Post by spoonbill on Feb 11, 2024 16:14:45 GMT
Hello,
My degu Dumpling has been very unwell, I'm worried about her and was wondering if anyone has any similar experiences or advice on what could be going on?
To summarise:
-She is diabetic, and has been for several years. Sometimes she's had episodes of very low blood sugar, where she is very lethargic and wont eat. Either the vet has monitored her and fed her sugar, or we've syringe fed her until she takes food again.
-About six months ago, she started doing a weird thing with her back legs. It kind of looked like she was stretching again and again? But we then realised her back legs were maybe not working right. We took her to the vet, who couldn't find any obvious issues and gave her a short course of metacam. She was then fine for months with no additional treatment- active, eating fine, no signs of discomfort.
-A week or so ago, she started "stretching" again, and also refusing food at some of her meals, although other times she eats fine (they get 3 "meals" of nuggets per day, plus unlimited hay- normally everyone is very excited at nugget time!). We syringe fed her when she refused food, and took her to the vet to get some more metacam. That was about 5 days ago.
-Yesterday, she refused to eat at lunchtime and has not eaten since (about 28 hours). She is very lethargic, struggling to walk properly and sitting in a weird posture: basically completely flat in thr lower body. We took her to the emergency vet today and he admitted he wasn't an expert in degus, but he measured her blood sugar and found it OK? He's given her some intravenous fluids and an additional pain killer shot to keep her going overnight. Now she's home we've set her up on a heat pad and her friend Ivy is keeping her company.
Obviously if she doesn't improve we'll be calling the normal vet first thing on Monday, but I'm worried he'll find there's nothing to be done if it's not her blood sugar. Our normal vet does have experience with degus so hopefully will have some more ideas.
My degu Dumpling has been very unwell, I'm worried about her and was wondering if anyone has any similar experiences or advice on what could be going on?
To summarise:
-She is diabetic, and has been for several years. Sometimes she's had episodes of very low blood sugar, where she is very lethargic and wont eat. Either the vet has monitored her and fed her sugar, or we've syringe fed her until she takes food again.
-About six months ago, she started doing a weird thing with her back legs. It kind of looked like she was stretching again and again? But we then realised her back legs were maybe not working right. We took her to the vet, who couldn't find any obvious issues and gave her a short course of metacam. She was then fine for months with no additional treatment- active, eating fine, no signs of discomfort.
-A week or so ago, she started "stretching" again, and also refusing food at some of her meals, although other times she eats fine (they get 3 "meals" of nuggets per day, plus unlimited hay- normally everyone is very excited at nugget time!). We syringe fed her when she refused food, and took her to the vet to get some more metacam. That was about 5 days ago.
-Yesterday, she refused to eat at lunchtime and has not eaten since (about 28 hours). She is very lethargic, struggling to walk properly and sitting in a weird posture: basically completely flat in thr lower body. We took her to the emergency vet today and he admitted he wasn't an expert in degus, but he measured her blood sugar and found it OK? He's given her some intravenous fluids and an additional pain killer shot to keep her going overnight. Now she's home we've set her up on a heat pad and her friend Ivy is keeping her company.
Obviously if she doesn't improve we'll be calling the normal vet first thing on Monday, but I'm worried he'll find there's nothing to be done if it's not her blood sugar. Our normal vet does have experience with degus so hopefully will have some more ideas.