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Diabetic piggie

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Ellie E

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Our much loved Popeye (he's blind in one eye) has lost a lot of weight over the past 5 weeks despite having a good appetite and being very sqeeky and lively as usual. My Dad's a doctor and he thought Popeye migh be diabetic so we took him to the vet with a urine sample and Dad was right!
The vet suggests that it migh be a stress response and suggested that we cut down on the fresh fruit and veggies and give him mostly pellets hay as these release glucose over a slower period.
Seems diabetes can be a response to stress and at half Term Popeye and his buddie Beans were looked after by a friend while we went on holiday, they'd also moved back and forth between two hutches and couldn't get out onto the grass.
We're doing what the vet suggests, anyone got any other advice
 
This is the link I found on guinealynx. I hope that it might help you. Peter Gurney has not got a lot except saying that is treated much like you would in a human.

As far as I understand, diabetes is more of a temporary than a permanent illness, so it is not as desperate news as it would be in humans. I looked it up when one of my guinea pigs had cataracts.

I wish you the best of luck with the treatment!
 
Be careful of false positive diabetes tests.

Pigs that have been fed on cereal/pellets containing colours can test falsley posititive for diabetes. I had a gold American crested who tested falsley positive for diabetes four times.
 
"If tested with a strip used for testing human urine for the presence of sugar guinea pig urine can produce a false positive result.
The animal should be on a three week test diet consisting of only hay, oats and cabbage. No other type of food should be given during this time. After this time the urine test should be performed."

Ref; Cambridge Cavy Trust
 
... cabbage?
Cabbage is the one of the many things I'm LEAST likely to give to my guinea pigs.
 
I too would avoid cabbage, especially with the pigs prone to/with chronic bloat. It will be interesting to find out what the cabbage can be replaced with in such cases, it's one of the questions I always mean to ask but forget when I'm on the phone!
 
Vedra was quite clear when I raised the question of an alternative to cabbage - no. It is very hard to do especially if the pig doesn't much care for oats either.
 
Strange. I would have thought a more nutritious food like coriander, which I would imagine is also lower in sugars than cabbage, could be used.

Best hope none of my bloat pigs develop signs of diabetes!

Thanks for sharing your experience B&theGGS.

And welcome to the forum, Ellie. :)
 
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Thank you to everyone for all the information. I'm sorry I didn't reply to everyone but I don't think I've got the hang of it yet, I'm sorry of if it seemed rude.
I was really glad to hear that it might not be as serious as in humans. Popeye's urine was tested by the vet with an animal stick. He suggested that if we don't see an improvement after about 2 weeks we should bring Popeye back and if we wanted he would investigate about some medicine. We are doing as people suggest and only feeding him pellets and hay and bringing him in for the extra meals so that Beans doesn't explode. Popeye would love some cabbage so maybe we could give him a little as a treat.
Thank you to everyone
 
Thanks for replying Ellie, glad you figured it out - you can always send a private message to a forum buddy (names in: green), moderator (purple) or administrator (pink) if you do get stuck with finding your way around the forum. :)

What pellets are you feeding? The muesli mixes are the ones to really watch out for in terms of the "false positives" on urine glucose tests.
 
Bad news about Popeye the Diabetic Piggie

Thank you to everyone for your advice. This morning when I went to get Popeye he was lying in the botom of his carrier (we'd kept him in overnight because it was cold and he was so thin). We wrapped him in a warm towel but Mum said she thought he was becoming unconscious and sadly, but peacefully, he died at lunchtime:(
Thanks to everyone.
 
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