Post pituitary surgery discussion of medication - We said goodbye

Wendy&Neko said:
How high did his sugars get? Did he have any other signs like peeing and drinking? His coat looks pretty good.
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I tested him a few times within those few months and it was around 350. Yes he was drinking and peeing A LOT. But he also is still on desmopressin and has the water concentration issues from the surgery, so Dr. McCue didn’t want to call it diabetes too early I guess. Plus he was on an increased dose of Pred. because we took him to the ER maybe 5 months ago or so after having bad diarreah, and the vet said he thinks he has either small cell lymphoma or IBD. But the weird thing is... I’m still not convinced of that because this happened right after he threw up A LOT of plastic... he was just so hungry that he started eating plastic, and he got into thick larger ziplock bags. I think his stomach hurt for a while before he threw it up because it was so much. Anyway I assumed that was the reason for the diarrhea as well, but the ER vet said they were two completely different things and he thinks he has small cell lymphoma or IBD... still not convinced because since then I have tried to reduce his Pred. Back to his normal amount and he hasn’t had any diarrhea at all.

Olive & Paula said:
Just a week or two ago someone posted about the fur turning red. Or maybe it was the FB page. It was a simple remedy. Maybe post the question in both places.

Shmee looks very comfortable. Could the teeth have caused his sugar to go up? I thought since gland was removed diabetes wasn't possible.
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Very interesting about others experiencing the color change! I will try and find that. I asked about the teeth problems and his BGs, and both vets sensed to think it wouldn’t make it go as high as his was, but it could’ve definitely had an impact on it. I waited to start him on insulin until about five days after his teeth were done, just to see if his blood sugar would go down at all, and if didn’t so I started the insulin. About the tumor - it can grow back.. :/ and the only way to tell for sure if it’s back is to get another IGF test, but I don’t want to spend the $300 to do that test again. He could’ve also developed diabetes... he got very big after surgery and just didn’t want to get up at all. He was always just lying by his food, not in a very good mood. Didn’t (and still doesn’t) want to play at all. Didn’t really move around. He does move around more now, not a lot, but definitely better than before. I don’t think it’s acromegaly again, because so far the insulin is working well. Today he is up to 1.5 and got down to 76. So it seems like his dose won’t have to go as high as it did before with the tumor.

JeffJ said:
Hi Amanda - overall a pretty good status for Shmee. Maybe he has pancreatic (normal) diabetes now. I'm glad to hear his mood has settled and that he is more affectionate now.

Dental issues happen with lots of aging cats. Our kitteh Little Dude was a rescue cat, estimated 5-8 years old upon adoption in 2016. He had teeth removed then, and more teeth removed last year from adsorption. My point is that cats don't have the cleanest mouths and tooth loss happens. In case anyone needs a dose of cuteness, here is Little Dude from this week.

Little Dude rolling around on the deck
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Soooo cute!! Glad to see Little Dude is doing well! Such a soft belly. You’re right about the regular diabetes, this is a definite possibility.
 
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Coat colour change, from black to red, can be a result of poor absorption. ie. from IBD or small cell lymphoma. Seen it now three times in a row with black and whites. :rolleyes: GI issues are quite common with acros, both Neko and Leo for two, I could name others. If he had an ultrasound, they would have seen bowel wall thickening, though the pred can disguise it. You can't really diagnose whether it's IBD or small cell, until he's off of pred. It is good to know what you are dealing with, as the treatments are different, though pred can be one of the things given for both.

Glad to hear his numbers are being well controlled this time.
 
Amanda & Shmee said:
I don’t think it’s acromegaly again, because so far the insulin is working well. Today he is up to 1.5 and got down to 76. So it seems like his dose won’t have to go as high as it did before with the tumor.
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Hi Amanda
Sorry to hear that Shmee is back on the insulin, but relieved to hear that he is responding. I still remember vividly the feeling of panic when Titan seemed not to react at all to the insulin doses.
Good luck with the new way of life.
Titan is still OK. He is quite fat and enjoys his food. At 15 years old he is not as fast as he was, and nothing like as fast as his sister. He purrs a lot and seems happy. But he still drinks a lot of water and pees buckets. In fact he seems to be be drinking more than ever. We are a little concerned about his kidneys. Yesterday Irene did a blood glucose and it was 5.6, right at the bottom of the blue zone, so we are not concerned about that.
We are 20 months or so post surgery, and very grateful for all the good times we have had together since then.
Greetings to Sue and Jeff and Wendy !
 
