New Acro kitty

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kwhite

kwhite

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Hi everyone -
I just joined a few days ago. My name is Kristen and my acro cat is Calvin. male orange tabby, approx 12 years old. He was diagnosed with diabetes 9/2010 and acro 11/2010. His IGF-1 was 477. He is currently on prozinc 10u BID. We are not home testing (yet - going to talk to vet about it tomorrow, along with many other things!). We are considering treatment at UC Davis or a local vet that has the same machine as Davis, but not sure what that is going to cost. What I really want to do before that can happen is get his BG under control as we have never gotten his numbers down to a good level. After reading what I have here, I don't know how we could ever do that without home testing. He is also on reg. food - Fancy Feast (several varieties) and Royal Canin kibble (old cat formula). I'm also noticing from everything here that his diet should probably be changed. He has longer/bigger back legs/feet and his front paws look bigger too. I don't notice any real change in his head. He also has some trouble jumping/walking. I thought it was because of his new longer legs/bigger feet, but after seeing info here, I think it might be Neuropathy.
That is all I can think of right now. I am still learning and reading everything on this site. I am working on an email to my vet (she works Sun-Wed, so want it in her inbox when she gets in tomorrow) re: home testing, diet and anything else any of you can recommend I talk/ask about.

Thanks,
Kristen
 
OMG, I cannot imagine having an acro kitty and not hometesting so kudos to you for understanding that this is needed! and soon please!!!! just because he is an acro kitty doesn't mean you cannot overdose him...

there is an insulin support group specifically for high dose/acro kitties. PLEASE check out the information there and post about yourself

glad you found us

Jen
 
Hi and welcome.

Very glad that you are going to start hometesting. If you'd like some recommendations on meters, let us know.

Here's a link with info on Acro, you probably know much of it already, but just in case:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=375

I'm not very familiar with Acro, but many of us can help you with food recommendations and get you started with learning to hometest.

This link will take you to the hometesting information, it has videos and other great info:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287
 
Hi Kristen, and welcome to FDMB

I also sent you a friend request on FB -

Ask about the type of radiation machine they use and the course of treatments --- several of our acro-cats here have been to CSU - Colorado State Univ to have "stereotactic radiation" (SRS) done on the pituitary tumor with great success.

The treatments take one week - the first day is for evaluation / CT scan to program the radiation computer. Then the radiation is given the next days -

The SRS is extremely tightly focused radiation to prevent damage to surrounding brain tissue, and "fractions" can be given on subsequent days.

We discovered Norton's acromegaly too late for SRS treatment.
 
That treatment sounds very much like what my vet described as being done at UC Davis. She also said that a place near my house has the same machine that Davis uses. I'm still trying to get time and $$ estimates for this. But I don't want to do anything to Calvin until we get his numbers under control. And honestly, I'm not sure we can afford the procedure at Davis/local place. We will see once we have all the info.

Thanks for all the info from everybody here and on FB.
Kristen
 
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