New Acro diagnosis for my cat, Darcy

Hello. I want to introduce myself and my cat, Mr. Darcy. Darcy was diagnosed officially as being Acro (IAA negative) on February 8. He's up to 14 units of Lantus so far. I have been on the Lantus forum and am not sure if I should post here or there. I thinks some of you are in both places? I am interested in trying Cabergoline; I need to get my vet to go along with it though. That remains to be seen. I have to say though, that I will find another vet, if necessary, to prescribe the Cabergoline. I have a very good working relationship with my vet and really like her. She's been willing to practice what I call "practical veterinary medicine" in the past.

This has been a very frustrating experience so far. When Darcy was first diagnosed last June, I thought.... okay... so I'm just going to need to give him insulin... high blood glucose levels will go down.... he will feel much better and be much healthier... easy peasy... no worries! Boy, was I wrong! Three different insulins and a DKA and hepatic lipidosis and more than five thousand dollars later... we still have BGs that won't budge. Hopefully, we are getting on the right track with the help of the wonderful people on this Board!

Anyway, hello to all of you high dose cat parents out there!

 

Most of the peeps post here for things that are specific to acromegaly, and in the insulin groups for dosing. This forum is not so active for day to day things.

 

Has Darcy been diagnosed for Acromegaly via an IGF-1 test? If so when and what was value? Also same for Insulin Autoantibodies (IAA).
Here is info 9n Cabergoline.
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/cabergoline-acro-iaa-information.237336/

I agree that Darcy's SS shows little change in BG throughout the day. I also note that the SS shows lower BG at lower dose but that flat BGs too.
Have you been increasing dose yourself based on the BGs or was you vet involved? (my vet is not involved in my dosing).

What insulins were tried?
With the other insulins were BGs higher or lower than present and were BGs flat?

 

Hi. Darcy’s IGF-1 was over 500. IAA was negative. I don’t have the paper for that one with me right now. We started on Vetsulin. Moves on to ProZinc. Then Lantus November 14, 2020.

 

You really need to get the BGs down. Continue to increase the dose is prudent as in starting carboline. Most high-dose cate use Levemir since Lantus dents to sting at high doses.

 

Yes. Thank you! We are working on getting BG down. Easier said than done, unfortunately .
I am working with Wendy and others on adding in some R to try to get the numbers down. We’ve Been fighting this battle pretty aggressively. We just haven’t had a breakthrough yet. Thanks for the Cabergoline thread!

 

And so far Darcy does not react AT ALL to his Lantus dose. I really expected that he would. I’ve spoken with my vet about switching to Lev in the future if it becomes a problem. Right now, my first priority is to get her to write me the Rx for Cabergoline.

 

Some caretakers use R insulin as a booster in addition to their basal insulin which is usually Levemir to quickly bring down BGs. I myself use N. I can get a 10ml vial of N from Walmart for about $30 (las year it was less than $25). No script is required. I do not think a script is required for R either. Walmart seems to have the lowest prices and they sell Novolin brand. Eli Lilly's Humanin brand is a lot more expensive.

 

Thanks. I dod get some R at Wal-Mart for $24.88 at Wal-Mart.

 

Oh, by the way, what’s the real difference between R and N? TIA!

 

Larry, do you have any cats on Cabergoline? What has been your experience/ success with it? Has it worked for your cats to help them?

 

R is shorter acting than N. We use R to bring the numbers down a bit, to let the L insulin have a lower number to work with. There would be more overlap between the N and L action if you used both together. N still doesn't act long enough for a basal insulin, though we do get some cats starting here on Novolin N. Good insulin for dogs though. Another big difference between the 2 is level of documented experience using N vs. R as a bolus insulin.

 

Thanks for explaining. I see quite a few newly diagnosed cats who are sent home with Novolin of one sort or another... not a good insulin for starting on insulin. I'm just surprised at how often I read about this. Even when Darcy was started on Vetsulin, it only lasted for 4-6 hours in him.

 

I started adding N to Snuffles Levemir when his BG continued to rise when increasing the Levemir dose. This was when he was on 5 units. He saw little drop in BG with only the Levemir. I then added some N and got a good drop. The N was only about $27 for 10ml from Walmart so I thought I wouod give it a try and it worked and I am continuing to use it. I previously used N on other of my cats especially my previous aero cat MurrFee.