Wendy is spot-on about the intestinal issues - acro causes lots of problems there. Leo had thickened intestinal walls, and of course small cell lymphoma.

Titan's report - so glad to hear he doing so well. The time sure passes quickly - wow, 20 months. I'm a bit surprised he is going thru so much water. But that's a small issue compared to the larger acro issue that got resolved. You are so right - 20 months post-surgery is something to be happy about.

I guess since you guys and Titan are on an island - your relative isolation is somewhat of a good thing for Covid controls.
 
Hi All, Eric is coming up for a year now post his pituitary removal surgery at RVC. He is doing well and leading a normal life, his coat has returned to the silver grey and all the redness in his fur has gone, his coat feels much softer. He still takes a half of a 100mg desmopressin tablet every 8 hrs, I tried to reduce to every 12 hrs but his drinking and urinating increased. In addition to this he has a quarter of hydrocortisone 10mg tablet and .08ml Levothyroxine every 24 hrs. I have just had his T4 tested which is showing high, my vet said 137 (I didn't catch units?), so I'm waiting for RVC to advise adjustments to meds. We are due to go to RVC for ATCH test in August so guess they will check T4 again then.

Eric was diagnosed with Cushings and was never diabetic.

I hope you don't mind me joining in conversation as others have said it is good to hear how your kitties have progressed post op.
 
That is great news about Eric. Especially about his fur and general health. i'm glad the surgery went well. There have not been many surgery cases reported in the U.S. because of the expense.
 
So sorry to see that Shmee is back on insulin and still not himself. Hang in there. But good to hear that Titan is doing ok. And I didn't know about Eric, so good to hear that his surgery went well.

Sophie is, as always, a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. Healthwise, she is doing quite well - we're stabilized on thyroid and steroid levels, since we saw Dr. McCue last year. She is on needle juice of desmo every 36 hours, but my gut is saying that she just needs to take her own sweet time with this. She is starting to use the litter box instead of pee pads, although she continues to stubbornly poop on the pads. Her coat is much thicker and lush than it has ever been, but its taken a good year for it to get this way.

The major change, though, has been her personality. She is actually becoming quite affectionate and likes to sit with my spouse on the couch in the morning. We also brought another cat into the household (another girl) in December, and they are getting along fine. It took a while before Sophie learned that she wasn't allowed to steal Angie's food, but she now understands that she has to wait and, if Angie leaves something, she can have it.

Her weight is stable at 12.5 lbs. She had been looking porky, but, with the decrease in steroid, she is more muscular, though not svelte, but she is a big girl and doesn't look fat. She gets a third of a can of Fancy Feast pate four times a day and gets a half of a freeze dried chicken neck as a treat a few times a week. My spouse does spoil her and gives her a bit of lunch meat or cheese while she is making her lunchtime sandwich and we give her the butter dish to lick clean. But, no more issues with counter surfing, though she does like to watch while we cook. Still, we don't have to be anal anymore about cleaning everything up before we actually eat. Amazingly, she does finally seem to have some brakes on her behavior when it comes to food.

Its been almost 2 years, though. I often get discouraged with the fact that she is still on desmo, but I just have to keep reminding myself that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Like we are going through now with the Covid-19 process.....
 
Wow, it has been 2 years already. And almost 2 years for Shmee as well.

Nice to hear this great report about Sophie. Overall, those sound like pretty minor issues. And the eating issues (begging etc) seem to happen with non-diabetic cats too. Scoobs (GA) used to beg and try to get food persistently, and he wasn't diabetic. It is great to hear that Sophie's personality is affectionate as well. You are lucky - she is getting along with the new kitteh. We still have Chinus and Little Dude, and Chinus is so mean - she really doesn't like our orange puffball Little Dude.
 
Titan's Two Year Report
It's nearly all good news. His general well being continues to improve slowly. Apart from excessive drinking and deafness he is a perfectly normal 15 year old cat. He is a very happy cat, purrs whenever he meets a human, goes outside to patrol and mark his territory, eats well, plays with his sister most mornings, comes to find us and sit with us at regular times of day. He has developed a liking for Goat's cheese and Goat's Yoghurt, and can be quite vociferous in asking for a taste.
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Wow Titan looks fab and great to hear his 2 year check up went well. Thank you for all the updates reading these and others convinced me to go ahead with hypophysectomy for Eric, it is now 13 months since op and I have no regrets he leads a normal life. All generally fine but he is losing weight, bloods revealed his T4 was very high 138! We reduced the Leventa to 0.02 and still T4 in 70’s. So now we have stopped all together the last 3 weeks. We went to RVC for blood tests last Thursday and awaiting results .
 
