Newly diagnosed

Thomas is newly diagnosed with mild pancreatitis and probable acromealgy. He is a big boy and nearly 11 years old. It’s all been a bit of a whirl although he is very good with his insulin.
He was originally put on Senvelgo but didn’t do well at all and lucky not to have developed DKA. His glucose was however 30 and ketones too high to continue with Senvelgo, nearly a full bottle wasted which cost a fortune.
He has a wet diet with DM carbs lower than 8, no dry and not treats to help with his levels.
He inhales his food and gets me up all hours for food as I don’t leave anything out. He is on prozinc 1 unit x2 daily which he started on Friday. He has a libre freestyle monitor fitted to get a gauge what his glucose is doing. Back tomorrow for a weigh in, check and the data checked.
He has jumped from 9 on Friday to now 24.

 

Hello and welcome. Good thing you managed to avoid DKA with the Senvelgo! Being starving all the time is an acro sign, but also the sign of an unregulated diabetic. My girl had acromegaly, I had to cat proof the kitchen. Even food products cats normally don't eat. You might want to invest in an automatic feeder. I see you are in the UK, so not sure what brands are available there. In North America the Catmate and Petsafe 5 compartment feeders are good ones. I found Neko turned her attention to the feeder for food, instead of bugging me for it.

Do you have any particular questions or things you need help with? Some of the UK specific answers may be here:

• UK Diabetic Cat Food Info (includes some supplies) and UK Cat Food List

Are home testing? That's great if you are. If you are willing to share your test data, we might be able to help you get to a good insulin dose faster. Typically cats with acromegaly, if that's what he has, need much higher doses than 1 unit. To share test data, and other information that can help us, see this post:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

By the way, I did read your post on the acro forum before you deleted it. You don't need to get a brain scan. A test for IGF-1 can be useful however, and the blood test doesn't cost that much at Royal Vet College. There is a medication called cabergoline, given every day, or every other day, that is reasonably priced and can help if positive for acromegaly. The other treatments require travel and are quite costly in comparison, so quite a few people treat their acro cats just with the insulin they need and managing any side effects.

 

Thank you very much I think I have a cat mate somewhere which I have used when away for the day, it has ice packs to keep the food cool I believe.
I have a libre freestyle on loan from the vet to gather data which they will view tomorrow. I will see if a copy can be sent to me and if so I will send over.
My vet here in the UK says that unless Thomas is to have surgery there isn’t much point with expensive blood tests. Luckily I do have insurance but only so much per condition and don’t want to eat away at it. I am nearly up to my limit this year but fortunately it restarts next week. I have sourced some good food for him, Smilla diabeti 0 % DM, Smilla variety 4% DM, hi life tuna 3% DM and felix Doubly delicious fish at 8%/DM, so all below 10%

 

Surgery is pushed as the solution in the UK, but it is very spendy. The surgery at RVC is probably the best place in the world to get it. Cabergoline doesn't have as good results as surgery, but can help. We've had 4-5 cats go completely off of insulin, and most others get much better regulated on lower doses. However, the drug is not something you want to give unless you have a positive diagnosis for acromegaly with the IGF-1 test. The use of cabergoline is more recent than surgery, but we've had quite a few cats go on it.

Not sure which version of the Catmate you have, some have a place below the feeder to put a gel pack or ice cubes. Or you could put a ice cube on top of the food, and it'll keep it cool and add water.

 

Thomas was back at the vets today. His ketones are very low and his insulin, based on his data has been increased to 1.5 units. Because he still has his monitor patch on I can do some more readings on the 1.5 unit dose to see how we are doing
Back to clinic in 3 weeks unless otherwise. Today he played with me for the first time in ages, not huge quantities of urine and drinking more normally. The gut bucket is still eating a lot but not as much as he has been, weight stable at 5.75kg.
He is doing well so far

 

That all sounds like good progress. Good luck with this dose.

 

He is now on his 1.5 prozinc and his monitor still attached for readings. Glucose no change from previous dose but he seems well in himself. I have some ketone strips so I will keep an eye on those ketones.
I do worry about him

 

His ketones are 0 but glucose over 25. I am keeping a careful eye on him