Bob's Staff
Member
Hi, we are Bob (12 year old male cat) and his “servant” Kris 
. We live in Belgium and I ended up here after Bob’s recent diagnosis of acro and me looking for other acro cat parents to hear some experiences. I already posted this message elsewhere on the forum today, before having read the instructions for new members about first posts ... So my apologies for the confusion, for the first post on the wrong place and for not having read the instructions before posting ... I was too impatient to get help for my kitty boy 
What's this about? First a bit of context: Bob was already diagnosed earlier with congenital hypothyroidism, hyperaldosteronism, first stage HCM (echo has been repeated recently, nothing changed yet), and very first stage of kidney failure. To which was recently added: acromegaly (IGF-1: 645 ng/ml in January, >1000 ng/ml last month).
Bob doesn’t have diabetes yet (tests are done regularly), but I read a lot of posts here about acro cats being treated with cabergoline. Research about it is not very extensive, but sufficient for our university clinic in Ghent to decide to put our kitty on cabergoline to prevent him from developing diabetes and other discomfort due to his acro.
Our cabergoline was supplied in a bottle of 50 µg/ml, which is sold under the brand name “Galastop” in Belgium. Most research recommends a dose of 10 µg/kg so Bob was prescribed 1,1 ml for his 6,5 kg, to be administered every 24h. He got his first dose last week, only a few hours after which he became totally sleepy. No vomiting or diarrea, and he kept eating very (very!) well, like he’s always done since he has acro. He just had very “squinty” eyes with his third eyelid appearing all the time, like if he was being sedated for surgery. Our vet recommended to temporarily quit the cabergoline and restart with half the recommended dose (so 0,6 ml) every 48h as soon as he would be recovered from his first dose. It took him four days for his sleepiness to disappear and his eyes turn back to normal. Which made me wonder if half a dose will still not be too much, if he already needs 4 days to recover from a whole dose. So today we restarted, with a dose of only 0,4 ml to let his body get used to this stuff.
Anyway, this finally brings me to my question: are there any acro cat parents here who can tell me how long cabergoline side effects like sleepiness/mild sedation and GI problems last? The research says these side effects don’t last more than a week, but I worry too much when our Bob goes into “sedation mode” like that and I don’t feel comfortable giving next doses when he already feels like that, since I cannot see what’s going on inside his body ... Or should I continue anyway if he still becomes so sleepy after this 0,4 ml dose today, and is this a passing thing that will get better after a few days, when his body has gotten used to the cab?
I hope some cat parents here can help me out, since the research doesn’t specify much about side effects and they don’t have any experience with it in Ghent either …
Many thanks for sharing your experiences!
. We live in Belgium and I ended up here after Bob’s recent diagnosis of acro and me looking for other acro cat parents to hear some experiences. I already posted this message elsewhere on the forum today, before having read the instructions for new members about first posts ... So my apologies for the confusion, for the first post on the wrong place and for not having read the instructions before posting ... I was too impatient to get help for my kitty boy What's this about? First a bit of context: Bob was already diagnosed earlier with congenital hypothyroidism, hyperaldosteronism, first stage HCM (echo has been repeated recently, nothing changed yet), and very first stage of kidney failure. To which was recently added: acromegaly (IGF-1: 645 ng/ml in January, >1000 ng/ml last month).
Bob doesn’t have diabetes yet (tests are done regularly), but I read a lot of posts here about acro cats being treated with cabergoline. Research about it is not very extensive, but sufficient for our university clinic in Ghent to decide to put our kitty on cabergoline to prevent him from developing diabetes and other discomfort due to his acro.
Our cabergoline was supplied in a bottle of 50 µg/ml, which is sold under the brand name “Galastop” in Belgium. Most research recommends a dose of 10 µg/kg so Bob was prescribed 1,1 ml for his 6,5 kg, to be administered every 24h. He got his first dose last week, only a few hours after which he became totally sleepy. No vomiting or diarrea, and he kept eating very (very!) well, like he’s always done since he has acro. He just had very “squinty” eyes with his third eyelid appearing all the time, like if he was being sedated for surgery. Our vet recommended to temporarily quit the cabergoline and restart with half the recommended dose (so 0,6 ml) every 48h as soon as he would be recovered from his first dose. It took him four days for his sleepiness to disappear and his eyes turn back to normal. Which made me wonder if half a dose will still not be too much, if he already needs 4 days to recover from a whole dose. So today we restarted, with a dose of only 0,4 ml to let his body get used to this stuff.
Anyway, this finally brings me to my question: are there any acro cat parents here who can tell me how long cabergoline side effects like sleepiness/mild sedation and GI problems last? The research says these side effects don’t last more than a week, but I worry too much when our Bob goes into “sedation mode” like that and I don’t feel comfortable giving next doses when he already feels like that, since I cannot see what’s going on inside his body ... Or should I continue anyway if he still becomes so sleepy after this 0,4 ml dose today, and is this a passing thing that will get better after a few days, when his body has gotten used to the cab?
I hope some cat parents here can help me out, since the research doesn’t specify much about side effects and they don’t have any experience with it in Ghent either …
Many thanks for sharing your experiences!
