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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2015 15:56:24 GMT -5
What was Bentley's last BG reading? I just reread your thread and couldn't find any recent readings on him. I'm trying to get some advice from the Senior Mentors and they will ask.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 7:52:13 GMT -5
My first thought was that it might be the weather as well, but I definitely will bring him in to get checked.
Oh, I forgot to tell you, it was 48. That was last Wednesday, I think. I need to keep track of this stuff better. I'll talk to the vet about increasing his dose again too. He's at .25 mL(10mg/mL) twice a day right now, so we'll probably increase it to .3 mL.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 10:51:29 GMT -5
I've spoken with Hurrricanekatt and Emily about Bentley. Katt and I are mentoring Emily and Emily has had alot of experience with Insulinoma. Katt is a second year med student, has been a Mentor for a few years and is one of the smartest women, I know. Here are their replies in regards to Bentley: From Katt: His BG is running around 20? Noo I would up his dose NOW, not soon. That's risking a crash. If she is able to feed him a snack every 3-4 hours that would be good. Overnight is rough, she needs to get some sleep, but if he will feed himself with food in the cage that's good. Honestly, she should feed as often as her schedule will allow and get his pred dose up ASAP. Slippery elm would be good for ulcers BUT I don't know how effective it is relative to carafate. Definitely if her vet suggested it she should use it but time it as if its carafate.
From Emily: That reading is very low. Ferrets can adjust, but it's still low. I'd wanna see it above 50-60, some can't get up that high but it mostly depends on food and med dosage and etc. Frequent feeding is extremely important though, along with correct dosage. At his weight I'd pin max dose somewhere around 1.8 2x a day, at 5 mg/ml when Jules weighed 1.6 lbs her max dose was 1.8 ml twice daily, and with Bentley at 1 lb 12 oz it's 1.7 lbs.
In reading thru your thread, that BG reading was the only one that I saw. So, I hope this helps. Katt knows Erinn (mustelamania) from the forum and they are FB friends.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 12:04:15 GMT -5
Thank you. I'll definitely get all of that information to my vet and up his dose today. I only sleep for about 2 hours at a time anyway, so frequent feedings aren't a problem at all at night. I may have to cage him with some kibble while I'm at work during the day because that's all he'll eat on his own consistently.
I guess I'm not fully recovered like I thought. I went to work today but had to leave within an hour because I was feeling so awful. This flu is really getting me. I have to make some more soup and then I'll feed Bentley and nap for a bit. I'll cut up some slivers as well. I wish I had a huge blender so I could make big batches of soup without it taking forever. The 18 oz of soup I'm making now lasts for maybe 2 days.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 12:13:09 GMT -5
I'm sorry that you still aren't feeling well. Everyone is having a hard time this winter. It must be a rough strain of flu or virus.
I'd love to find another solution for Bentley, rather than leaving kibble with him. I worry about his BG spiking and then crashing. What about leaving the soup with crushed kibble powder on top and a little mixed in. Do you think that he will eat that? If we could get him to eat that, then we could slowly reduce the amount of kibble.
Take a nice nap and try not to do too much today. Hugs to all the little ones. :wave2:
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 12:57:14 GMT -5
Quick update before I nap I made soup and I made a separate batch for Bentley with maybe 25% soup and 75% ground kibble. I made that super thin because he definitely seems to tolerate thin more. I only made maybe 6 oz of that so when that's gone, we can put more soup and less kibble in the next batch. He ate about .2 oz of that. He ate some of it out of the bowl on his own, but I spoon fed him the rest of it. I gave the rest of the babies around 4 oz of soup with 1.5 oz of slivers. I would have put more slivers in, but I didnt thaw enough chicken.
Bentley always eats a little bit from the bowl, but he doesn't eat nearly enough, even if it has kibble in it. I texted my vet about everything that Katt and Emily said and he'll probably get back to me by the time I get up. I'll let you know what he says
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 5:54:15 GMT -5
We're increasing his dose to .4 mL and I'll check his BG in a few days. If it's still too low, we'll increase it again. My dog likes letting all of the ferrets out of the room. I got up around 3am and found Snowy sniffing around in the hallway outside of my room. I'm surprised he got his big butt up the stairs The rest of them were in the shower. They really love the shower.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 18:43:06 GMT -5
Okay, good. Let's hope that the increase will also help his appetite.
Does your dog open the door? I know that some can do that, like my sister in law's dog. Do they like it when the shower is running? Ponce use to get into the shower with me, but we had a much bigger shower in our last home. My guys will hop into the shower while I'm in it, but then they hop right back out.
