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Post by racheld on Jun 12, 2014 17:25:38 GMT -5
Dr Beasley suggested reducing the carafate dose and seeing how Remus does.
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Post by katt on Jun 12, 2014 18:49:55 GMT -5
That's fine BUT... you have organs and hearts on the way. He may not be so happy about these new flavors being mixed into his food. Soup is a great tool for disguising new things, for using as a "gravy" to make new things taste kind of familiar, to blend new things into to hide them and gradually increase the new thing, etc etc. If you want to move him towards more slivers less soup that is fine, but be prepared for making more soup again once the new foods arrive. It wont be the standard soup necessarily though, as we will want to try to move him towards having separate organ and heart meals, so he could still have his slivers for some meals while we worked on introducing the new stuff in other meals.
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Post by katt on Jun 12, 2014 18:52:50 GMT -5
Dr Beasley suggested reducing the carafate dose and seeing how Remus does. He's still giving you the antibiotics though right? What dose of carafate was Remus on?
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Post by racheld on Jun 12, 2014 19:07:56 GMT -5
He did give me the antibiotics. Only enough for 10 days but we should be able to determine if they're helping by then and I could refill it, right? He was on 1mL carafate twice a day, I reduced it to .75.
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Post by katt on Jun 12, 2014 19:30:06 GMT -5
Okay good And yes, you should be able to refill it if needed. I don't remember what dose Koda was on....going to go track it down for you.
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Post by katt on Jun 12, 2014 19:34:49 GMT -5
Ack I had it in tablet form, so I'm not sure what the actual dosage was...
We did this for quite a while: Amoxicillin - 0.5ml every 12 hours until gone Sucralfate (carafate) - 1/8 tablet mixed in a slurry every 6 hours (4 times a day) or every 8 hours (3 times a day) given a minimum of 1 hour before the other meds Metronidazole - 0.4ml once a day for 10 days Pepto-Bismol - 0.5ml three times a day Pepsid (famodtidine) - 1/8 tablet in suspension maximum, once a day
Pepto-Bismol is now generally not recommended for use in animals. Pepsid may help to soothe upset tummies and reduce acid reflux. You may consider giving a little pepsid a try with Remus if he is still having some tummy upset or trouble swallowing, but hopefully the antibiotics and carafate will just take care of that. It wouldn't hurt to give though if you think he needs it. If you do decide to give it a try, you want to get the Original strength (10mg famotidine) tablets, not the extra strength ones. I'd probably hold off for now, but it's something to keep in mind.
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Post by racheld on Jun 13, 2014 7:25:36 GMT -5
Good news this morning! I introduced Remus to just slivers and he DEVOURED them...he finished off the whole plate and was looking for more, haha. I didn't even have to try handfeeding first, he just dove in. They were about 1 inch long and quite thin. So I think tomorrow or the next day I'll up the size. His energy is really high today. He's rummaging around in my closet and was trying to murder the bathmat earlier. I got paid today so I'm looking at setting up my order from MPC. I'm thinking that what I'll go with is 1 pound fine ground whole duck 2 pounds coarse ground whold duck 1 pound fine ground whole rabbit 2 pounds coarse ground whole rabbit 2 pounds coarse ground whole pig They have pig liver and heart but if I'm feeding whole ground prey I wouldn't need those, would I? Does this look like it would be good for a month? I figured having the fine ground would be good because it could be mashed/pureed into a soup when I introduce the new proteins. With the elimination diet, would I start adding in a new protein but continue with rabbit and see how he does? Or would I switch to JUST rabbit and see if he reacts?
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Post by racheld on Jun 13, 2014 11:04:29 GMT -5
Should I also order rabbit chunks and duck necks or would that be jumping the gun?
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Post by racheld on Jun 13, 2014 22:32:44 GMT -5
Well, he ate about 55g of slivers today, but only a bit was on his own. The rest was with him in his lap or me hand feeding him. I didn't notice any teeth grinding when he are after taking carafate, but after his midday meal I noticed a lot.
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Post by racheld on Jun 13, 2014 22:47:03 GMT -5
Right after I typed that I put some overnight food in his cage and he ate all of it and was looking for more. Ferrets are awful.
