Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Banana Glipizide
Tink is sleeping right now. I love her little fast breathing when she sleeps!
So I've been feeding her her new Glipizide for a week or two now...it's a special formulation by a real vet pharmacy place. I had to drive out to Culver City and pay $30 for it, and it only will last a month. Expensive, AND a pain. But It's almost worth it, because it comes with a cool syringe, and it's all lovely and mixed already, and supposedly tastes like banana. And Tink drinks it right up. No struggles with this one! The only thing is...I don't know if it's doing any good?
How does one tell if it's working? Is her glucose supposed to go down? Because it doesn't seem to be....
Wondering....
So I've been feeding her her new Glipizide for a week or two now...it's a special formulation by a real vet pharmacy place. I had to drive out to Culver City and pay $30 for it, and it only will last a month. Expensive, AND a pain. But It's almost worth it, because it comes with a cool syringe, and it's all lovely and mixed already, and supposedly tastes like banana. And Tink drinks it right up. No struggles with this one! The only thing is...I don't know if it's doing any good?
How does one tell if it's working? Is her glucose supposed to go down? Because it doesn't seem to be....
Wondering....
Thursday, January 19, 2006
"It's not just me" and How the Terminator Became My Role Model
<== Where's Tink?!?
So here is an email discussion on the HoneyHams webgroup page that I jumped into, and
I thought I'd post it here, because it is such a great illustration of the kinds of things that run
through our heads as we watch our little pets do things, and if we didn't have anyone to ask,
such things WOULD drive us crazy.
See! See! It's not just me!!!!
> On 1/18/06, lovebug_whs lovebug_whs@y...
> wrote:
> > Hey. My Ham Napoleon is doing fairly well. I just have one question.
> > He LOVES flaxseed.. he really dives into that first. He eats other
> > things, but only when all the flaxseed is gone, lol. I make sure he
> > eats other things, but is there any harm in letting him eat lots of
> > flaxseed? I know it's on the safe list, but still! Thanks :)
>>> I would like to know the answer to this too! My four girls do the
> exact same thing when presented with flaxseed, turning into little
> hammy vacuum cleaners. We only give it to them about once a week but
> it almost seems to be the hamster equivalent of catnip!
>> Thanks,
> Ellen
So this is what I was thinking, and wrote back:
Are they ACTUALLY eating it, or just putting it in their pouches?
Has anyone else found it's really hard to tell what their hamster is ACTUALLY eating? Mine usually just vacuums everything up into her pouches and runs away. When she actually is eating something -- like, I can hear her chewing on a seed or nut -- then it's often really hard to find out what she's got, because she turns her back to me when eating / or the item is small and in her paws / or sometimes I swear she's actually just moving it from pouch to mouth (usually when she's resting or napping) directly, in which case it's impossible to tell what she's actually gnawing on. Very funny, though, to hear her chewing on something, and look over, and see that she appears to be doing it in her sleep!
:-) teresa
Five minutes later, I remembered something else:
Oh, and sometimes, when I could swear she WAS eating/drinking something -- like she's sitting there with a slice of squash in her paws, taking little bites, looking like she's completely enjoying her meal -- only to find her the next minute in her house, regurgitating little chunks of squash into her "stash"! So she was pouching it, and not eating it, like I thought! And once, I thought she was drinking up her medicine most obediently -- TOO obediently -- so I watched her a little longer, and sure enough, she brought it all back up once she was back in her cage -- soaking herself,and then she had to dump out all her snacks from her pouches, which had gotten wet, too. Thank GOD little children don't have such pouches....can you imagine????
hee hee,
:-) teresa
See. Since I've started participating more in this group -- like asking questions more -- you may have noticed that the level of blog-writing has gone down as a result.... But it's a good thing. Here, I just ask, and don't get answers.... There, people sometimes actually have answers. The trick, I've found, is to treat it like my blog -- just write and don't worry about whether anyone answers or not, and don't take it personally if they don't. Recently they have been, but if I talk too much, maybe they won't anymore, and then I'll just have to wait a bit and then talk again.
My new motto -- from a radio interview with a Korean-American writer who I can't remember the name of -- "To be successful, you have to be like the Terminator. Relentless -- without pity, and without remorse."
I find that this has been VERY VERY useful for almost any pursuit of almost any goal -- whether it's trying to make friends, looking for a job, or wondering what the hell is wrong with your hamster! It's also good self-talk if you tend to be timid, like me, and tend to talk yourself out of lots of things you want to do. I just saw Last Holiday this weekend and it made me cry like a baby. Like, when the Georgia Byrd character was standing there saying to her reflection in her mirror "Next time around, we're not going to be so scared all the time. We're going to take chances, we're going to really LIVE!" I doubt I was the only one crying, too. It's that double tragedy, of finding one HASN'T lived, and finding it out too late, which cuts me up. Luckily, it's not too late for me -- just like it wasn't too late for Georgia Byrd!