Are you going to watch the Super Bowl? I would imagine if you like Football, then you would be a Patriot's fan. Even if you don't like Football, it's still a good excuse for a party.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2015 6:43:26 GMT -5
The door only really needs to be pushed to open it, so it's not like she turns the door knob or anything. She just does it to eat their food. She's the only dog I have that really gets along with the small animals. The others just ignore them mostly. They might like that, but they only really go into the shower when it's off. I'm not sure why they like going in there. Maybe next time I take a shower I'll bring them in there with me. They do love water, especially Nestle and Snowy. I love bringing them into other parts of the house. They get so excited. My first two ferrets, Nemo and Delilah, used to climb over the baby gate on my room to go downstairs and Nemo would always jump in the shower with people.
I don't really watch it, but my dad does so I always see some of it. I used to watch it just to see the new commercials
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2015 16:12:17 GMT -5
The Super Bowl is a good excuse to eat and watch those commercials. I do like Football though.
How is everyone doing with Slivers?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2015 17:59:26 GMT -5
I use it as an excuse to eat too. We got Thai food for dinner, which is always good.
They're all doing good. I don't have a very sharp knife though so I have trouble cutting slivers out of thighs, so I haven't been able to cut any very often. I got some breast today to use for that since it was on sale.
I weighed them all again today Yogi - 2 lb 3 oz Snowy - 3 lb 1 oz Penny - 1 lb 12 oz Nestle - 1 lb 12 oz Bentley - 1 lb 12 oz Hershey - 2 lb 14 oz And I plan to test Bentley's BG tomorrow morning since I'm not working. We're expecting up to a foot in snow early tomorrow morning. I think Tuesday is when we're going to the vet. Hershey has been acting normally again, but I'll bring him anyway. I always bring more than one ferret when I go. We let them run around the office playing. Everyone there loves watching them.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2015 10:55:35 GMT -5
Yumm...Thai food. We love Thai food. We finally found a really good restaurant in Nashville. It's our go to for Thai. Everyone's weight looks good. We're still on slivers, how is that going? I'm looking forward to hearing what the vet says. When you get a chance, please read this article. Just part of studying for a little understanding of how the Omega's play a part in a ferret's nutrition. Erinn (mustelamania) posted this and I found it very well written and informative. Hint: possible test questions for your final. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/15109/oil-supplements-little-information(dance)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2015 16:31:55 GMT -5
I actually only had Thai food for the first time a few months ago, but it's my moms favorite so we eat it pretty often. I'm really picky with foods. I mainly just eat vegetables and sometimes chicken.
They're eating the smallest slivers I can cut and it's usually about 1.5 oz of slivers with 4 oz of soup. That's 30% I think? I don't think we're getting to the vet today. We had a flash freeze yesterday so most of the roads aren't plowed much. I wasn't feeling well this morning so I didn't get to test Bentley's BG, but I think I'll try to do Yogi's when I do it.
Alright, I'll read that later when I'm on my computer.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2015 17:16:31 GMT -5
75! Bentey's BG was 75 three hours after eating! It's not awesome, but it's a lot better than it was a month ago. Yogi's was 74. I'm not sure exactly when he ate last. I'm gonna let the vet know. I think I'll just have to make sure I feed him as often as possible. He's a good eater anyway though.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2015 18:55:25 GMT -5
OH, that is much better. Julesalot was thinking about Bentley and posted this to our switching thread. I'm co mentoring her with Hurricanekatt; I thought I'd pass it along: was thinking about Bentley, has Mandi tried him with some FDR? The little bites from Natures Variety Instinct are similar size to kibble and a lot of ferrets like it, she could leave that out (even mix it with kibble) for him. She may consider Dexamethasone, I think it's less than Diazoxide, it's more potent than Pred, (probably) without the side effects of Pred. My biggest medicine recommendation for Insulinoma is Diazoxide though. Before the Pred dose gets too high and starts causing side effects, Diazoxide was my miracle with Neichei. Gave her 6 more months with me.
Just some thoughts.
I had been thinking about FDR as a solution for Bentley, but I'm not sure we want to do that. It does hold up well for long periods of time, but so does raw and bone in. FDR is expensive, and we would be doing two switches. First to FDR and then to raw. That might be confusing. I used FDR before I switched to raw and it did make transitioning easy. It's something to think about, but I did want to pass along her medical suggestions. Emily (Julesalot) has had alot of medical experience in the five years that she has owned ferrets. I also tried Diazoxide with my Ponce, but the Lymphoma took him too quickly for it to be effective. If they're eating small slivers, go up a tiny bit on the size. Not too big, just a little bit bigger. You're doing so well and so are the little ones. :thumbsup:
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