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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 13:24:35 GMT -5
Sorry I haven't been on, just got back from vacation. This is so so wonderful to hear that he is doing so much better!! Definitely has made my day. 80mg/dl is such an improvement from 40/50 in such a short time! That is just AWESOME. I know how great of a feeling that is. My Caillou's stays at around 90mg/dl and he's had Insu for almost a year. Just goes to show how proper food, meds, and an amazing owner giving such great care like you can do for a fuzzy. You should be very, very proud of yourself. I for one am beyond proud and amazed at you. You, @tinachristina, are a loving, caring, responsible ferrent and do not ever forget that. I know it is hard but times like these make it all worth it. Thank you for being such a great ferrent to Mako.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 23:00:36 GMT -5
@poncesmom FireAngel unclejoe Desiree @julesalot Sherry So, I'd just like to give everyone a report on Mako. He's doing very well, eating lots, very active, and he's even climbing things now! His glucose levels the past few days are as follows: September 25th- 73 at 2:25pm 120ccs of soup for the day September 27th- 81 at 4:16pm 140ccs of soup for the day September 28th- 79 at 2:03pm 180ccs of soup for the day September 29th- 86 at 9:28pm 110ccs of soup for the day(unless I feed again at 12, then it'll be 140ccs) I haven't done the same time consistently the last couple days to get a base number, but I am checking it and it's been higher than 70 (very pleased with this). Today is the highest it has been, 86. I know the high 80s and 90s are good range, so I'm EXTREMELY happy that I'm finally getting control of his insulinoma with the meds and proper eating. He is however still bony(even with 120-200ccs of soup daily, waiting on the flora still), but now he's getting pred belly.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 23:10:47 GMT -5
Sorry I haven't been on, just got back from vacation. This is so so wonderful to hear that he is doing so much better!! Definitely has made my day. 80mg/dl is such an improvement from 40/50 in such a short time! That is just AWESOME. I know how great of a feeling that is. My Caillou's stays at around 90mg/dl and he's had Insu for almost a year. Just goes to show how proper food, meds, and an amazing owner giving such great care like you can do for a fuzzy. You should be very, very proud of yourself. I for one am beyond proud and amazed at you. You, @tinachristina, are a loving, caring, responsible ferrent and do not ever forget that. I know it is hard but times like these make it all worth it. Thank you for being such a great ferrent to Mako. No worries. I'm very happy his glucose has come up so fast like this, he went from no meds and not knowing he had insulinoma, to getting meds and multiple soup feedings a day and it's helped out tremendously. ❤ What food do you feed your little one? I'm thinking of trying a freeze dried raw soup soon for Mako, to slowly introduce raw in his diet. He was kibble fed all his life and I tried my kiddos actual raw soup with some of his soup and he had major tummy upset, so I want to do freeze dried raw slowly in his soup he's getting now and eventually switch over to full freeze dried raw. If I can get him on a diet that's extremely good for him and keep the meds daily, I have a feeling I can manage his insulinoma much much better. Thank you for that last part of your post, it's been quite the struggle getting his glucose up. I had my moments where I thought giving him back to the rescue would be best, because I wasn't having any luck bringing his glucose up, but the diazoxide was added with pred and the pred was upped and now Mako is doing very well. The persistence paid off and I couldn't be happier, I've really gotten attached to him. ❤
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Post by Sherry on Sept 30, 2015 9:39:17 GMT -5
I'm glad he is doing better When he had the raw soup- had he had his meds yet?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 9:53:24 GMT -5
I'm glad he is doing better When he had the raw soup- had he had his meds yet? No, it was right before I found out he had insulinoma. I think the day before actually. I'm holding off on any raw or diet changes until he's fully stabilized, he's just now getting to a good place with his glucose.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 11:51:21 GMT -5
Getting him on raw asap will be the absolute best thing for him, it shouldn't make his BG wonky, it could even immediately bring it up. See, with Insulinoma, whenever the ferret consumes carbs their body flips out, like, OH NO, sugar! Make more insulin! Fix it! Fix it! *pumps insane amounts of insulin* then it goes up, then down, then up, then crashes, then up, then down, then crashes, and so on. When they are getting a steady amount of high protein, low carb food like raw, their body doesn't have that reaction, it just all steadies out. Of course the tumors on the pancreas will cause insulin over-production no matter what, but if they are getting carbs while they already have those tumors, their pancreas will go overboard.