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Post by katt on Jun 13, 2014 23:50:33 GMT -5
Good news this morning! I introduced Remus to just slivers and he DEVOURED them...he finished off the whole plate and was looking for more, haha. I didn't even have to try handfeeding first, he just dove in. They were about 1 inch long and quite thin. So I think tomorrow or the next day I'll up the size.That is fantastic! (dance) Good boy Remus!! Woot woot! This means that we can focus on organs and hearts soon - when do those get in again? His energy is really high today. He's rummaging around in my closet and was trying to murder the bathmat earlier. I got paid today so I'm looking at setting up my order from MPC. I'm thinking that what I'll go with is 1 pound fine ground whole duck 2 pounds coarse ground whold duck 1 pound fine ground whole rabbit 2 pounds coarse ground whole rabbit 2 pounds coarse ground whole pigThey have pig liver and heart but if I'm feeding whole ground prey I wouldn't need those, would I? Does this look like it would be good for a month? I figured having the fine ground would be good because it could be mashed/pureed into a soup when I introduce the new proteins.Well this really depends on if you want to do a commercial grind diet, or Frankenprey, or a mix. Commercial grinds are acceptable, but Frankeprey is better for their teeth and he's already accepting slivers so I'd like to see him go that direction if possible... If you are going to do all OR part Frankenprey, then you still need to do the organs and hearts. I would order the pork hearts and organs personally, especially because we still need to get his poops under control... (See below) With the elimination diet, would I start adding in a new protein but continue with rabbit and see how he does? Or would I switch to JUST rabbit and see if he reacts?You want to add in a little bit of the new protein at a time. He may or may not recognize the new protein as food, so you may need to start even smaller, but the first meal I would mix in 1/4 or less of the new meat and see how he does. If he eats it fine and doesn't react then up to 1/2 for a meal or two, then full meal. That said, how are his poops? We really need to get those stabilized First before starting anything new. That is super key on the elimination diet. If you don't get his poops under control first, then you don't know if he is reacting to the new meat or the old meat. The exception to that is if you simply cannot get the poops under control with the meat he is on which is potentially a sign that he is reactive to it, and then you change to a NEW baseline protein and try to get them under control from there before starting a new trial. Should I also order rabbit chunks and duck necks or would that be jumping the gun?Meh, worst case if he doesn't eat them super soon he will be eating them eventually! They will stay good for forever in the freezer (a little freezer burn won't bother him). It may be a bit yet before he is eating bones though. Well, he ate about 55g of slivers today, but only a bit was on his own. The rest was with him in his lap or me hand feeding him. I didn't notice any teeth grinding when he are after taking carafate, but after his midday meal I noticed a lot.It's probably going to vary a bit for a little while as his system heals. You could try giving a little Pepsid to soothe his tummy, but he's on a lot of meds as it is. Right after I typed that I put some overnight food in his cage and he ate all of it and was looking for more. Ferrets are awful.(giggle) Aren't they! Little buggers sure do keep you on your toes! Your boy reminds me of my Koda with all of his issues (only Koda doesn't have insulinoma). It took a year to get Koda's IBD under control. It was a LOT of trial and error but we got there. The biggest things for him were treating his ulcers, figuring out what he was allergic to, and getting the Deslorelin implant on board. The Des made a HUGE difference! It takes 6-8 weeks to fully kick in though. Your poor boy is fighting insu on top of this all though. He is a very, VERY lucky boy to have such a loving and committed mom doing all this work to get him straightened out and healthier. I hope he is giving you LOTS of ferrety kisses and snuggles in payment!
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Post by racheld on Jun 14, 2014 6:43:02 GMT -5
I do want to do frankenprey, I don't want to be on ground stuff forever! lol His poops are still dark but not as dark, and they'll occasionally have light brown parts to them. Still soft, too, but he's also getting a lot of water...whatever he drinks, what's in the meat, plus I dilute a couple of his meds with water. I am making my order from MPC right now! I'm getting 1lb fine ground whole duck 2lb coarse ground whole duck Duck necks (6 pack) 1lb fine ground rabbit 2lb coarse ground rabbit 5lb rabbit chunks 2lb pig heart 5lb pig liver 2lb whole ground pig I'm pretty sure that's enough to get us through a month...lol
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Post by racheld on Jun 14, 2014 7:25:59 GMT -5
I doubled the length and width of his chunks today and he still went to town on them. He had about 23g for breakfast and I didn't notice any tooth grinding afterward, he was ready to play.
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Post by katt on Jun 14, 2014 21:31:10 GMT -5
I do want to do frankenprey, I don't want to be on ground stuff forever! lolGood! His poops are still dark but not as dark, and they'll occasionally have light brown parts to them. Still soft, too, but he's also getting a lot of water...whatever he drinks, what's in the meat, plus I dilute a couple of his meds with water.How much eggshell is he getting a day now? It may just be a matter of increasing that a little bit. It's still early for the meds to really be making a noticeable difference too. It sounds like they are starting to improve a little bit though which is great - definitely a good sign. I am making my order from MPC right now! I'm getting 1lb fine ground whole duck 2lb coarse ground whole duck Duck necks (6 pack) 1lb fine ground rabbit 2lb coarse ground rabbit 5lb rabbit chunks 2lb pig heart 5lb pig liver 2lb whole ground pig I'm pretty sure that's enough to get us through a month...lolSounds fantastic! Is the ground rabbit whole rabbit or just meat? I doubled the length and width of his chunks today and he still went to town on them. He had about 23g for breakfast and I didn't notice any tooth grinding afterward, he was ready to play. That is fantastic! He is really moving in leaps and bounds now. (dance) I am SO glad to hear that he wasn't tooth grinding today too - that is wonderful news! Hopefully he just continues to feel better and better from here. Yaaaay Remus!
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Post by racheld on Jun 14, 2014 22:54:17 GMT -5
All of the grinds from MPC appear to be whole animals. I had just been adding a pinch of bone meal powder to his food every other day or so, because in the soup recipe on here it says to do 1tsp for a whole batch...do you have a more exact figure of how much he should get? Mornings seem a lot easier on him, for whatever reason. He's excited about eating in the morning but in the evening, not so much. I had to hand feed him today.
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