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Post by titchycatnipsandwich on Oct 4, 2017 17:32:05 GMT
It's more a case of you don't know who's drinking how much water... With a treat, in theory, one treat per degu, it's just finding which treat is so addictive they have to eat it immediately. I mean, River drinks like a fish and Miho barely drinks anything, so water bottles would be a bad idea for me as River would get all of it and Miho very little.
I hadn't realised the colecalciferol was in oil, although it makes sense as it is a fat-soluble vitamin.
Human max strength is 20,000 units, but you're very rarely on those long term. It's usually more: Very deficient: 20,000 units daily for 15 days, then either 800 units/day or 20,000 units once a month Mild deficiency: 400-800 units daily Prevention of deficiency: 400 units/day
I'd be tempted to see if I could convince the squeakers to take from the dropper. I mean, most goos work out quickly that metacam honey flavour tastes awesome and will lap it up from syringes - I wonder if a drop of colecalciferol would be attractive enough they'd just take it?
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Post by bouncy on Oct 4, 2017 18:55:34 GMT
The drops I got from Boots are in coconut oil (as says the bottle). I guess my lot would happily drink that straight from the dropper. I settled with it being in the water, because I know that Scaredy has a good, solid drink when he goes back into the cage after free-range. He's the priority, after all.
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Post by bouncy on Oct 20, 2017 10:40:50 GMT
Small update, could be related to this, maybe not.
Over the last couple of months, Scaredy hasn't been bothered about getting his metacam whilst I've been away. Mum has offered it, but he's not always bothered. Also, his nose isn't wet anymore, which means no more comic moments of seeds and other items stuck to the end.
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Post by zenaida on Oct 20, 2017 19:48:43 GMT
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Post by bouncy on Oct 20, 2017 19:58:16 GMT
Yes, those are the ones
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Post by moletteuk on Oct 23, 2017 10:02:08 GMT
It's difficult to know what to make of this. It seems a bit of a stretch to credit Scaredy with knowing that the syringe contains painkiller, and him recognising he is in less pain so doesn't need the syringe contents so much. Or maybe there is an association between you and the syringe with reducing pain, but not your mum. I suppose we should keep an open mind about what logic and associations they are capable of making.
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Post by bouncy on Oct 23, 2017 11:44:36 GMT
Oh, I don't stretch any relationship to my mum. She's loud and blunt to them, so I suspect he's just more wary of her and loves his mum! It was really just the sniffly nose to report.
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Post by bouncy on Jan 3, 2018 21:27:52 GMT
OK, so Scaredy went to the vet today. He's been a bit funny with his dandelion root recently, but it was hard to tell if this was because he was being fussy or having molar issues again. As I'm going away on Friday for three weeks, I also didn't want to leave my mum with the potential problem of having to identify the correct goo AND get him into the carry case at along to the correct vet.
He didn't see John Chitty this time, but it turns out that the practice now has three or four different vets who are exotics specialists (including goos)! We decided to see Ashton, a nice Australian lady.
So, bear in mind this is five months since his last trip. This is a whole five months with the vit D drops. During his last visit, John told me that he did have spurs, but much smaller than they had been. This time.............NO SPURS AT ALL!!!!!! Granted, his molars were slightly overgrown, and Ashton gave them a quick grind. She also confirmed that he shows absolutely no signs of vitamin D toxicity! I discussed upping the dosage from three drops to four, and she was very happy with that plan. She told me that there had been some very good results with a study on vitamin D and rabbits, but I've not had a chance to look for it yet.
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Post by yasmin on Jan 4, 2018 2:09:04 GMT
Awesome!
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Post by moletteuk on Jan 4, 2018 10:19:33 GMT
Excellent news and very reassuring to get a repeat result and no signs of toxicity
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Post by bouncy on Jan 4, 2018 12:21:10 GMT
I am chuffed beyond belief, and the very positive and encouraging response from the vet was good too. I'm under no illusion that this is a "cure", but if I've slowed or stopped the root growth, then I can only see the positive Spidey jumped out first, so came with us on this trip. It was like a reversal of roles! Spidey was timid and hidden in the tunnel for the drive, with Scaredy in his usual place up at the bars getting excited. It was the same whilst waiting for Scaredy, and for the drive home.
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 4, 2018 19:03:33 GMT
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Post by claire on Jan 5, 2018 19:31:07 GMT
This is so interesting. My little man had big problems with his teeth and the vet did say that the spurs may return all his life. That was in october and so far he's eating fine with no weight loss.
He had one extremely long incisor but you guys adviced me right leave it and it eventually broke off I also decide to add a uvb lamp to their cage to help him a bit and I was toying with the vitamin d idea but I am in no way knowledgeable enough to mess with this so I'm following this intently.
Really appreciate what you guys do on these forums. I understand it's all only based off experience but your usually right . Really appreciate the effort you mods put in . X
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 5, 2018 19:32:35 GMT
We have excellent mods and helpers!! I love my team!
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Post by moletteuk on Jan 5, 2018 20:20:14 GMT
@clareh if you would like us to review vitamin d for your circumstances then make a new thread and remind us of Little Man's history and diet details etc, or add to your existing thread. It's all conjecture and guesswork at the moment, but our best guess is that if they are getting 50% pellets then a UV lamp should provide enough additional vit d, if you are feeding less than 50% pellets and don't have a UV lamp and do have dental issues then you could consider some supplementation. It's nice to have you around, Clare, you have been regular for a while now, do join in some of the chat threads if you would like to
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Post by bouncy on Jan 6, 2018 8:21:55 GMT
More than happy to discuss! I must admit, I didn't notice much improvement with Scaredy having just a uvb lamp, probably because his 100% natural diet meant he had very little to synthesise with sunlight.
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Post by bouncy on Jul 3, 2018 17:28:40 GMT
Another chapter in the experiment.
I took Scaredy and Spidey to see John yesterday, and collected them today. This is six months since Scaredy's last visit, and two years since his first xrays.
Scaredy had some small hooks on one side of his mouth, which were burred. I also asked him to redo the xrays on his roots whilst he was under.
The xrays showed no change at all. I wouldn't have expected there to have been any improvement, but to have no worsening is fantastic!!
The message from John? Keep doing what I'm doing!
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Post by bouncy on Jul 3, 2018 17:56:20 GMT
As an aside, Spidey also came because of his constantly weepy eye (previously diagnosed by the non goo specialist as conjunctivitis that never cleared up two and a half years ago) and increasing clumsiness. The eye is from very slightly overgrown roots which aren't bothering him. His clumsiness is arthritis! Metacam for him too, then!
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 3, 2018 18:37:30 GMT
What an EXCELLENT update!! This is marvelous!! I'm so pleased for you, and really thrilled with this "anecdotal" evidence that the addition of the vit. D3 is really a great support for dental issues!! I know, exclamation marks galore, but this is really great!
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Post by ntg on Jul 3, 2018 19:51:01 GMT
Great news about scaredy! Are you not worried that Spidey will become a more successful (or even more ambitious) kleptomaniac on the metacam?
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