So I would start him on full raw immediately. I know that my Caillou would not be here right now if he hadn't had been on raw. He started a raw diet 100% September 2014, then that December he was diagnosed with Insulinoma, 2 hours after food 0.3ml Pred he had been on for 2 weeks already his BG was 86mg/dl. That was his starting BG. It has been 10 months since that, and now his BG is 90mg/dl. It's higher, even in the normal range, and he's had cancer for a year. That I can promise is because of raw.
My babies eat a commercial grind, due to all Cai's health issues and my life being crazy it was the best option for us. Mine eat coarse grinds that I order from Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow. (Haretoday). They do great on it, that's what Cai has been eating for a few months now. Before that he was on soup/slivers combo back and forth.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 14:07:32 GMT -5
Well, after wasting two glucose strips and getting peed on twice, I finally got Mako's glucose. This is a two person job with this boy. -____- Anyway, his glucose is 60 as of 1:50pm. I would've tested twice to make sure that was correct, but he ran off extremely mad at me, so I haven't got a second reading. He is now in hiding. I will however take his glucose tonight right before his meds and he eats to see if it's higher. If it is, I'll be testing twice daily to see if there is a trend... Low in the morning, high at night. If that's the case, what would you say? Sherry Desiree @julesalot unclejoe
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 15:45:01 GMT -5
Make sure every time you take his BG you record the time you took it and the last time he had eaten, and how much of it he had eaten. If it's low in the morning and high at night, I'd figure he isn't eating/isn't eating enough during the night. If you can't get him good and stable within a couple more weeks or he gets worse, I would definitely be splitting his doses into 3x a day, every 8 hours. I know that if my Cai's starts getting low again, rather than giving him more Pred I would split his dose, because Pred is hard on their little bodies and the less you can give the better. But of course them being stable outweighs the side effects. If you split his meds into every 8hr, then (I'll make up example times) 8:00am Pred: 0.4cc 8:00am Diazoxide: 0.33cc 4:00pm Pred: 0.4cc 4:00pm Diazoxide: 0.33cc 12:00am Pred: 0.4cc 12:00am Diazoxide: 0.33cc That equals up to 1.2cc of Pred per day (0.6cc 2x which is 1.2cc is what he was on, so same amount) and almost (pretty much) 1.0cc of Diazoxide per day (0.5 2x which is 1.0cc was what he was on, so same amount). Sherry, could you double-check my math in that? I've got pudding brain from homework lol, don't want to tell her wrong.
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Post by Sherry on Sept 30, 2015 18:20:55 GMT -5
I had posted something similar a few posts ago about splitting it. As for testing, I tend to do it either weekly or if they seem under the weather, rather than daily.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 19:46:58 GMT -5
Getting him on raw asap will be the absolute best thing for him, it shouldn't make his BG wonky, it could even immediately bring it up. See, with Insulinoma, whenever the ferret consumes carbs their body flips out, like, OH NO, sugar! Make more insulin! Fix it! Fix it! *pumps insane amounts of insulin* then it goes up, then down, then up, then crashes, then up, then down, then crashes, and so on. When they are getting a steady amount of high protein, low carb food like raw, their body doesn't have that reaction, it just all steadies out. Of course the tumors on the pancreas will cause insulin over-production no matter what, but if they are getting carbs while they already have those tumors, their pancreas will go overboard. So I would start him on full raw immediately. I know that my Caillou would not be here right now if he hadn't had been on raw. He started a raw diet 100% September 2014, then that December he was diagnosed with Insulinoma, 2 hours after food 0.3ml Pred he had been on for 2 weeks already his BG was 86mg/dl. That was his starting BG. It has been 10 months since that, and now his BG is 90mg/dl. It's higher, even in the normal range, and he's had cancer for a year. That I can promise is because of raw. My babies eat a commercial grind, due to all Cai's health issues and my life being crazy it was the best option for us. Mine eat coarse grinds that I order from Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow. (Haretoday). They do great on it, that's what Cai has been eating for a few months now. Before that he was on soup/slivers combo back and forth. I want him on raw, I REALLY do, but the rescue I'm fostering him from said to wait until he's stabilized. However, if the raw won't affect his glucose, then I will start soon. I'm going to do freeze dried raw for him instead of the raw my other kiddos get to see how he does on it. He's been a kibble fed ferret all his life, which is most likely the cause of his insulinoma and heart problems, if he wasn't fed good quality kibble.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 20:00:30 GMT -5
