Tag: information

Pawspice And Animal Oncology Consultation Service – Veterinarian In Hermosa Beach, CA USA :: Quality of Life Scale

Anyone who’s wondered about whether it’s time to put down their pet has probably tried to figure out how to measure quality of life. I found this resource which gives you a quantifiable way of tracking how your pet is doing, it guides you how to rate how your pet is doing in seven categories – hurt, hunger, hydration, hygiene, happiness, mobility, more good days than bad days. I find this more useful than ‘you’ll know when it’s time’ as it’s completely impossible for me to be objective about this. Maybe when it’s time I will know, but until then this helps me to know it’s not time yet.

I know this is an upsetting topic and I’ve tried to tag everything people might have blacklisted, if I’ve missed anything or there’s anything else I post you’d like tagged differently let me know and I’ll do my best.

Pet care tip: if you’re trying to work out your pet’s respiratory rate by yourself and you’re struggling to keep an eye on the time while counting breaths take a 15 second video of your pet, then watch the video, count the breaths and multiply by 4 for their breaths per minute. That way you only need to focus on one thing at a time.

Added bonus: if your pet is breathing heavily or having difficulty breathing you have a video you can show your vet in case your pet isn’t exhibiting the symptom at an appointment. The more information you can give your vet the better.

degu-days:

Last week we noticed Clark was losing weight, so we took him to Lake Howell Animal Clinic. Dr. Diaz, who is very familiar with degus, discovered that Clark’s molars had grown way more than normal (see photo of mouth). Yesterday Clark had an oral procedure done to remove a molar and file down the others. The first 4 photos are Clark right after being picked up from the vet. He was definitely exhausted and fell asleep on the way home. The last 2 are from today. He’s the happiest he’s been in a while and is back to eating normally. Yay Clark!

Sign of dental disease: discomfort eating, pawing at mouth. Daniel had one tooth at the back which had become severely overgrown. Due to being unable to eat properly on one side his incisors grew unevenly – his top incisors started to grow at an angle which led to a gap forming between his bottom incisors. Once his molar was trimmed his incisors were able to be worn down correctly when eating.

Sign of dental disease: swelling on the left side of Jack’s mouth (right side of the photo). As well as being able to see this, a hard lump could also be felt.

Jack had a loose tooth at the back at the top on the left-hand side, as a result of this eating on this side became painful and as he avoided eating on that side the rest of the teeth also became overgrown on this side.

Dental disease

As 60% of degus over 2 years old get dental disease it’s important to
know what to look out for, warning signs include:

A degu’s teeth grow continually at a rate of around 1 cm per month and
need to be worn down constantly. If a tooth is damaged, for example by getting
chipped while chewing at the cage bars, then the corresponding upper or lower tooth
won’t have anything to press against to wear it down and may end up overgrown,
or a tooth may end up overgrown if it grows out at an angle. The teeth may also grow spurs; these are sharp points
which can cut in to the cheeks, tongue and gums and may lead to the tongue being trapped.   

If teeth are overgrown the degu should be taken to the vet to have the
teeth clipped or burred. This may be something that a degu requires regularly;
the degu will require a little anaesthetic for this procedure. 

If the teeth are overgrown then as they continue to try and grow but
have no space to grow in to the tooth roots can become overgrown which is much
more serious as there is no way of treating this short of removing the affected
half of the jaw. The most likely course of treatment would be to regularly trim
any overgrown teeth and long term pain management. Overgrown tooth roots can cause discharge from the eye or
nose as the roots grow in to the structures of the skull.

The main cause of dental disease is diet, although genetics and
environment also play a part. Degus should have access to hay at all times as
this wears down the teeth as well as providing fibre. In the wild degus would
spend most of their day foraging and eating as the food available would be low
in nutrients, in captivity where degus get all the nutrition they need from a
much smaller amount of food their teeth still need to be worn down.

As the teeth become more overgrown the degu will begin to have trouble
closing their mouth, leading to slobbering, and making it difficult for them to
eat.

If a degu is kept in cage which is too small, doesn’t have enrichment,
or is kept on their own they are more likely to chew at the cage bars which can
lead to chipped or cracked teeth. A degu may also break their teeth through an
accident such as falling off a shelf if there is a sharp impact.

In order to notice signs of illness as soon as possible I recommend
weighing degus on a weekly basis as a change in weight can be an early warning
sign of a number of illnesses. Also keep an eye on any change in their faeces,
if a degu isn’t eating properly these may become smaller or less uniform.

After a degu has been to the vet for treatment on their teeth their
mouth will be sore and it may be necessary to mix their nuggets with some water
to soften them. Another possibility would be to feed the degu Critical Care. Critical Care should only be used in the short term as it contains some sugars.

Pictured below: Jack’s overgrown teeth and tooth roots (top photo) compared to Sam’s healthy teeth (bottom photo). Photos used with expressed permission from my vet. Do not use or repost.

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Prolapsed penis

Some of this will apply to other animals but this post has been written about degus

What is a prolapsed penis: This is when the penis gets gets stuck outside of the cone, how much of the penis gets stuck can vary. If you don’t know what is meant by cone check out this post on how to sex degus.

Why is it a problem: A degu’s penis is designed to be stored internally, if stuck outside it increases the risk of it getting injured or infected. The end of the cone will also cut off the blood supply to the part of the penis stuck outside. An infection can lead to trouble urinating which could cause a kidney infection.

