathing and his purring almost sounds like gurgling in the last 2 days. I have an appt scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) morning with the vet I don't like (my vet is gone until Thursday) to check this out for a possible upper respiratory infection. But could this also be anything with acro? Or something else? If it is an upper respiratory, are there any diabetic considerations I need to remind the vet about in treating it?

As for his acro dx, I'm not shocked but am saddened by it. He starts 55u BID of Levemir tomorrow although lives in yellows and blues mostly (has never hit a green yet). Once the vet gets back, then we'll connect to get a game plan together. I forwarded him several links to forum chats about acro and Cabergoline that @Wendy&Neko has posted since Howie will be his first acro kittie. I will definitely be posting more once I can speak with him. THANKS!
 
Wow that's a huge difference!! I wonder if the first test was incorrect. My cat definitely snores LOUD. Lol. She doesn't wheeze though. I would be concerned about uri. Until you get to the vet I would stem up a bathroom or put her with a vaporizer.
 
Sorry about the diagnosis, :bighug: but I had a feeling with the dose. I haven't seen any IAA alone kitty get near that.

@JanetNJ If you test for acromegaly too soon after starting insulin treatment, you can get false negatives. I saw a study saying as many as a 1/3. Though you are right that is a huge difference for such a short period of time.

What you are probably hearing is called stridor, which is reasonably common in acros. You can find examples on Youtube. Neko at the end just had a light stridor, from soft tissue growth in the pharynx. It was more "wheezy" sounds on her inhale.

As for URI, the only thing for diabetes is if you get antibiotics and making sure it's not in a sugar syrup.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Sorry about the diagnosis, :bighug: but I had a feeling with the dose. I haven't seen any IAA alone kitty get near that.

@JanetNJ If you test for acromegaly too soon after starting insulin treatment, you can get false negatives. I saw a study saying as many as a 1/3. Though you are right that is a huge difference for such a short period of time.

What you are probably hearing is called stridor, which is reasonably common in acros. You can find examples on Youtube. Neko at the end just had a light stridor, from soft tissue growth in the pharynx. It was more "wheezy" sounds on her inhale.

As for URI, the only thing for diabetes is if you get antibiotics and making sure it's not in a sugar syrup.
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Just listened/watched videos and I’m not sure that’s what it sounds like. I hope tomorrow’s vet knows what’s she is doing. I’d like to wait for my regular vet but don’t have time away from work at the end of the week. He’s eating fine and going to the bathroom fine. If he’s had other strange breathing things previously and wasn’t pretty lethargic, I would reconsider the appt.
 
Get the vet to take a listen to his heart too. Also, count the number of RR (resting respirations) per minute at home when he's resting. Count the complete in and out breath as one cycle. I used my phone timer to count a minutes worth. You want the number to be in the 20-30 range per minute. Acros can have heart issues, odd breathing plus lethargy just means it's something to be checked out.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Get the vet to take a listen to his heart too. Also, count the number of RR (resting respirations) per minute at home when he's resting. Count the complete in and out breath as one cycle. I used my phone timer to count a minutes worth. You want the number to be in the 20-30 range per minute. Acros can have heart issues, odd breathing plus lethargy just means it's something to be checked out.
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Great recommendations. Thank you so much!
 
I'm so sorry to hear about Howie's diagnosis. I know how sad and difficult it is. My cat Valentino definitely has weird breathing sounds related to the acro, which he was diagnosed with in November. It seems to be worse some times more than others. It can sound sort of disturbing. Could be with wheezing that it is more than that for him.
 
Tillie and Valentino said:
I'm so sorry to hear about Howie's diagnosis. I know how sad and difficult it is. My cat Valentino definitely has weird breathing sounds related to the acro, which he was diagnosed with in November. It seems to be worse some times more than others. It can sound sort of disturbing. Could be with wheezing that it is more than that for him.
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Thanks! I appreciate hearing your experience. His snoring started a couple weeks ago but the strange breathing started a couple days ago along with lethargy.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Get the vet to take a listen to his heart too. Also, count the number of RR (resting respirations) per minute at home when he's resting. Count the complete in and out breath as one cycle. I used my phone timer to count a minutes worth. You want the number to be in the 20-30 range per minute. Acros can have heart issues, odd breathing plus lethargy just means it's something to be checked out.
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Just counted and his respirations are 16-18/min. Close enough to normal or something to be concerned about? Thanks!
 
Close enough to normal, Neko hung out on the low side. I'd be more worried if high. But now you have a number to give the vet, since it's likely stress will make it higher at the clinic.
 
Well...mostly good news from the vet today. No fluid in/around the lungs and his heart sounds fine from what she can tell without doing XRays. He has some inflammation near his tonsils. So he is on cerenia to help with the inflammation and cough (I had no idea that did more than anti-nausea!!) and Azithromycin as a pre-caution to hopefully prevent it from becoming something worse. I'm glad I went in. Also, if you didn't see my post in the L/L forum, he hit GREEN for the first time ever at +5!!! He rang in at 83 :) Thanks for all your help with this breathing thing. So much to learn and talk about with his acro dx, but hitting green when he just started 55u this morning feels pretty darn good!
 
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