High Blood Sugar

[DragonBus]

My six year old female, Peekaboo has high blood sugar, since last December she was gasping for air, and had mucus on the corners of her mouth. It was treated with Baytril, then Cephalexin antibiotics and improved, but returned after a power outage chilled the temps to the 60s one night.
She has grown extremely weak now and spends most of the day now with her eyes closed, gasping, I can see her airway opening. She seems to have balance problems now as well and flips over on her back a couple times a week. She drags her front legs much of the time. I have to force feed her, and am afraid the high blood sugar is progressing the infection since bacteria love sugar. There is no known treatment for high blood sugar. My vet, a well known reptile specialist is suggesting a possible experimental treatment with a new drug that helps control diabetes. It has never been tried on reptiles. The vet is calling me later today with the name of it.
Her brother, Gator had the same high blood sugar, we tried treating it with bovine insulin with no results. He died. Her other brother, Fuzzy, currently has the same high blood sugar issues. I feed her small meals throughout the day to keep her blood sugar from spiking. I am considering the new drug.
When these dragons were eggs, the incubator got up to 100 degrees for a short while and 5 of the 6 that hatched from that clutch had severe to moderate kinks in their tails...I wonder if some internal damage occurred as well....
Does anyone have any experience with high blood sugar in reptiles? I am willing to try anything to save her, and have pretty much put my vets kids through college..... :help:
Thank You,
Stephanie

 

[DragonBus]

Peekaboo also arches her back, like something in her chest hurts. Last year she fell off a top bunk bed onto a hard floor, this may be spinal trauma and could account for the poor muscle coordination. She had an ultrasound done, showed normal. Going to get x-rays in 12 days, along with another blood sugar test. She is on antibiotics in case it's a upper resp. infection.

 

[Terrbear903]

I never heard of high blood sugar in a bd before. I can't believe someone with experience has not posted yet. You should contact Tracie the moderator she is listed as drachie613. Gool luck and I hope your bd gets better.

 

[DragonBus]

Yeah, I'm not surprised, it's really rare, so rare in fact that no insulin has been developed for Bearded Dragons. When Gator died from it 2 years ago the causes were unknown. Since then my vet has been researching this along with the Dr. who does the necropsys. They have discovered stomach tumors are linked to the problem in many cases, where the tumor secretes a chemical that causes the high blood sugar. Unfortunately by the time symptoms show, the tumor is too large to be removed. It is unknown what causes the tumors. No tumor was seen on Peekaboos ultrasound....
We are looking into Glipizide, which is used to treat mild high blood sugar, but has never been used on reptiles. We are in uncharted territory.......

 

[ShannyBeard]

Have you considered supplementation with serapeptase, which is a naturally occurring enzyme found in silkworms? You can feed the actual worms or get the Serrapeptase as a supplement. I have read that it helps control blood sugar in humans. It also reduces inflammation, so it should help your beardie with the back problems.

 

[DragonBus]

Testing how to upload pics...This is from left, Peekaboo, Hutch & Fuzzy watching lizard television. Check out Hutch's head tilt, she still has it, but antibiotics have helped...Fuzzy has a "click" when he breathes...he's on Baytril.

They love silkworms! A bit hard to find around here though.....Thanks for the info!!!!!

 

[DragonBus]

Peekaboo displaying the forced exhale symptom. I can see her windpipe open up when she does it.

 

[SpikesAgirl]

Oh my goodness! I have never heard of this either! All THREE of them have/had it? Could it be genetic?? I agree with Terrbear, you should PM Tracie(Drache613). She's very experienced with a lot of beardie issues. She's probably your best bet. You can get serrapatese suppletments that Shannybeard suggested here: http://www.bug-de-lite.com/index.html
Tracie would also know if it would be of any benefit to your beardies with their conditions. I've seen her recommend it for other issues. I have nothing else to offer you info wise. I wish I did! Keep us posted!

