From:
Karen Purcell, DVM
Date: 2001-04-01 15:11:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Gerber chicken food vs "duck soup"
Kristy,
>
> Thanks for the reply Dr. Karen,
You're welcome.
>
> In answer to your questions:
>
> I am treating Mackenzie for insulinoma. We just started the
> pediapred today. Her blood sugar was 46 and her last meal was
> probably 3-4 hours prior.
>
Yup, sounds like insulinoma to me.
> No she will not eat any of her regular food except her cookie
> treats. Her main symptoms are ANOREXIA and tooth grinding. She has
> a history of ulcers so we treated with amoxi and carafate, but after
> 10 days she had no response, whereas the first time she responded in
> less than one week and she was actually much sicker then.
Well, amoxi by itself doesn't usually take care of Helicobacter,
but the anorexia and tooth grinding could be due to the insulinoma
alone.
So
> basically she isn't eating anything at all. She does like cookies a
> whole lot, unfortunately, which I will now stop. But other than the
> cookies, she wouldn't eat anything, and she really didn't even seem
> to be drinking much water as suggested by the amount of urine she was
> putting out and how often I was changing her litter box.
>
> But she WILL take the Gerber baby chicken food. I still have to hand
> feed it to her, but at least she eats it. And I think she is getting
> some fluid from it because her urine output has increased. And as of
> now, it's her sole source of nutrition. Although, she does of
> course, like the ferretone, but I don't know how much of that she can
> have in a day. I'll get some ferretvite and see if she'll eat that.
>
> I am assuming that you feel I should be okay with the baby food at
> least for a few months.
>
If you feed her several times a day, and the pred starts to kick
in, her clinical signs should improve. If the tooth grinding
continues, I'd try the biaxin/amoxi/carafate protocol.
> Thanks so much for the reply. Double thanks for telling me what I
> wanted to hear :)!
>
Best of luck,
-Dr. Karen
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