Great reports on Titan and Eric. And a great picture of Titan relaxing and enjoying life.
 
Paws and Fingers crossed, Soph might FINALLY be off of desmopressin, only 50 months post surgery..... She had been getting nj of desmo every 36 hours for quite a while, probably at least 18 months. Just recently I had been able to get samples pretty regularly and was getting urine Specific Gravities of 1.20 to 1.022 +32 hours etc. after her shot. This is the only way we are able to objectively test to see how well our post-surgical felines are doing with regards to level of that medication. Then, voila, just recently, got a 1.024 @ + 45 after I started doing 48 hour cycles instead... This is a Magic Number as Dr. McCue had indicated that when she is able to generate specific gravity in the mid 1.02's, we could consider her to be OTJ with regards to desmo.

I had just started the 48 hr cycles the last week in October. You can check out her spreadsheet. Please note that I have just started recording her weight several times a day during the past few days, as I have had her on a diet for at least the past month, and she really doesn't seem to be losing. I did a little research on desmopressin, and noted that side effects include water retention, and lethargy. Started wondering if her body was jettisoning the excess fluid in her tissues as the desmo dosage wore off. Today she just passed 60 hours since her last minuscule shot, and she is drinking and peeing like a normal cat.

Just want to pass on my observations in case they are of use of anyone else. All of the experience with regards to insulin and weaning from that drug DO apply to weaning from the desmo...Hopefully others can follow the same process. And, as always, it takes an extreme amount of patience....
 
Almost 4 days into Sophie's weeklong off the desmo trial, sg of 1.018 today. Not a deal breaker. Hoping for other samples within the next few days before the week is up. Like with weaning from insulin, weaning from desmo is data driven. And the only easy data to obtain is urine specific gravity. That and observing her behavior. She is definitely more perky not having had a shot for close to 4 days, and it shows me that the desmo, even though it is just a tiny little amount in the form of needle juice (which vets like to call hub shot), she has significant reaction to it. TG I have the info from everyone on how they wean their kitties from insulin and my own experience with this to draw on as the process DOES apply, just moves at a different pace. And, as always, ECID!!!
 
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That is great news. ~25 months after pituitary removal. Sophie has been one of those cases that Dr. McCue probably would like to use as a great success story. I hope the OTJ off desmopressin lasts. It is odd how each cat responds differently to the same procedures.
 
Well, not OTJ yet. Stopped at 60 hrs in, still, she is giving me 1.022 -1.024 pretty late in the cycle. Just found a sample that has to be +43-44, and it was 1.024 with a bullet! If she can give me that sort of specific gravity at +60, we will know she is OTJ. I am still using the same vial of desmo that I got more than 8 months ago, even though it is technically expired as of August as I figure it is ok if it isn't so potent. I had wanted to get a concentration that is half of what Wedgewood compounds (0.1%), so this will have to substitute for that.... Have a new vial in reserve, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't be opening it. No worries, as I have a friend whose cat has Diabetes Insipitus, so I can always send it to her as she does injectibles, too.
 
Well Done Sue !!!! It's a great achievement and an example to the rest of us. I feel quite ashamed to admit that we have never taken a home urine sample for Titan. We are just giving him the desmo eye drops and waiting for him to stop peeing and drinking so much. And waiting....and waiting.... but as you say we are just flying blind. Still he seems happy enough.
 
Well, at this point, I am playing it by ear with Sophie. She doesn't seem to want to be on any fixed schedule for her Desmo shots. I just key off of increased drinking/peeing. She makes it easy on me in some ways as she is a picky girl and will only use a pee pad and I have 2 of those in litter boxes, plus a couple more place on the floor. Better to go along with her wants/needs than fight a battle I will never win. I can get lucky and find that she has either pushed a pad aside in one of the boxes when she peed or happen to be downstairs where the boxes are when she is peeing, so I can also push the pad aside. Then I can get a good clean sample to measure. No way I could do this if she was a normal cat and used the boxes with the kitty litter.
 
