Sneakers 5-28

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hmjohnston

hmjohnston

Member Since 2011
Well, was home on Saturday and managed to get a curve in, gave her a break on Sunday but am doing another one today as Saturdays looked a little weird to me.

I don't know if she's visiting Hershey, Baxter, and the others at the I-Hop or just doing her own version of the Mona Lisa smile :? .

The good thing with having her shots at 5:30 is I sometimes stay up late enough to get in the +6 nadir for the PM time- but the whole AM time is un-populated.
 
I've got an appointment on June 4th and printed off the information on acro and IAA and dropped them off at the vets already so he can read why I am wanting it and find out the costs to do the tests. One good thing is they both go to the same place, so that saves on shipping :-D .

I think that it is just odd that I got some blues at 3-4u and as I've gone higher they haven't come back. I'm not even getting consistent low yellows anymore- only at her lowest point and then it rises. But for other news, she is only varying less than 100 pts from high to low except for the two reds mid-week.
 
Heather - the tests cost $15 and $49, and ship together. Ask the vet to order one of the prepaid mailers from MSU. We ended up waiting an extra week to get them in, but then you know they're in exactly the container they need to be in. And it's supposed to be less expensive than buying the stuff from the FED EX place. The vet can spin the blood down and either they or you can pack and deliver to the FED EX place (my vet did mine). It goes next day air. We shipped Grayson's on a Monday as one of the tests is ONLY run on Wednesday. We had the results on both by Friday of the same week.

As much as I wasn't surprised about the IAA, the Acro dx really caught me off guard. Read all you can from the Acro/IAA forum - then look at Sneakers w/ a critical eye. Once I started doing that, I did actually notice things I'd otherwise missed. LIke his jackrabbit hind legs (MAN are they long!!!), his heavy breathing (not snoring yet), tenderness in his tummy when I'd lift him a certain way (perhaps from the organ growth?), and of course his numbers. But the numbers/test results alone are not a slam-dunk, as I was told. We had an abdominal ultrasound at the vet school which showed some organ enlargement - again, not a slam-dunk, but an extremely good indicator. Unless/until you have a CT or MRI done of the pituitary gland, I think it's all "suspect"... but those are expensive and you want to only do them once. I'm waiting til we go to CSU before the CT is done, as that's what they use to plan the SRT procedure. Think of it as radiation in stereo - shooting multiple rays from 7 or more different directions. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself, but PM me if I can answer any questions, as well as others on the board who've had similar issues.

The thing that I didn't "get" was the part that his pancreas is still working. The Acro causes the diabetes, AND it causes IAA. Not all cats are both - there are several who are one and not the other. But the best thing we can do is know our kitties, and do the best we can for them within our means.

Good luck with the tests. Again, just like w/ the diabetes dx, it was a little hard to absorb... but there IS a treatment that can be done. And knowing that the high numbers are not something you did or did wrong is quite comforting too.

Wishing Sneakers the best.

Lu
 
Lu, thanks for posting that. It's very helpful from both a practical standpoint (costs, mailers, etc.) as well as good insight into the emotional realities of an acro/IAA diagnosis.
 
Well, after "swimming in a sea of pinks" for 2-3 months, the IAA was not a stretch.

So many posts, articles & links that I've printed out, as I need to read them several times for some of the info to sink in (I'm a little hard-headed sometimes!). But it helps tremendously to read and look and examine. Another visual check you can make is to look at his fang teeth (canines). I, of course, had to check the other kitties' to see what theirs looked like and compare. Grayson's have a gap of about 1/8 inch between them... showing the growth of the lower jaw. Everyone elses in the house that I checked were pretty close together.

They told me at the vet school, and on the Acro board, not every cat gets all the symptoms. Grayson hasn't gained much weight back, (21.6 to 12-ish; now 13) which is the only thing that doesn't mesh w/ the diagnosis. But looking back at his pics, his weight was up for several years, before the severe weight loss when dx w/ diabetes in early January.

Regardless of the outcome of the tests, I expect that like me, you'll be much happier KNOWING what you might be dealing with, or ruling it out, rather than not knowing. That's been one of the most frustrating things I've encountered - other than the fact that Grayson is not much of a bleeder!

Wishing you good luck on the tests!
 
Re: Sneakers 5-28 (dose bump and I got a BLUE!)

Thanks Lu for the information. I saved what I printed out for the vet into my dropbox so I can read/absorb it later. Our problem is that Arkansas doesn't have a vet school around here. I'll have to research the closest if the test come back positive for acro- it might be Sneakers never gets the next level done as I doubt I can swing the visit.

I've got a management project over the summer- have to have it to graduate so I am taking it now rather than waiting until next year and might not have one available and have to delay graduation. At least I can do it from home as it is research into exporting laws for medical colleges for information, foreign nationals coming in, and teachers/faculty taking laptops out of the country.

And after her curve weekend I upped the dose to 5.5u and got a blue this morning. late nadir might have taken her lower so the 324 is expected after that dip.
 
Heather, I would think "knowing" would be worth it. Even if you can't do the gamma knife surgery (laser - no knife involved!) you would know the particulars to look for nd how to manage dosing. There is a lot of information available through FDMB.

Your project sounds interesting! How nice that you can work on it at home.

And, yay for some blues!
 
Good call on the dose! Wow - blue!!! I can't remember the last time I saw blue! Maybe February??? Ugh!

Maybe there's a specialty vet that can do the ultrasounds near you. That was the ticket to checking out if there's organ growth, that, in conjunction with the bloodwork sent off to MSU, can at least help to confirm dx.

