Cabergoline- a possible pituitary tumour medicine?

[jorats]

Back in January of 2006, I was in contact with an Australian gentleman who was allowing his exotic vet to test on his rats with pituitary tumours. There were some studies on using dopamine receptor agonists to treat this tumour in humans. This Australian gentleman was having huge success in his rats. We emailed for a while, I was hoping to try it on my rats as well because we were losing ours left and right to PT. Unfortunately, my vet was not comfortable trying this new drug which was not labeled for rats...yet. I sent her 3 studies but it was all for curing pituitary tumours in humans using Cabergoline. Finally, I just dropped it and hoped that someone would continue the testing.
My vet most recently attended a seminar on rats and pituitary tumours. In one case study, they did an MRI (cost of MRI on rat: $1000) on one rat with a huge pituitary tumour, so big, the brain had flattened to a pancake. My vet was not surprised at this because she's done all our postmortems on our rats and has seen this time and time again. They tried the drug Cabergoline and it has actually shrunk the tumour by half. That rat lived another 7 good months. My vet is super excited about this latest study. My mom had to bring Lulu in for a mild head tilt and also mild loss of back end mobility. My vet is pretty sure it's PT so she will be starting Cabergoline on Lulu. A 2 months supply for one rat will be $175. *gulp*
But we've got to try it... Keeping our fingers crossed!!!

 

[Dahlas]

Wow...my fingers are crossed.

 

[lilspaz68]

Good luck Lulu!!

 

[LA]

Good Luck !!!

 

[Godmother]

Good hopeful news!

 

[sausage4ever]

Best of Luck!!

 

[Moon]

Very interesting.... keep us posted!!

 

[SQ]

Very hopeful news.
Will be letting my vet know about this :thumbup:

(Very expensive, but then, I am spending approx $200 a month on meds for chf so I guess it isn't that bad.)

 

[ryelle]

I think that if this is going to work, and once its actually acknowledged in the 'rat community' (i dont just mean here, i mean when word starts to spread), demand might be higher amongst vets and it may eventually knock the price down.
"the brain had flattened to a pancake".... just that one statment makes the cost worth it if you ask me

Fingers crossed and good luck!! hoping for good results!

 

[Fidget]

Best hopes for Lulu!! :heart:
And thankyou to your whole family for all you do to benefit all our beloved kids.

 

[lj]

:happydance: Exciting! I hope things work out for the best for Lulu.

 

[Joanne]

Good luck Lulu! 7 months in a rat's life is SIGNIFICANT. That's like giving a human another 20 years!

 

Jo, what was the dose you were giving?

I was told half a pill every three days ..but I'm thinking it needs to be a full pill every three days.

 

[jorats]

I'll have to check with mamarat for the dose in mg/ml because ours was compounded, a yucky oily liquid.

 

I'll have to check with mamarat for the dose in mg/ml because ours was compounded, a yucky oily liquid.

Okay!

 

[jorats]

Ok so the Cabergoline was 40mcg and Lulu needed to take 2mls of that oily stuff. 40mcg is 0.04 mg. Keep in mind though at the time, they were still working out the right dosing and such so it might not have been the right amount either.

 

my pills are 0.5 mg ..we were giving half every 3 days. But it seems liek its maintaining it for the first 1.5 days then she goes downhill again until the next dose, so we got the OK from my vet today to give a full pill! hopefully it works!

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I'm nit sure how cabergoline works but if she's going downhill on the 3rd day then would it work any better if you gave her half a pill every 2 days?

 

[crumbilina]

I'm nit sure how cabergoline works but if she's going downhill on the 3rd day then would it work any better if you gave her half a pill every 2 days?

This was my thought too

When dosing its a matter of keeping the concentration in the system consistent.

Not sure of the effect on the organs a full pill would have. I would assume that having a half a pill every other day would be better... BUT I'm not a vet

ETA: Example, with antibiotics, you can give the full dose once a day but it can have a nasty effect on the stomach, but by halfing the dose and giving it every 12 hours, you can reduce the impact on the stomach and still maintain the proper concentration in the system... Maybe something to ask the vet which would be better?

 

[jorats]

I think it's a slow release drug which is why every 3rd day. I could be wrong though.