Carpe diem!
(That's my other motto, and it's much shorter, but oh so less specific!)
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Tink back to normal, some interesting hamster info
So Tink is back to her usual self, yay!!!!! Kudos and hugs to the members of the HoneyHams group who were so sweet about sharing their experiences and advice... and putting me on the track of it being a scent gland issue, which is what it was, partly, I believe.
Here is what I think happened:
1. Tink went to pet shop for holidays. Tink was on Aspen pellet bedding, which was pretty new to her, and I wasn't sure she liked it much, even then.
2. At pet shop, Tink smelled lots of animals and hamsters. (Note: that pet shop DOES really smell. Even I, a human, with a wimpy human nose, am bothered by it. Maybe because it's so small?) and started marking her territory like crazy...a la crouching low and dragging her stomach, and peeing in unusual places. Also, Tink starts chewing up her Aspen pellets.
3. Teresa gets Tink back, and is utterly dismayed. Tink seems to be stumbling around cage, very low-ish, and seems weak and confused. Also Tink is peeing everywhere BUT in her little potty.
4. Teresa gets worried over the course of a week. She changes Tink's bedding, pronto -- within a day of getting her back from the pet shop. Note, that this confuses the issue, because now Tink has to scent an entirely new cage.
So what happened? I think that it was a combination of events. I'm going with the theory of many on the HoneyHams group that think she may have just gone a little crazy with the scenting. Apparently, their hamsters do that when they smell other animals. Tink has never smelled other animals before, which is why this was new to me!
Note that she was also, at the same time, peeing everywhere and chewing up her Aspen pellet bedding. What I think may have happened is that she irritated/infected her little stomach scent gland by dragging it over the chewed-up bedding (which looks like sawdust after a hamster has chewed it). I think that maybe it wasn't working as optimally as it should have -- which is why she kept trying to scent her cage for sooo loooong. That, or perhaps she was trying to rub her stomach to relieve its' itchiness/hurting. Either scenario would explain the prolonged stumbling about in the cage, dragging herself very low to the ground.
Now, on Saturday, when I was pointed in the scent gland direction, I did check out her stomach, and take a good look at her gland, as well as her back legs, and tummy (was also wondering if she'd been dropped, or had fallen). I thought her gland looked a little odd -- hair matted over it, and was it supposed to be yellowish? It looked a little...crusty. So I dabbed at it with a q-tip dipped in warm water, and got the hairs smoothed out. Also, her little back paws seemed to have matted hair on them, so I smoothed those out, too. (I was suspicious of anything having to do with moving her back legs...which seemed to be the main locomotion problem.) Her little leg bones looked and felt fine, and there was no swelling anywhere on her stomach or back. Also, when I placed her on a smooth surface (the bathroom floor) she appeared to be walking normally. So the problem was only occurring in her cage.
But Tink didn't improve immediately after that. All of Sunday, she was still stumbling around. This is because, I believe, it wasn't just the scent gland that was bothering her. I really do think she was confused and disoriented from the pet shop, but also that she was having some bad diabetic-days. There are days when she just seems more feeble and weak and grumpy than usual. If it hadn't been for the weird walking, in fact, I wouldn't have been that alarmed, because I'm used to her bad diabetic-days. But, I think she was having those days, along WITH the scent gland thing. All in all, she must have been as completely miserable as she looked....
Only yesterday, Monday, did she seem restored to her full self. And today, Tuesday, as I write this, she's better than her usual self! She's climbing all over the cage, and up on top of her house, where she's jumping at the screen (she likes to hang from there), and mostly failing, but gamely trying over and over. She fell into her wheel, a couple of minutes ago, and decided that's what she really wanted to do, so she took IT for a spin. All of this indicating that she's feeling better enough to play!!! And it HAS been a while since I've seen her so playful.
So I'm thankful and happy, and no longer worried. I'll never know for sure what exactly happened this past week, I suppose, but I think I've got a good, working hypothesis! And I've learned about scent glands, and what other people's hamsters do with them.
Oh, and some people were suggesting that she might actually be a little boy hamster -- as they seem to be more agressive with their scenting, and their scent glands get more problems with them -- as in they get crusty, a lot -- and are much easier to find.
This freaked me out.
But I looked up the diagrams and checked Tink against them, and not only does she have nipples (which boys aren't supposed to have) but her two little "vents" are right next to each other -- no space between them, at ALL, which is what little girls' vents should look like. So despite her un-feminine scenting behavior, I am reassured that she is, indeed, a girl.
Shew!!!! Not that there's anything wrong with boys....but I'd gotten used to her as a girl, is all.
So All Ends Well!!!!
And now I must rush off to work, as I am awfully late!!!
