Diabetic Piggy

[Shathra Jewell]

Hello, I have a 3 year old guinea pig sow who just got diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and ovarian cysts, the vet said that the best treatment for the cysts is a surgery as the medication has many side effects and the cysts might return, but she said the surgery cannot be performed until her diabetes is under control.

She did a normal blood test and a fructose blood test too to be 100% sure, and both came back high. She said the only way to control the diabetes is to give her 2 insulin injections, morning and evening for the rest of her life, and she must have regular blood tests to make sure the blood sugar is under control. Can you please give me advice on the matter, I need to know if there are any other treatment options an if not, what it's like, can my piggy live happily? Will the injections be painful? Should I go ahead with the insulin injections or is that unfair for her? Obviously leaving her without treatment is not an option but I don't want her to suffer for the rest of her life either. Thank you very much for your help.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, I have a 3 year old guinea pig sow who just got diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and ovarian cysts, the vet said that the best treatment for the cysts is a surgery as the medication has many side effects and the cysts might return, but she said the surgery cannot be performed until her diabetes is under control.

She did a normal blood test and a fructose blood test too to be 100% sure, and both came back high. She said the only way to control the diabetes is to give her 2 insulin injections, morning and evening for the rest of her life, and she must have regular blood tests to make sure the blood sugar is under control. Can you please give me advice on the matter, I need to know if there are any other treatment options an if not, what it's like, can my piggy live happily? Will the injections be painful? Should I go ahead with the insulin injections or is that unfair for her? Obviously leaving her without treatment is not an option but I don't want her to suffer for the rest of her life either. Thank you very much for your help.

Hi! How piggy savvy is your vet and which country are you in?

You can usually control mild diabetes with diet; it tends to subside after a few months. If you are dealing with a strong diabetes, then diet alone is not enough. You want to stay off any fruit (including tomatoes), root veg, sweet corn and ideally pellets that are not grain-free and timothy hay based.

I am tagging some members with experience with diabetic piggies of their own into this thread, too.
@helen105281 @Jaycey @Adelle
@Glynis @pig in the city @Claire W

 

[Shathra Jewell]

I live in Germany, Cologne. My vet not very knowledgeable when it comes to complicated issues but she did plenty of research to check for any other control options for the diabetes and she will give me the details of a guinea pig specialist vet when I go again this week. She already told me to stop feeding her fruit but I will stop all the other foods you mentioned as well, thank you very much for the quick reply and the advice, I actually followed your previous advice about taking her to the vet due to her aggression. In regards to that, the vet said it's possible the diabetes is the culprit or the cysts or neither, she doesn't know for sure.

 

[Shathra Jewell]

Sorry I forgot to ask, what pellets should I feed her? And as she is in a cage with other pigs, can they eat the same pellets she eats? Thanks again

 

[Wiebke]

Sorry I forgot to ask, what pellets should I feed her? And as she is in a cage with other pigs, can they eat the same pellets she eats? Thanks again

Yes, your companions can have the same diet as your diabetes piggy. They can for example eat the same diet as in our sample dish in our diet guide (minus the lettuce) on a once or twice daily basis. Recommendations For A Balanced General Guinea Pig Diet

A good brand widely available in Germany is Versele Laga grain and calcium-free pellets.

Could you please add your country to your details by clicking on your username on the top of the page, then go to personal details and scroll down to location. This makes it appear underneath your username on the top bar and allows us to adjust any advice straight away; out default is UK based, but medical and other brands can differ where you are.

 

[Adelle]

I dont have any experience of diabetes in pigs and can't recommend anything other than above. I do know however that insulin Injections are in Syringes that already have a needle attached and the needle itself is much finer than even the thinnest orange needle that vets use for standard injections. This will certainly be much less painful than a standard needle.

The only other thing I can suggest is arranging abdominal scan to check her liver and pancreas to make sure there isn't an issue with them that's causing the diabetes.

All the best

 

[pig in the city]

I would certainly try diet first if possible as often the diabetes resolves. Is she unwell, losing weight and drinking a lot? If not l would definitely try diet first.
The hormonal issues leading to cysts are probably behind her behavioral change

 

[Claire W]

Hello and welcome. Yes, I have a guinea pig who was diagnosed with diabetes in October 2015. The only suspicion I got was that I noticed she was drinking much more than what was normal for her.

Her urine was positive for off the scale glucose and a small blood test (small pin prick behind the area) revealed very high blood sugar levels.

With recommendations from my vet, we changed Ellen's diet and thankfully, she was stabilised within a matter of weeks and she no longer presented with glucose. My vet also explained that it wouldn't harm her friends to eat the same diet.

I must admit that their diet is pretty boring compared to other guinea pigs, but they are perfectly happy.

You are basically taking away all fruits including tomatoes, root veg such as carrots (which are very high in sugar) and veg high in carbohydrate such as sweet corn.

My piggies diet basically consists of limited pellets, unlimited hay, cumcumber (daily) Pepper (daily) apart from red as red pepper is higher in sugar, Celery (a few times a wee) coriander (daily) although you can use other herbs as a treat, and one green bean each (once a day). I do feed my guinea pigs little gem lettuce but only a few times a week. They also have filtered water.

Ellen has had no problems since but if she does have anything high in sugar, her glucose levels go through the roof again. Sadly, she can't have the painkiller, metacam as it contains honey and causes her glucose levels to increase rapidly.

I too strongly recommend that you try controlling this by diet first before going down the insulin route xx

 

[Glynis]

Hi I'm sorry to read about your little girl :-(
Exactly as Wiebke and Claire have said re diet.
If you can get the oxbow brand pellets they do make one that is ok for diabetic piggies.
Hopefully your bet can recommend a vet who understands piggies with diabetes.
I also bought the urine test papers/strips and tested my Velvet day and night so I learnt when her high and lower times were. This does take awhile with diet but if you're strict with diet her glucose levels may come down quickly!
All the best.
Do keep me up to date I'm happy to chat anytime. I'm in Australia so there is time differences.
Also welcome to the forum

Glynis x

 

[DM030819]

Ditto the above in regards to altering the diet first.

I haven't had a pig diagnosed with diabetes but I did have a chat with my vet after one of my boys was drinking alot and having stomach issues. I wasn't given the exact details but my vet wouldn't go down the route of insulin injections. Apparently there are other ways but I don't know what unfortunately.

But, they did say that changing the diet would always be the first thing to do, as diet can cause high glucose readings in urine tests. Only after a change in diet and retest in a month or two would they consider diabetes as a possibility.

 

[Shathra Jewell]

Thanks everyone for all the advice, I will be taking her back to the vet this week and I will post updates and get more details to why she went straight for injections instead of trying a change of diet alone first, I will ask about other options to control it as well.

 

[Shathra Jewell]

Hello again, I went back to the vet last night and we had a lengthy discussion, she said the sugar levels are very high to the point where diet alone won't make a difference, she said the fructose is 650 (max normal should be 270) and glucose is 16.8 (max normal 8.5), I gave Pumpkin her first injection this morning and it went well. The vet gave me a sugary sticky paste to put on her gums in case she gets hypoglycaemic, but I keep checking on her and she seems ok, I will take her back to the vet for a blood test on Friday 24th to see how well the insulin is working and adjust the dose etc if necessary, I will let you know what the result is. Thanks again for all your advice and care