Should I be concerned??

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Lkldcatlady

Lkldcatlady

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Hi - I'm relatively new to the board, but I read something about Acromegaly someone else posted and I tend to get a little paranoid so I wanted to find out if this is something I should pursue at the point. Bob was diagnosed on 4/27/2013 as diabetic. My vet does seem to have increased on the ProZinc very quickly. We are at 4 and 5 units and it just doesn't seem to make his numbers go down. What concerned me was some of the other symptoms. I had Bob at the vet last week and she talked about his "big head". I'm almost positive Bob always had a big head, but now that I think about it, he has a pot belly, large head and big paws. he's a big cat anyway, so I'm just not sure. Also, the whole reason I took Bob to the vet initially was that he seemed to be wheezing a little. Also, I noticed him opening his mouth like he was going to sneeze (like a human does when they sneeze) a few times. I haven't really noticed those symptoms lately, but I also work full-time. It's been 1 month - do you think I should be concerned about these symptoms or is it too early to tell? It just seems like alot of other people's cats were effected more quickly by smaller doses of insulin and I'm becoming frustrated that nothing has changed much....
 
Sorry- this page isn't visited much, mainly b/c we have a FB site we go to.

Mmm... My cat didn't have the big head but she had the pot belly and she used to be a dainty kitty, plus her paws got HUGE. And she wheezes much more now that before but that was after dx with acro. If you have used the go slow method that PZI has and you have taken Bob up slowly then by all means- if you can afford to do it now then do the testing. The bad thing about acro is that it takes a while to catch up to it. You will be like running after a train going down hill trying to get it to stop.

Following the sticky links to get the tests done might be a good idea. If Bob does have it- you catch it early and can really crack it down now. If Bob doesn't then your dealing pretty much with insulin resistance and once you get high enough to break it the insulin need comes way down.

The tests are $49 for the acro and $15 for the IAA and they are done at the same place. I also suggest getting the next day mailer they have- $15 for one. As some of the test charges go this is relatively cheap. Any higher costs is the vet adding the office visit and a blood draw charge. The tests are done once a week. This is the ONLY place in the US that does it.

My vet was hesitant- had never heard about acromelegy before and insisted we wait to see how Sneakers did on the new insulin before having her tested. That was 3 months where I could have been aggressively treating her- we instead got up to 33u BID (that is a pen in less than a week/pack a month of $275 medication I paid for out of pocket). Now that I broke through we are at 13.5u BID and a pen lasts for almost 3 weeks.

Others have gone higher- Tiggers highest was in the 80 units BID, Sooty was 103 units BID. They both waited for the testing because it was considered 'rare'. We have new members joining the FB page every month- not as frequent as here but 4 last month, so far two this month. If FD is one out of every 8 cats acro probably is 1 out of every 20 FD cats. Like FD it is growing.

I would vote to take the tests. I wish I had done it sooner but I am glad I did do it.
 
Yikes! Well, maybe I will do the tests then because my vet is saying the same thing. She says it's normal to take a few months to get regulated, but maybe I'll do the tests anyway. She also said the tests can be negative but the cat could still have acro - have you heard of that?
 
Yes- the acro tests measure the GH-1 output from the tumor. If the tumor isn't producing any than there isn't any to detect.

On the other side- those cats who have had the SRT and gone OTJ still have GH-1 high levels even with nothing to output them.

And some acro cats go off insulin without SRT. Ollie is one- got vaccinations, got REALLY sick from it and was OTJ in something like 2 weeks- but that is also indicative of acro humans who get really ill and somehow get 'fixed'.
 
Also wanted to add- over on the FB we have a new member- as of last month. Her vet reluctantly did the test, came back positive- 225- but was saying "we need to go slow, so don't up the dose but every 10 days". The vet never had an acro cat before at all and the slgs approach doesn't really work with it.

After a month of blacks of sticking to her vets advice - her meter goes up to 700- she got onto the acro FB and started raising the dose by 2u (AFTER ACRO DX, mind you) every 2 days (4 cycles) and added the R bolus insulin to keep Thor down. In a week and a half she had her first yellow yesterday. Yes, he will bounce to high heaven but in 21 days she took him from nothing but black down to a yellow PS. She is at 30 units plus R BID.

That is a normal acro cat method- fast and furious until the beast (tumor) curls up and gives up :roll: :lol: :-D
 
Lkldcatlady said:
Yikes! Well, maybe I will do the tests then because my vet is saying the same thing. She says it's normal to take a few months to get regulated, but maybe I'll do the tests anyway. She also said the tests can be negative but the cat could still have acro - have you heard of that?
Click to expand...

I am not quite sure which tests your vet means but here are the 2 tests you want to have done.
IAA Test
IGF-1 (Acro) Test

You can print them out and take them to your vet.

It really IS better to know if your cat is diabetic or has acromegaly which causes your cat to have diabetes.... there's a big difference. The first step is to have the 2 tests done, then if one or both are positive, your next concern would be the heart as many acros have issues with the heart, murmurs etc.

Oliver is my cat and he did not go for SRT, but he did get very sick after his vaccines, and within 10days, he went from 21u BID Levemir to no insulin at all. He has been off insulin now since Jan7/12.
He still has aches from the problems caused by the hormone output, and he also has megacolon, but otherwise, he's quite healthy. His BG is still tested here and there because the tumor may 'wake up' again, and we may need to go back on insulin.

You can't go slow with an acromegalic cat. I posted to another thread earlier about using R.... you have to get in front of the bus and push back to stop the resistance, but once you have control, you can have your cat in non-diabetic numbers... it will just be a higher dose than most people give.

So, take the test printouts to your vet and make arrangements to have the blood drawn and shipped to MSU for the tests... from there, you will know how to proceed.

You are at only 3u now with the Lantus.... after that string of blues, you are up in the 500s. It could be the resistance, and there may even be some IAA in there... follow the protocol where you hold a dose no longer than 6 shots and then increase the dose if you are not getting good numbers.

Any questions you have, never hesitate; just ask them and we will have answers.

Gayle
 
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