Here is what I think happened:
1. Tink went to pet shop for holidays. Tink was on Aspen pellet bedding, which was pretty new to her, and I wasn't sure she liked it much, even then.
2. At pet shop, Tink smelled lots of animals and hamsters. (Note: that pet shop DOES really smell. Even I, a human, with a wimpy human nose, am bothered by it. Maybe because it's so small?) and started marking her territory like crazy...a la crouching low and dragging her stomach, and peeing in unusual places. Also, Tink starts chewing up her Aspen pellets.
3. Teresa gets Tink back, and is utterly dismayed. Tink seems to be stumbling around cage, very low-ish, and seems weak and confused. Also Tink is peeing everywhere BUT in her little potty.
4. Teresa gets worried over the course of a week. She changes Tink's bedding, pronto -- within a day of getting her back from the pet shop. Note, that this confuses the issue, because now Tink has to scent an entirely new cage.
So what happened? I think that it was a combination of events. I'm going with the theory of many on the HoneyHams group that think she may have just gone a little crazy with the scenting. Apparently, their hamsters do that when they smell other animals. Tink has never smelled other animals before, which is why this was new to me!
Note that she was also, at the same time, peeing everywhere and chewing up her Aspen pellet bedding. What I think may have happened is that she irritated/infected her little stomach scent gland by dragging it over the chewed-up bedding (which looks like sawdust after a hamster has chewed it). I think that maybe it wasn't working as optimally as it should have -- which is why she kept trying to scent her cage for sooo loooong. That, or perhaps she was trying to rub her stomach to relieve its' itchiness/hurting. Either scenario would explain the prolonged stumbling about in the cage, dragging herself very low to the ground.
Now, on Saturday, when I was pointed in the scent gland direction, I did check out her stomach, and take a good look at her gland, as well as her back legs, and tummy (was also wondering if she'd been dropped, or had fallen). I thought her gland looked a little odd -- hair matted over it, and was it supposed to be yellowish? It looked a little...crusty. So I dabbed at it with a q-tip dipped in warm water, and got the hairs smoothed out. Also, her little back paws seemed to have matted hair on them, so I smoothed those out, too. (I was suspicious of anything having to do with moving her back legs...which seemed to be the main locomotion problem.) Her little leg bones looked and felt fine, and there was no swelling anywhere on her stomach or back. Also, when I placed her on a smooth surface (the bathroom floor) she appeared to be walking normally. So the problem was only occurring in her cage.
But Tink didn't improve immediately after that. All of Sunday, she was still stumbling around. This is because, I believe, it wasn't just the scent gland that was bothering her. I really do think she was confused and disoriented from the pet shop, but also that she was having some bad diabetic-days. There are days when she just seems more feeble and weak and grumpy than usual. If it hadn't been for the weird walking, in fact, I wouldn't have been that alarmed, because I'm used to her bad diabetic-days. But, I think she was having those days, along WITH the scent gland thing. All in all, she must have been as completely miserable as she looked....
Only yesterday, Monday, did she seem restored to her full self. And today, Tuesday, as I write this, she's better than her usual self! She's climbing all over the cage, and up on top of her house, where she's jumping at the screen (she likes to hang from there), and mostly failing, but gamely trying over and over. She fell into her wheel, a couple of minutes ago, and decided that's what she really wanted to do, so she took IT for a spin. All of this indicating that she's feeling better enough to play!!! And it HAS been a while since I've seen her so playful.
So I'm thankful and happy, and no longer worried. I'll never know for sure what exactly happened this past week, I suppose, but I think I've got a good, working hypothesis! And I've learned about scent glands, and what other people's hamsters do with them.
Oh, and some people were suggesting that she might actually be a little boy hamster -- as they seem to be more agressive with their scenting, and their scent glands get more problems with them -- as in they get crusty, a lot -- and are much easier to find.
This freaked me out.
But I looked up the diagrams and checked Tink against them, and not only does she have nipples (which boys aren't supposed to have) but her two little "vents" are right next to each other -- no space between them, at ALL, which is what little girls' vents should look like. So despite her un-feminine scenting behavior, I am reassured that she is, indeed, a girl.
Shew!!!! Not that there's anything wrong with boys....but I'd gotten used to her as a girl, is all.
So All Ends Well!!!!
And now I must rush off to work, as I am awfully late!!!
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Tink ok, after all?
So I heard back from some people on the HoneyHams group, and one guy had a good idea. He thought maybe Tink was marking her territory...he said that strategic peeing is one of the things they do when they are marking. I knew that they crawl really low when they are in unfamiliar places, in order to leave a scent -- but I've NEVER seen her do that in her cage. (At least not for as long as she seems to be doing it, which would be about a week, now. )
But he mentioned that she might do it more aggressively if she'd been near other animals...especially other hamsters. Which makes sense! Because she was right above the other hamsters at the pet shop. So this seems very probable, and makes me a bit less anxious. I just wrote him back to see how long his hamster keeps that up. If HIS hamster's done it for a whole week before, that'll make me much more easy.