What could cause this:
– straining to urinate, possibly due to a UTI or kidney stones
– a foreign object getting stuck within the cone
– an ulcer in the cone/on the penis
– a fur ring – this is when fur gets wrapped around the penis and prevents it from being retracted (this is more likely in chinchillas than degus due to the difference in fur)

What needs to be done: The degu should be taken to a vet to investigate and treat the cause of the prolapsed penis. Hopefully it will be a case of removing the foreign object or fur from the penis, some antibiotics to help the swelling go down and the degu should recover well, however if the cause is more serious, for example kidney stones, then surgery will be required.

Photo of a healthy cone and a prolapsed penis under the cut for those who don’t want to see it on their dash.

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Making a wheel

You will need:

  • cake tin (at least 12″ in diameter)
  • lazy susan turntable bearing
  • drill
  • rivet gun
  • tape measure/ruler
  • pen/pencil

Depending on how you attach the wheel to the cage you will also need:

  • cable ties

or

  • screwdriver
  • screws
  • washers
  • wood

How to make the wheel:

  1. Using a tape measure/ruler find the middle of tin on the outside, line up the lazy susan turntable bearing and mark where your holes will need to be 
  2. Find out what size rivet fits in the holes of your lazy susan turntable bearing and using a drill make holes of the appropriate size where you have marked on the tin
  3. If you are attaching the bearing from outside the tin go on the step 4, otherwise now is the time to attach the bearing to the piece of wood (this will need to be a few centimetres wider than the bearing so the wood doesn’t split when you screw in to it, but shouldn’t be wider than the wheel so that it doesn’t get chewed at).
  4. Place the rivet through the hole in the tin and the bearing and use the rivet gun to attach the two together. This takes a fair amount of force.
  5. File down any sharp edges you may have if the rivet didn’t break of smoothly and your wheel is ready to be attached to the cage, do this either with cable ties or if you have a piece of wood attached to the wheel use the screws and washers.

Reasons you might want to make your own wheel:

  • You can make sure the wheel is a suitable size
  • The wheel will have a solid base and back
  • Most commercially available wheels are made of plastic which will be chewed and need replacing

Choosing a cake tin: The tin will need to be at least 12″ in diameter so that your pets spine isn’t damaged, I went with a 13″ tin as this is the largest I could fit through the cage door. The tin should not be covered in anything such as teflon that will come off when chewed, iron or steel will rust when it gets damp (read: when it gets peed on), the tin here is anodised aluminium.

The original guide I followed used a 3″ lazy susan turntable bearing, this has to be attached to the tin from the outside which meant that it wasn’t possible to attach a piece of wood or anything to make it easier to attach to the side of the cage so these are attached with cable ties. The lazy susan turntable bearing I used this time is 6″ as I thought that this would give the wheel more stability and stop it rubbing against the side of the cage as it’s used (the other wheels have kitchen roll behind them to prevent the rubbing but this isn’t an ideal solution). The issue I have with the 6″ bearing is that it’s already loud on it’s own, I don’t know if this is an issue in general or just with the particular bearing I got.

What do you feed your degus? I can’t find any good foods that don’t lack one thing or another..Also, what do you use for treats when you are teaching them stuff? (sorry you’re pretty much the only degu blog I can find so uh that’s why I asked)

Hi! I feed my degus a mix of nuggets, seeds, dried and fresh plants/veg. I live in the UK and use the degu nuggets sold by Pets at Home,these make up about half of their regular food. In the wild seeds make up up to 60% of their diet so the other half of their regular food is a mix of seeds,flaked oats and dried plants. Degutopia has a good overview with a bit more information than I have here.

I feed my degus twice a day, once in the cage where all of their food is spread out so they have to forage for it and once when they’re out for their run where I hand feed them the nuggets and then spread out the seeds in the cage afterwards. I use the hand feeding as a chance to handle them, to reinforce a positive connection with me and also to train them.

I also give them each a pea flake and corn flake (not to be confused with the breakfast cereal!). The pea flakes come in handy if I need to check an injury or something as the flakes are quite big and the degus need to use both paws to eat it so it helps to keep them still.

I also give my degus fresh herbs and vegetables several times a week. Some vegetables should be fed less regularly due to their higher sugar content and the degus’ predisposition to diabetes.

Other treats I use include puffed rice which can be fed regularly and can be found in health food shops or the free from section in the supermarket, it’s sold as a cereal, just make sure you get the plain one. I can only speak for the UK, I don’t know how common it is in other countries. Occasional treats (1-2 a few times a week) include pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Rare treats (once a month) include nuts, I usually give my degus a hazelnut. If you give them the nut still in the shell it provides them with a challenge to get in to it (especially with nuts which roll away easily) and it wears down their teeth. They also get occasional dried rosehips which are high in vitamin C but should only be fed at most one a week.

If I want to give the degus something new I will google for ‘degu safe [insert food]’ (this is literally half my search history)and I will cross-reference three different sources to make sure that it’s definitely safe. This may be overkill but I’d always rather be safe than sorry. Even though some lists of degu safe foods include fruits I would personally never feed my degus any fruit because of the sugar content.

Degus should also have constant access to hay, this will help to wear down their teeth and provide fibre. Lack of hay can lead to overgrown teeth, diarrhoea and digestion problems. Given the wording of your question I’m sure you know this but there may be people who are thinking about getting degus who might use this answer as a guide so I want to cover everything.

There are people who feed their degus a diet of whole plants and seeds as this is closer to what degus would eat in the wild,I don’t find it very practical but it may be something you want to look in to, 

Please don’t apologise, I love getting questions! (Although it is a shame that I’m the only degu blog) Please feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions or if you want to let me know what your degus make of their new treats.

I’ve probably given you more information than you were after here but once I start talking about degus I find it difficult to stop.