@julesalot I have a folder in my ferret's raw diet binder that I keep specifically for recording Mako's glucose, time taken, and food intake. From the time I wake up(9-10), to the time I go to bed (usually 11 or 12), he gets 50-60ccs of soup every four hours. I do meds at 10 in the morning and at night, his meds are in one syringe full (30ml) and he gets that first, the next syringe is just soup without meds. And yes, I managed to find 30ml syringes to do soup feedings, I was way too excited about that... I do enjoy syringe feeding Mako though. ❤ So, from 11 or 12 to about 9:50 or 10, Mako doesn't get soup. I try to get at least 140ccs a day, he's had in two feedings so far today, 110ccs and he's about to get another 60 at 8pm, I'll then give another 30ccs at 10 or do 45 and 45 for these next two feedings for a total of 200ccs today. Should I be feeding him more over the night or no? 200ccs if quite a bit for him since he's bony. If more food is needing to be fed, I'll set alarms to wake up and do so. Oh, and I know the pred is hard on their bodies. I'm assuming it and his other meds are what destroyed his stomach bacteria, which is why I'm getting probiotics tomorrow(HOPEFULLY). And yes, Sherry had told me about doing three doses instead of two, that may need to be done if he doesn't improve. Sherry I've been doing daily testing, because his glucose was in the 50s for a couple weeks before the diazoxide was upped and I'm still doing daily testing (instructed by the rescue) until his glucose levels are looking pretty consistent. I'm also trying to get a base number(but I need to restart that, because I haven't been doing the same time for a week. I have 100 more strips coming in the mail tomorrow I believe.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 20:03:23 GMT -5
@julesalot Sherry I forgot to mention, the rescue wants his diazoxide upped to .6ccs in the future. It wasn't too long after it was upped that I was told that, but I'm giving his body time to adjust to the increase he already had. If I do three doses, that'll make it much easier being at .6ccs.
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Post by FireAngel on Oct 1, 2015 20:27:53 GMT -5
I'm so sorry I have been off for a few days. I'm glad you have gotten such great answers from everyone though, I would not have had those answers for you. My knowledge on insuloma is very general with no personal experience. You're such a caring responsible ferrent. :goodjob:
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2015 9:33:22 GMT -5
Haven't posted here much lately on how Mako currently is. First thing's first, since I got the probiotics his stools have been looking TONS better, no more mucous appearance and they are forming up better. Mako has also gained weight as well. He was at 750g (1lb 6oz) as of September 24th, I weighed October 1st (before probiotics) and he weighed 783g (1lb 7oz), I weighed again today and he's at 800g(1lb 8oz). So, his weight is improving, the probiotics are certainly helping his digestion. Now, on to the glucose! I gave him a break and decided to test today since I weighed him again. As of 3:46pm, his glucose is at 90, which is the highest it has ever been, very happy to announce that! One last thing, he's had a mast cell tumor on his side since I got him, I haven't mentioned about it, but the scab came off weeks ago and it's hardly even there. Aside from all that, he's enjoying himself quite well with everyone, him and Rowdy are my lazy boys. ❤ @poncesmom Sherry Desiree @julesalot unclejoe FireAngel
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2015 10:02:28 GMT -5
Mako sounds like he is doing so much better. He has a nice little weight gain going on. Hig BG is back up there and he's having fun. I'm so glad to hear about his improvement. You've taken very good care of him. (dance)
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