New diagnosis

[Kayleegoose]

Unfortunately, it seems like Fluffy has been diagnosed with acromegaly. The vet called and left a voicemail before the holidays letting me know his IGH numbers were high and consistent with acro. I haven’t been able to talk to them because of the holidays so I don’t have exact numbers yet. Negative for IAA.

I’ve been checking out the options and I’m having a little trouble seeing what might work best based on others’ experience. The stickies seem old here and it also seems like a lot of people stop updating here after SRT or Cabergoline, so hard to tell if that’s for the better or for the worse. Results in the studies I’ve read seem mixed.

It seems like the logical start is to try Cabergoline and see if that works? My concern with it is that it doesn’t (from what I can tell) shrink the tumor at all? So if the tumor continues to grow, does it continue to cause problems for him? Or is it enough to use the medication to block the hormone and therefore stem the effects of the tumor?

I’m also considering whether or not to try to consult with a specialist. I’m worried about starting him on the medication when it doesn’t seem like my vet knows about it. The only thing they mentioned in the voicemail is that they’re comfortable taking his insulin dose up to “10 or even 12 units twice a day” but nothing about actual treatment options. If I’m going to rely on the vet for dosing and guidance, it makes me a little nervous.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Sorry to hear the diagnosis. But now you have an answer for his size of dose, and possibly the cause for the continued constipation too. Most important, there are treatments. Those treatments, from most expensive and harder to find to less costly and more available are surgery called hypophysectomy or removal of the pituitary gland, stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) or Cyperknife radiation, and a daily medication called cabergoline. You can search for those terms on this forum and see what others have done.

Sorry the Stickies are older - it's an overwhelming task to update them. Neko had SRT, cause at the time, it was the only treatment available.

Regarding insulin dose, when you do increases over total dose of 5-10 unit, you can increase by 0.5 units unless already seeing some numbers under 100, which would be a 0.25 unit increase.