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Post by Corvidophile on May 30, 2020 10:33:22 GMT -5
They draw from his neck every time they test his glucose, yeah. When I tried pricking toes and tail at home I got next to nothing, so I gave up on the concept of home testing.
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 6, 2020 16:48:33 GMT -5
we did it a few times with mixed success. It helps to shave a toe or tipp of the tail and smear a little vaseline (just a thin coat) but we couldn't get enough a lot of times. I had one vet stic an artery in the base of the tail but then it took a lot of effort to get the bleeding to stop.
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Post by Corvidophile on Jun 23, 2020 18:08:43 GMT -5
His bald spots on the side of his neck are regrowing hair! I thought he would get progressively more bald. This is good I guess. Maybe it was just the emergency vets overzealously yanking the hair out during their tug test after all. I thought it wasn’t supposed to regrow without treatment if the hair loss was adrenal.
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 23, 2020 18:53:25 GMT -5
Did they shave his neck to get blood or another procedure? Most times with adrenal the hair loss does continue, and usually bilaterally, or along the midline, like shoulders, base of tail, sides, etc. Growing it back is a good sign./
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Post by Corvidophile on Jun 23, 2020 20:31:07 GMT -5
No, the emergency vets told me they did a hair pull test and he came back out in his carrier with the new bald patches. He had been shedding heavily all over for a few days prior and scratching himself a lot so it came out of him easily. He has since stopped scratching and shedding, too. I think they just yoinked his hair out during a really loose stage. I thought it was a weird place for the hair loss to start if it was adrenal, I always read and see pictures of it starting on the butt, tail, shoulders.
Edit: I just realized I never told the full story here- when I ran out of meds over Memorial Day weekend the emergency vets were the only place to get more, but they wouldn’t prescribe any without him having a full checkup. That’s why they were pulling hair, I guess. I still don’t get it, myself.
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Post by Corvidophile on Jun 26, 2020 11:19:44 GMT -5
BG today of 62 five hours after meds and food, still staying with the current dosage.
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Post by Corvidophile on Jul 24, 2020 11:25:26 GMT -5
Today was a BG of 73, five hours after meds and food. He is, however, starting to lose more hair again, and this time it isn’t growing back, just bald skin underneath. Random thin patches all over his body and tail.
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Post by unclejoe on Jul 24, 2020 13:03:20 GMT -5
I see that Winnipeg has been on pred just over a year now. What dose is he on now? How old is he? Can you get suprelorin?
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Post by Corvidophile on Jul 24, 2020 17:00:42 GMT -5
He’s five and a half, on 0.25 mg of prednisolone, and I talked to the doctor about suprelorin a month ago and he said to hold off for now because he thought shutting the adrenal glands down would spike the insulinoma out of control, but it was up to me when to implant and he was ready to do it. He does have it in stock. I’m still on the fence about whether to implant or not.
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Post by unclejoe on Jul 26, 2020 14:45:52 GMT -5
yeah the endocrine system is incredibly complicate. Some glands secrete hormones to control systems and organs, and some secrete hormones to control other glands which then control organs and systems. It was a fascinating course in anatomy and physiology, and endocrinology is a specialty degree. unfortunately our little buddies are prone to a couple big endocrine diseases in insulinoma and adrenal, and they have short lives anyway. Keep positive and keep loving on them.
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Post by Corvidophile on Aug 5, 2020 19:28:48 GMT -5
I’ve changed the title of this thread to correspond with the mingling of news about his adrenal disease developing. He’s losing quite a lot of hair now, so we’re trying him on oral melatonin, a 1.25 mg dose once a day at 2:00 in the afternoon with his lunch. It’s hard to get this much liquid into him via syringe, so next time I’m gonna try mixing it with oil in a saucer to have him lap up on his own, as it’s not imperative that he get every last drop like the tiny dose of prednisolone, I feel ok losing some to vessel-cling. I called the vet and asked about buying a Ferretonin implant yesterday but they haven’t called me back yet. I’d rather implant him than do it orally. He’s also changing body shape, his front half is skinnier and his belly is rounder. I’ve heard this happens to humans on pred after a while, but it might be the adrenal disease causing muscle wasting. His back legs are still strong and solid feeling though, so I don’t know about that. Still debating the Suprelorin, but figured the Ferretonin would help in the meantime with hair growth and fat redistribution.
Oh, in other news he has FLEAS! I’ve never had a pet get fleas before. I’ve dealt with ticks, ear mites, and fur mites, but fleas are something new. They’re infuriatingly fast! He’s been given a solid scrub down bath and put on Frontline Gold. Vacuuming and laundering everything.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Aug 6, 2020 8:53:20 GMT -5
I got fleas in my house once--- I am thinking from bringing my dog in for a bath---will never do that again. I had to bomb my house too because I could not get rid of them. They must have been really bad as I 'bout vacuumed myself to death upon washing bedding and stuff every 2-3 days. I decided on bombing after I washed my ferrets a couple or 3 times and the fleas kept getting on them. I knew they had to be everywhere. I just started rinsing ferrets under plain water and made sure the stunned fleas were not left in tub. I felt sorry for the poor miserable babies.
My vinyl floors were so tacky after treatment. Mopped them all the next day.The guys left footprints everywhere. They could have a least put on some paper booties. I stashed everything in fridge from the pantry. Bundled up towels and things in plastic garbage bags. we had to leave with the ferrets for a few hours too. What a job---like moving!
Would not wish them on anyone and Good luck. I did the Revolution twice- and gave up.
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Post by Corvidophile on Aug 6, 2020 11:03:57 GMT -5
A horror story! I hope my case isn’t that bad. I was gonna go with Revolution at first too but the vet recommended against it, said it worked primarily on heartworm and the flea and tick effectiveness wasn’t great. I’ve used Revolution in the past for ear mites, as well as its cousin ivermectin. Both worked on the ear mites.
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Post by unclejoe on Aug 7, 2020 17:44:56 GMT -5
I will never have a house with carpet again. you can treat carpets with borax (Boraxo laundry detergent) In Florida, Revolution was useless but Advantage II worked great.
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Post by Corvidophile on Aug 9, 2020 17:07:07 GMT -5
Discontinuing the oral melatonin and not doing the Ferretonin, got a call back from the vet explaining that melatonin has a much higher chance of lowering blood glucose than Suprelorin does. So I guess I’ll get him implanted with that- the question now is when. I think I’ll schedule it a week before his monthly glucose check so that I can see how it’s affecting his levels.
I’ve heard of Borax being used as ant poison mixed with sugar water but not as a powder to kill bugs, interesting! I thought they had to eat it.
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