Girl decided to leave me a nice sample in the box this morning - sg 1.024!!! That was after close to 72 hrs since her last dose. I was dumbfounded. Dr. McCue said that we have to base when to stop by her specific gravity and the goal is mid 1.02s. I am not calling it as off of Desmo, but it seems like extending the time between doses has made her kitty brain wake up more and get with the program to make its own desmo. You have to realize that she is getting an infinitesimal amount of that drug - needle juice of the drug at a 0.01% concentration. And the bottle I am using is expired, manufactured in February 2020, expiration date of 8/10/20. I am using the expired stuff on purpose (yes, I do have a new vial, but haven't opened it yet). I really wanted to try a dosage that is half of the .01% or 0.005, but the compounding lab doesn't seem to make that. But, my gut is saying that she is finally getting there. Take a gander at her spreadsheet if you are interested.
 
sbluhrs said:
sample in the box this morning - sg 1.024!!!
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That is really great news and great results after all this time. I am glad to see Sophie have a nice recovery. It sounds like Sophie will be needle free pretty darned soon. A good gift for the holidays!
 
It's been 26 and a half months since her surgery. Dr. McCue indicated that 75% of the cats come off the Desmo within 3 weeks. He didn't mention any that had taken a couple of years or so to get with the program. Wondering if the CBD oil that I added to her diet regularly a few weeks ago are the triggering factor for her to just go a little bit more. She'd been on a 36 hour cycle since early Sept 2019. I had tried longer intervals before that, but she just wasn't ready. Then, in April, I started playing around with 48s. Just trying to work between sg data and her behavior. Something that I notice is that her sg is higher with an overnight or early morning pee, just like humans, and later in the day tends to be a bit more dilute. Consistent with consumption of food, etc. throughout the day. She also likes a particular waterbowl more than the other one and I can track if that bowl seems to be emptier.

The best part of fewer desmo shots is that she is definitely perkier. From what I ready about humans, desmo can make you lethargic if the dosage is too high. That is consistent with how she is when she gets her shot.

Playing it by ear, its all undiscovered territory at this point....
 
Hi all, stopping by because a friend’s cat was diagnosed with DM so I told her about this site. Wanted to catch up on the kitties who had the surgery. I am glad that over all it seems most are improving, although at their own unique rate, I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since Shmee’s surgery, I remember following along closely with his progress. I hope everyone is staying well during this crazy time! Nice to see familiar names on the board still :)
 
Just slowly plodding down the road to getting Soph off the desmo. We've been doing 5-6 days between shots. Just got a sample at +30 and sg was 1.032. Per available info, the desmo only stays in their little bodies for 12-24 hours, so the fact that she was able to generate a specific gravity in the 1.03s was amazing....Just 2 weeks ago, I got a sg of 1.020 at +32. So my tactic of longer delays between shots seems to be working and encouraging her brain to get with the program and make that last little bit of Desmo internally.

Also have been rigorous about giving her some CBD oil concentrate 3 meals a day, and that might be helping, too.
 
The news with Sophie just gets better and better. This will always be a good thread for future hyphysectomy patients. It was always unfortunate that Shmee's behavior changed so much. I guess the old adage "each cat is different" still holds true with these surgeries.
 
Was hoping that Soph would be allowing me to consistently extend time between shots longer, but not able to get any consistent pattern so far. In general, though, the trend is positive. Literally just got a sample at +48 of 1.024 and that means no shot. I've had to key off of how much water she seems to consume, as I haven't gotten any samples lately, but lucked onto her just peeing in one of the boxes, so I was able to grab a good sample.
 
Sooo very close to OTJ. Just got a good clean sample at +94, 1.024. I am setting my benchmark at 1.026, so we are very close. Of course, I'd like her to be in the 1.03plus area, but this is a very good trend. Take a peak at Soph's spreadsheet if you are interested.
 
Sophie's spreadsheet looks nice and boring. And I mean that in very good way. She could be a case study for how well a hypophysectomy (pituitary removal) can go. Great BG and desmo levels. I hope the trend continues.
 
Oh well, it was too good to be true, but my refractometor calibration was .008 off. So she is definitely not even close to OTJ re: the Desmo, and we are going back to the 36 hour cycle. Not that that is a bad thing, but I was really hoping that her brain was getting with the program.

On a positive note, her coat looks INCREDIBLE!!! She's been getting Alaskan Salmon oil with 3 of her 4 meals a deal and a few drops of CBD oil at the same time. Her coat is lush, thick and velvety, with a definite undercoat. So thick that I have to make sure to take the Furminator to her every so often. Back before her surgery, it was rather thin and greasy, and she had no undercoat to speak of. Of course, she is rather roly poly, but she IS almost 9 at this point, so she looks like the proper middle aged kitty. Still LOVES her food, so we don't allow certain things, but she is definitely spoiled rotten.
 
