[Gpdd] HEALTH: diabetes

[Rachel Koo]

Hi Jean and the misfits

Rufus, who went to the bridge in June this year was diabetic. Raphael, whom
I got from the same shop, is also diabetic.

Rufie started drinking lots of water when he was reaching his first
birthday. He could drain the 240 ml bottle by himself in a day. And his
eyes started getting cloudy. I bought urine test strips from the pharmacy
and tested his pee.  His glucose level was through the roof.  On Ann's
advice, I put him on a restricted diet of rolled oats, Timothy hay and
cabbage for I think a week. And then I tested his pee again. The test
result was normal. But the next test result was through the roof again. I
had to put him on medication. There are two possible medicines that can be
used on guinea pigs. Tolbutamide and glibenclamide. Both are human diabetes
medication and can only be dispensed if your vet gives you a prescription.
Tolbutamide did not work for Rufus. But glibenclamide did. He had to take
it twice a day at first. It comes in a tablet form, and you need to get a
compounding pharmacy to make it into a suspension for you. Then you need to
do regular blood tests to monitor the blood glucose level. Rufus hated the
tests.

After about a year or a year and a half on glibenclamide, we had gone from
twice a day medication to one a day and then eventually I controlled it
with herbal tonics bought from an Australian online holistic pet medicine
store, and turmeric powder.

According to Ann, there is a 1/3 chance for a guinea pig's diabetes to go
into remission.

For Raphael, he was started on herbal tonics and turmeric from the time I
discovered he had high blood glucose.


Rachel