Last night, I waited and watched her until I saw her suddenly seem to "snap out of it" -- I can't describe it any other way. All of a sudden, she started moving faster, and more nimbly, and seemed to suddenly be interested in checking out the cage, and scrabbling up at the sides, and then, most glorious of all, she got onto her wheel and started running!!! So I was able to go to bed, knowing she was feeling better. But this morning, she was back to the clumsy creeping around the cage.
Anyhow, I checked out her back legs, and her stomach, and all looks in good order. No broken bones or swellings of any sort, so I don't think she fell, or is having any mechanical problems with her legs. Doesn't seem like. I let her run around on the bathroom floor, too, to check and see if she could walk normally, and it seems that she can.
Man, she is cute when she's exploring! She looks like a large, furry, bug, almost...because she doesn't really walk, she scuttles! Or waddles, maybe. Her round, furry, little butt swings from side to side as she walks. Are most hamsters pidgeon-toed, I wonder? She seems to be. On her back legs, anyway. They point inward, which makes her gait kind of wobbly-like.
Sorry, the animator WILL take over at times. I would very much like to animate her funny little run! Been thinking about it. Might as well get some mileage out of all the watching and worrying I do, right?
Off to take a nap. Tink is curled up, sleeping, in her little house, and it always makes me feel very sleepy...
But he mentioned that she might do it more aggressively if she'd been near other animals...especially other hamsters. Which makes sense! Because she was right above the other hamsters at the pet shop. So this seems very probable, and makes me a bit less anxious. I just wrote him back to see how long his hamster keeps that up. If HIS hamster's done it for a whole week before, that'll make me much more easy.
Last night, I waited and watched her until I saw her suddenly seem to "snap out of it" -- I can't describe it any other way. All of a sudden, she started moving faster, and more nimbly, and seemed to suddenly be interested in checking out the cage, and scrabbling up at the sides, and then, most glorious of all, she got onto her wheel and started running!!! So I was able to go to bed, knowing she was feeling better. But this morning, she was back to the clumsy creeping around the cage.
Anyhow, I checked out her back legs, and her stomach, and all looks in good order. No broken bones or swellings of any sort, so I don't think she fell, or is having any mechanical problems with her legs. Doesn't seem like. I let her run around on the bathroom floor, too, to check and see if she could walk normally, and it seems that she can.
Man, she is cute when she's exploring! She looks like a large, furry, bug, almost...because she doesn't really walk, she scuttles! Or waddles, maybe. Her round, furry, little butt swings from side to side as she walks. Are most hamsters pidgeon-toed, I wonder? She seems to be. On her back legs, anyway. They point inward, which makes her gait kind of wobbly-like.
Sorry, the animator WILL take over at times. I would very much like to animate her funny little run! Been thinking about it. Might as well get some mileage out of all the watching and worrying I do, right?
Off to take a nap. Tink is curled up, sleeping, in her little house, and it always makes me feel very sleepy...
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Uh-oh...Tink stumbling around her cage...
Oh dear, I think something is wrong with her, though I can't really point to anything specific, except she seems excessively clumsy all of a sudden.
Well, and she seems to be keeping very low to the ground, too -- like she doesn't have the strength to get over the little humps of bedding, or pull herself up to her normal crouch for eating. Instead she's laying very flat, and only nibbling at things which are right on the ground. And earlier, she was just sitting in a puddle of pee, in her ball. Usually she rolls herself away from her puddles.
I wonder -- should I take her to the vet? Or would that be as useless as it has been in the past?
I tested her pee just this afternoon, and her glucose reads off the chart, as usual, but her ketones are normal (which is different --usually her ketones are really high, too). She isn't on pedialyte or anything -- just fennugreek and greens and her homemade seed mix. Poops are normal, too. I fed her some warmed, diluted chicken broth -- just to make sure she was getting some liquid and nutrition in her -- but other than that, I can't think what else to do.
Very worried....
Well, and she seems to be keeping very low to the ground, too -- like she doesn't have the strength to get over the little humps of bedding, or pull herself up to her normal crouch for eating. Instead she's laying very flat, and only nibbling at things which are right on the ground. And earlier, she was just sitting in a puddle of pee, in her ball. Usually she rolls herself away from her puddles.
I wonder -- should I take her to the vet? Or would that be as useless as it has been in the past?
I tested her pee just this afternoon, and her glucose reads off the chart, as usual, but her ketones are normal (which is different --usually her ketones are really high, too). She isn't on pedialyte or anything -- just fennugreek and greens and her homemade seed mix. Poops are normal, too. I fed her some warmed, diluted chicken broth -- just to make sure she was getting some liquid and nutrition in her -- but other than that, I can't think what else to do.
Very worried....