The lazer knife procedure is considerably more expensive than the SRT. Colorado State is doing the most SRTs, although it's been done at UC Davis, somewhere in Florida (FSU?) and maybe other places. The Lazer knife was in New York I believe. When I've got a chance, I'll pull up and see exactly where they do it.
 
Re: Sneakers 5-28 to 6-1

Well, I got a blue at her more normal nadir time at +9 when I upped her dose and she's giving me some yellow pre-shots so that is going well.

The last time i had gotten this early a pre-shot she had already given me about 5 hours in the blues and was working her way up on a rebound :lol: but I haven't noticed a huge rise in this last bit. It has been 6 cycles so I figure it is time to raise her again tonight to 6u.

Other news... she didn't eat anything yesterday while I was at work so either she wasn't hungry or the feeder didn't advance. The day before she had left one meal uneaten so i think her appetite is decreasing. Although she ate all 4 oz (with 4oz water) at her PM shot time to make up for it. And this morning she didn't wake me up to get her food, she preferred to stay in bed for some snuggles and skritches rather than getting up and and last night she got up on the couch with me for petting rather than laying on the floor... High dose kitty :shock: . So she is starting to feel better.

Blood draw on Monday! Thanks to Lu's suggestion I already printed out the order form for the mailer and dropped it off at the vet to pre-order.

Edit- they are ordering the mailer and it won't be shipped until Monday, so appt got pushed to Friday morning, same time.
 
Glad your getting the tests run. I said when he was dx w/ diabetes, it's good to know what you're dealing with and that it can be treated. Now I say the same about Insulin Resistance and Acromegaly.... But I'd much rather know than be blindsided. Good luck w/ the tests.

We started Lev yesterday. Will check/shoot him in 15 min.
 
If you were to look at any of the others with acro cats, their ss will show you plenty of blues that turn out to be false hopes. Quite often, it's like a tug of war; increase the dose and see a reaction, but then the numbers pull back again.... resistance.

The cats with IAA have a wild ride with their dips into lower numbers only to bounce back up.
A mix of IAA and acro is yet another combo to see.

People are recognizing the signs for resistance in other cats, and those cats are getting tested sooner than they ever have before, and it's for that reason, you are not seeing the very advanced signs and high IGF-1 numbers. It's important to keep in mind that the test result numbers are just a snapshot; they don't stay put and you can test later on and likely get a higher number. Some cats who have SRT still test and get positive numbers, yet are OTJ. The numbers are not the entire picture, the deciding factor.

My Shadoe did not look acro, had NO visible signs, have a tiny body and very small paws, and no wideness to her head at all, and she was female. She had no belly, but was up to 9u BID by the time I convince the vet I wanted the 2 tests done. By the time we got the result of 120 for acro, we were up to 14u BID, and she still did not look acro, plus the vet doubted the test result.

Fast forward from 2010 to 2011, and Shadoe's head looked broader, rounder, and she became almost all pot belly on tiny legs, with a round head. It's funny what a bit of time can make when it comes to seeing the signs develop.

Because the resistance is being 'recognized' sooner by others who have lived it, cats are being tested near the front end of the condition, as it's developing, instead of how it must have been in the past where vets may likely have not known about the tests, thought the condition was too rare, and many cats were likely pts because they were told 'there is nothing else we can do.'

I was told that I was overdosing my Shadoe, and I was told the same with Oliver after I adopted him, and made to restart to 1u because of possible rebound.

I ended up with two acro cats, so either I need to buy more lottery tickets, or else acromegaly/ insulin resistance is not as rare as people think.

It's wonderful you are getting the tests so that you can have an explanation for what's going on, or you can eliminate a couple possible conditions.
 
Heather, glad you have the test scheduled. I think it will be a big relief either way when you get the results.

Gayle, thanks for posting about your experience with Shadoe. I think that even acro cats fall into the ECID groups, right? Maybe even more so and maybe even within the one cat - I mean more variability day to day because they have a working pancreas that throws another variable into the mix.

You should buy a lottery ticket. Maybe you can use both kitty's dose amounts and lowest BGs or something to pick the numbers.
 
Sheila & Beau & Jeddie said:
I think that even acro cats fall into the ECID groups, right? Maybe even more so and maybe even within the one cat - I mean more variability day to day because they have a working pancreas that throws another variable into the mix.
Click to expand...

We had other expressions in PZI-land in addition to ECID: SCDD (Same Cat, Different Day!), and SCSDDD (Same Cat, Same Dose, Different Day!) ;-)

Sheila & Beau & Jeddie said:
You should buy a lottery ticket. Maybe you can use both kitty's dose amounts and lowest BGs or something to pick the numbers.
Click to expand...

Maybe I need to too! :lol:
 
Sheila,
You are so right about acros being different! Shadoe and Ollie were like night and day in almost every way!
While there are some things we know are common to every one, like having a functioning pancreas, they are individuals.
The big difference between regular diabetics and acros is that the former are like standing on dry land, the later are like sitting in a rowboat.... one's stable, the other's not.

The health of the pancreas does not fluctuate every day like hormone output does.
 
Sheila & Beau & Jeddie said:
You should buy a lottery ticket. Maybe you can use both kitty's dose amounts and lowest BGs or something to pick the numbers.
Click to expand...

I've wondered about getting into an office pool. Maybe we can have an acro kitty pool and call it Up-The-Dose Fund :lol: .
 
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