 

[DragonBus]

Yeah I think it could be genetic, but both parents were healthy. The parents were bought in stores in the same area and could possibly be related....or it could be environment. Peekaboo's blood sugar is at 500 last check. Over the last 2-1/2 years we all live in a 1959 International school bus converted to an RV and travel around Oregon and California. It's made out of recycled materials. The lead paint still remains in some hidden areas under the cabinets, but no where the dragons can get to. Just painted it this summer. I don't know the history of all of the recycled products inside...could be some pesticides or some treatment chemicals in some of the materials, but it's pretty unlikely.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Your dragons look very sweet together. I hope you can figure out how to control their blood sugar easily!

 

[Terrbear903]

Please keep up on this post with all the new stuff that you learn because this is how we all learn. One day when they figure out how to treat the high blood sugar the info will save another dragons life. I was just wondering if your doctor said anything about limiting the carbohydrates? I was also wondering do you happen to feed them that dry adult dragon food?

 

[DragonBus]

The dry food I feed them is Pretty Pets Juvenile Iguana formula, soaked for about two hours or more to soften it. It has all the vitamins and minerals they need so I don't have to give supplements. It looks and smells like fruity pebbles when it's dry. I add greens in the dish with it....but my dragons relish the Pretty Pets...put a few wax worms in there and they will sit around the food dish in a circle for hours waiting for a wax worm to surface. The Pretty Pets does tend to pack on the weight. My vet recommends this particular food because it has the perfect balance of nutrients for Dragons. He suggested giving Peekaboo and Fuzzy small doses of food throughout the day since eating increases blood sugar and a smaller meal means less blood sugar. Fortunately I'm working on a writing project and am home most of the time to give these small meals.

I recall Dr. Burgess encouraging me to feed more greens. Makes sense, carbos turn right into sugar when processed in the body. I increased greens to 90 percent, but too much and they all were a bit constipated, I suppose from the kale, never had it happen on collards. Fuzzy turned brown and had a greyish black beard the last few days. Sleeping a lot. Something was stressing him. I felt his tummy...very fat and full and firmer than usual-he felt backed up and had not pooped in a couple days. I gave him one drop of mineral oil (about .002cc), a warm bath,rubbed his tummy to break up what was in his intestines and LOTS of water last night. He was a bit dehydrated too which makes it worse. He has much better color today after a nice dark poo....I have noticed mineral oil tends to darken poo from past experience. Mineral oil forces the intestines to contract and can be a bit uncomfortable or even painful. Too much of it can cause the intestines to bleed so I never use more than 2 drops. Mineral oil makes the rubber on the oral syringe bind so much that it can't be reused, so does any oily food like A&D.

Fuzzys eye is still not completely healing....I'm sure the high blood sugar is just feeding the bacteria.....I'm a bit stumped. It's so frustrating.... He has a lump on the right side of his jaw....Dr. B. thinks it might be from some past trauma or whack...didn't think it was an abscess....it's right where I syringe feed him so I feed him on the other side now, just in case. I have pictures of Fuzzy from last year and the lump was there.

This is also the first time I have housed Fuzzy with the girls. I used to have to separate them because he would head bob and try to make it with the ladies. Now he doesn't do any of that...but his femoral pores have grown REALLY long and I pulled out a seminole plug from his vent the size of Texas...so love is still on his mind.... :love10: Fuzzy knows what "No Humping" means when I scold him and usually will stop it....usually....sometimes he can't help himself...ahhhh dragon love...But I wonder if this is stressing him and contributing to the high blood sugar, perhaps stressing Peekaboo as well....I'm putting together another aquarium.....Just in case....

 

[DragonBus]

Fuzzy raging femoral pores...

 

[DragonBus]

Fuzzy's semenole plug...They always have the two separate strands...Then combine when they peek out the vent and get mixed with feces. I think each strand is from each hemipene.

 

[DragonBus]

Peekaboo is going to see Dr. Burgess next week to get her blood sugar checked and xrays done to see if she has any spinal trauma. I'm crossing my fingers that her levels will be lower with all of my efforts. If the levels are any higher I will likely start her on the Glipizide.

Hutch and Peekaboo looking for worms....