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Sophie had a vet visit recently, and I brought in a urine sample. The vet's SG was .008 different than the number I got. I went to my refractometer and discovered that the calibration was off. (recalibrated it, and I got a number consistent with what the vet had).
 
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Hi everyone, I still cant believe this is real.. but about two weeks ago I put my Shmee down... He was showing neurological signs that was getting worse... I was terrified it was gettiing worse so quickly and the possibility of seizures that I made the decision. Here is the link to my post in the Lantus group. I hope all of your kitties are doing well and I genuinely am so happy the surgery went well for all of you (for the most part except some slip ups). This community has been such a godsend for me. Thank you for being there for me, and I will definetely be checking up on everyone in the future. I added photos to the Lantus thread but I could not help but add more here. I did not want to take up a lot of this thread so I made a new one in the Lantus group here. I have more details and photos in it. <3
 

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Sorry to be the bearer of sad news following on from Amanda and Shmee's email, I had to say goodbye to my little Eric . Nothing to do with the hypopthysectomy which was a huge success for us. The little man had developed a huge tumour in his small intestine, he went for a check up in January and my vet felt nothing then. We were checking his T4 levels every 3 months prior previous blood tests revealing he didn't need the Laventa (thyroxine) anymore as he was producing his own. I was struggling to get him to eat hence I returned to the vets the beginning of March and this is when she felt the tumour plus he had lost nearly 1kg in weight. Further ultrasound and fine needle aspiration identified Lymphoma, we tried Prednislone but his decline was too rapid and we called it a day. I was contacted by RVC for an oncology appointment but unfortunately events had overtaken us.

For all those considering the operation for pituitary removal I have no regrets and would do it all again. Having lost a previous cat to Cushings this operation gave me back my Eric for 20 months. I do wonder if the excessive Cortisol produced by the Cushings did keep Lymphoma at bay and by curing this we let the beast within grow? Genetically I guess Eric was destined to get Lymphoma as his brother was PTS at the young age of 2 with exactly the same. Now they are reunited ❤️.
 
Hi Wendy, I'm so very sorry to read that you lost your Eric. That is so sad. It sounds like you managed several different conditions with him. Again, I am very sorry.
 
Wendy, I am sorry to hear the news. :bighug:It sounds like Eric had a great 20 months post surgery. Too many times we've seen cats get treatment and pass from something completely different.
 
Sorry to hear you have lost Eric. He had a great life with you. I hope you can treasure his memories through pictures. You could be right about the hormone balance letting something else happen. But we will never know about that, or why our kittehs get Acro in the first place. I hope Eric had a gentle landing at the Rainbow Bridge, he was loved.:bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
More updates on Sophie. She is still on Desmo and we are back on the 36 hour cycle. I have resigned myself to her being on this the rest of her life. I guess her brain and other organs are just doing all they can do to compensate for the lack of pituitary, so it just won't get to the point where she is off it totally.

Her biggest problem has been her weight. And I think I have finally figured out how to deal with this. She is a very very very food motivated cat. She LOVES food, she will do ANYTHING for food. So, using that, I figured to take a clue from dog trainers who use treats for motivation and my own education in Operant Conditioning (Have BA in Psychology, from the State University at Stony Brook, NY, and the psychology department there is heavy into operant conditioning). I give my other two cats some Young Again Zero crunchies in microchip feeds (using the feeders so that Sophie won't gorge herself on the dry food, because she would) and twice a day, when I walk downstairs to check cat boxes, etc., call her to come downstairs and give her a few crunchies there. Now, every time I go down into the basement, she has to make sure she follows me, just in case she will get a treat. Well, on a very rare occasion, she might get one, but that is only done to keep her offbalance and hoping that she will get something EVERY time she goes downstairs.

This is working like a charm. She has dropped 1/2 lb since the beginning of the month. So, it was really not a matter of feeding her less, but feeding her more, with more activity. And, with this weight loss, she is more active, running around the house on occasion, poking into what we are doing, etc.

As to her other medical issues, she just had a vet visit on 4/2, and everything is stable. Thyroid level good, steroid doesn't need to be changed dosage wise, kidney numbers good (despite the typical drinking more than a normal cat and peeing more in certain points of her desmo cycle). So, I guess she is set to live many more years. She is approx. 8 & a half now, so she still has a good portion of her life in front of her. She is getting along well with the other two, just not cuddle buddies with either, but that is ok. Very quiet girl, except when Mealtime comes around when she has to SHOUT about how happy she is that she is getting fed.
 
