h3li3
Warbling Degu
Posts: 40
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Cataract
Oct 21, 2015 19:12:10 GMT
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Post by h3li3 on Oct 21, 2015 19:12:10 GMT
My female (1.5 year old?) degu has one eye that is grey in certain light. It's not very visible at the moment but obviously it will/can progress.
She drinks, pees and eats more than my other degu.
Since there's no realistic treatment for diabetes in degus, I was wondering if anyone had any long term advice?
She has been on selective degu pellets, Timothy hay (dandelion and marigold mix) and handful of dandelion mix. Treats of fresh mint leaves, parsley, odd oat and dried hibiscus.
Is it worth taking her to my vet even though I doubt they will know much more???
Her body condition is perfect, healthy coat, teeth, respiratory rate, eats and drinks well, active.... I've looked in the eye and it looks normal except the grey desposit.
I just don't want her to become unwell or to lose vision.
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Post by yasmin on Oct 21, 2015 21:50:35 GMT
It might be worth taking her to the vet just to verify that she does have a cataract and not an injury or something else happening to the eye that can be treated.
I have a degu with cataracts. Other than startling a bit more than the others when approached at a certain angle, he has adapted well. However, he does not have diabetes.
You might want to move toward giving them as much of an SAB diet as possible – more dried greens and seeds with as close to the proper Calcium:Phosphorus ratio (2:1) as possible. (See the "Diet and Nutrition" section of this forum.) This might help slow down any degenerative processes that might be occurring in her body.
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h3li3
Warbling Degu
Posts: 40
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Cataract
Oct 22, 2015 8:24:58 GMT
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Post by h3li3 on Oct 22, 2015 8:24:58 GMT
Thank you so much!
It will have been caught very early. I'm not sure how best to change it. As far as I'm away a lower calorie diet is better.
She mainly eats the dried dandelion or other dried forage mixes (a big handful per day). Plus some hay and small amount of selective.
To add calcium I could add Brazil/almond nuts once a week? Not sure if degus can eat spinach? Or a nut oil? But wouldn't this increase calories/carbs and therefore cause a blood sugar spike?
I think maintaining her on a very constant diet with very little change/treat is better since it will stop any peaks and falls. Just need to perfect it
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Cataract
Oct 22, 2015 8:35:57 GMT
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Post by uglibug on Oct 22, 2015 8:35:57 GMT
Our Dopey had cataracts from the time we got her (about 3 months old) and was virtually blind for her whole life. It didn't seem to affect her quality of life, she was as happy and bouncy as the rest.
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Post by moletteuk on Oct 22, 2015 10:15:21 GMT
Cataracts in younger degus may be osmotic cataracts which are related the processing of glucose in the body, without it being diabetes. You would likely see these before diabetic cataracts and other diabetic symptoms. Are you seeing other diabetic symptoms, like manic activity and then exhaustion, desperate appetite, weight loss? How much more water is she drinking than the others? Diabetes is very unusual unless they have a sugar laden diet.
For osmotic cataracts or for suspicion of diabetic symptoms you should eliminate all foods which are turned quickly to glucose in the body. This means you should eliminate cereal grains, and instead provide increased plant matter, which is how the degu body is designed to get its energy.
So looking at what you feed, the science selective contains cereal grains, so you could swap this for a grainless food like JR Farm Grainless Guinea Pig and/or Versele Laga Degu Crispy. Oats should also be eliminated and hibiscus also happens to have quite a high sugar content. For treats and a good general diet supplement you can switch to a mix of oil seeds with good mineral content. You should also try to offer lots of forage, as this provides the digestible fibre that degus are supposed to eat. So this means grasses, meadow plants, herbs, flowers, tree leaves, all in a good variety, you can collect some yourself or buy from specialist suppliers. (The SAB diet Yasmin mentions involves feeding just forage and oil seeds).
Mineral (calcium, phosphorus etc) content is not involved in cataracts. Fats do not cause blood sugar spikes but higher levels of fat are unhelpful in diabetes, but presuming atm your degu does not have diabetes, you shouldn't need to worry about this.
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h3li3
Warbling Degu
Posts: 40
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Cataract
Oct 22, 2015 10:29:56 GMT
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Post by h3li3 on Oct 22, 2015 10:29:56 GMT
Thank you!!
I will look into and change from selective asap.
I grow a lot of herbs and dry them myself but since staying in my smaller flat I just have a mint plant at the minute. Which of course she gets bored of and then goes crazy for it again.
Can anyone recommend any oils and where from?
I'll keep her on her Timothy/dandelion etc and supplement with more greens - less concentrate.
No hibiscus and never any oats.
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h3li3
Warbling Degu
Posts: 40
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Cataract
Oct 22, 2015 10:34:17 GMT
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Post by h3li3 on Oct 22, 2015 10:34:17 GMT
And yes she drinks nearly double my other degu. She's only about 1/4 bigger in size.
She does eat quite a lot in one go and does have her crazy chewing moments. She's had to be separated from my other one at the minute due to being really aggressive and fighting. So currently in the reintroduction stage.
Other than all this, she does seem very happy/bright. Very active and I have her out at least every other day. She's very well handled and let's me check her over/doesn't get annoyed when I'm looking in her eye with a pen torch (as long as I keep stroking behind her ears). Which means a vet visit will probably be easier.
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Post by moletteuk on Oct 23, 2015 9:36:50 GMT
I'll leave that up to you DC. It's difficult to make an impression on the forage they should get from growing on a windowsill, herbs do make a tasty treat, but you really need to get outside to collect enough stuff, but we are really getting to the end of the season now. You can buy lots of things though, the JR Farm food comes from Zooplus, so you could order some of their herb mixes at the same time (dandelion, herb garden, green oats (whole plant), ribwort are all good. You can also get an amazing range of plants and forage from Hansemanns in Germany, you just need to get busy with google translate deguworld.proboards.com/thread/19090/hansemanns-german-food-shop Thread showing some of the choice of bought herb mixes deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15657/bought-herb-leaf-flower-mixesYou can buy a ready made degu seed mix from Hansemanns. You can also buy a couple of ready made degu seed mixes from Ratrations.com but the postage works out about the same as from Hansemanns, so it could be worth putting an order in with them as you can get more things there. You can also put together your own seed mix from the supermarket and spice shops using our nutrition charts deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15602/vegetable-seed-nut-nutrition-chartsLet's see how she responds to the diet changes, if her drinking doesn't improve then you could take her to the vet to get her urine dip tested for glucose, or you could get some diastix to test it yourself.
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