Sophie is lucky to have you. So many owners on the forum are like you - dedicated to their cat's health. I think Sophie is fortunate that the surgery went well, and that the minor medical issues have been relatively small. I will not be surprised - to hear updates about Sophie 10 years from now. She is really doing great.
 
Titan's third anniversary after surgery has just passed . He is still a happy, loving cat, now 16 years old and showing his age. He can jump up onto chairs (just) eats quite well . However he still drinks and pees a lot and is on thrice daily 1/4 of a 1.25 mg desmopressin tablet. Which doesn't seem to be making any impact. He is still deaf. He still has a thyroid supplement, blood pressure medication and hydrocortisone daily. Misty, his sister, is still going strong, although losing a little weight, now about 4.5 kilos. They are both great cats, and we are very lucky to have shared time with them. We do not regret Titan's surgery.
 
John Irene and TITAN said:
Titan's third anniversary after surgery has just passed . He is still a happy, loving cat, now 16 years old and showing his age. He can jump up onto chairs (just) eats quite well . However he still drinks and pees a lot and is on thrice daily 1/4 of a 1.25 mg desmopressin tablet. Which doesn't seem to be making any impact. He is still deaf. He still has a thyroid supplement, blood pressure medication and hydrocortisone daily. Misty, his sister, is still going strong, although losing a little weight, now about 4.5 kilos. They are both great cats, and we are very lucky to have shared time with them. We do not regret Titan's surgery.
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That is so wonderful to hear that Titan is doing so well. And Misty, too!
 
Thanks for the update John! Always good to hear longer term how the kitties are doing after pituitary surgery.
 
What a great status report. And good results even after all this time. We all know that many cats don't even make it to 16 - even if they don't have Acro or diabetes. Thank you for the great update. I am so happy that Titan is doing so well.
 
Geez, just realized that I missed Soph's anniversary for her surgery. Can't believe its been 3 years.

She is still a round girl, but I've decided not to stress over it. She isn't eating mass quantities of food, her metabolism is just slow, even with the thyroid meds. I've been on thyroid meds myself since 2000, so I can understand how, even with the medication, your body just wants to hold onto the weight.

She is definitely a different cat than when we got her. She is still food focused, but she just likes to hang out with us now and sit next to my spouse on the couch and give and get love. She gets along with the other cats even if she isn't one to be snuggling with them. When we first got her, she went out of her way to let them know that she had to be the Alpha, but she doesn't seem to really care about that at all now. She looks at our other female cat as her equal and will, on occasion, hang out with her on the same piece of furniture, or on the table right next to her.

Her coat is SOOOO Lush. Seriously!! It was always rather greasy and thin before surgery and for a short time after, but now her coat is so thick and soft. Sometimes she gets a bit lazy with her grooming, but, in general, she is taking good care of herself.

Still on Desmopressin. We've gone back to once every 24 hours, as she would start drinking a lot when the 24 hour mark hit, and, the daily shot seems to be helping her just chill out.

Nothing else has changed, meds wise. When I check her BG every few months, it is always spot on, in the 70s. Her periodic blood checks are always good - I record them in her spreadsheet.

Hope you all have been well.
 
Glad to hear such a stellar status. Sophie is doing really well after 3 years. That's a long time in the cat-world.

You may want to consider giving an update to AMC in NYC. I sent yearly updates to the SRT center in Ft Collins after Leo's SRT. I think it is good for them to hear the success stories and longevity. It can help future kittehs.
 
Good idea, Jeff. Just shot off an email to Soph's surgeon, John McCue at AMC. I am sure he will be happy to hear about how she is doing..
 
Amazingly, Sophie is no longer the porky girl she was just a few months ago. Portion control definitely has made a difference. Just had a vet visit this past week which showed her weight to be just about 12 lbs, down from 13.2 lbs in May. Yeah, she looked like a little bowling ball then, but slow and steady has gotten her to a more reasonable weight. Now I just have to figure out how to keep her at this level....
 
Always good news with Sophie, and I'm glad to hear it.
When you figure out the magic of weight control - please tell us all! For our humans and kittehs!:bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
I guess no news is good news, eh? Sophie has been pretty stable, meds all at the same level, desmo shot once a day. Sometimes just settling into a doable routine is the best result. And the meds she is on cost a whole lot less than insulin..... BTW, haven't been taking BG readings very often, but when I do, she is consistently at normal levels... So Acro was really her only issue. Still, I'm keeping all of my cats on a diabetic diet because it is just plain healthier for them...
 
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