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#1
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managing hypoglycemia: nutritional advice
Back in February (6 months ago) we expected our 14 yo mongrel to die
within a few weeks of her complex liver mass. See: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...g .google.com Since she'd had years of an intermittently annoying colitis, we started her on "last meals" of cooked lamb. Costly, but not too much for a much loved friend soon to pass on. Given her prognosis (liver CA) and age we had no interest in any interventions or even any further study. Long walks, good food, family time, etc. Basic hospice care. She's still around, now going on 14 years and 8 months. (This happens in human hospice care too. Cancer is usually unpredictable.) We've slaughtered a flock of sheep. My wife thinks this is all a complex canine scam. We repeated her lab work, and it looks fairly mediocre, but she looks pretty good -- albeit rather thin. Eating lamb 3 times a day agrees with her. For an ancient person, she's rather content and perky. Her glucose, however, is drifting downwards -- from 70 in 2/04 to 50 in 8/04. (latter is an AM glucose and, as sometimes happens, she didn't eat that much that morning). Hypoglycemia can be seen in severe liver failure, but she's not jaundiced. Nor is she symptomatic. I wonder if the tumor mass is simply demanding a lot of glucose. Does anyone have any experience with a glucose source we could add to her diet? Her current diet is very high in protein but she also takes Canine WD -- high in complex carbohydrates. What do dogs like? She's never shown much evidence of a sweet tooth. Perhaps Karo syrup added to her WD high-fiber diet? Tips much appreciated. We still expect her to die soon, but we've stopped trying to pin it down. john meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, hypoglycemia, terminal care, dog, canine, management, diet. |
#2
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Karo would work but most likely will cause a huge spike in the sugar level
then a fall which is not what you really want. I know from being diabetic you want a consistent level of sugar throughout the day. I would feed her more frequently during the day. Smaller meals keep a more stable level of glucose in the system. Maybe supplement the meals with some flavored oatmeal ( my dogs love this), some white or wheat bread bites, some thing that will bring the glucose up but not to high to cause it to spike. If there are things you know she does like I would do some reading on human diabetes and find out the carbohydrates in those items so you can see if they can be worked into the diet and at what amounts so as to not spike the sugar levels to high. Good luck Celeste "John Faughnan" wrote in message om... Back in February (6 months ago) we expected our 14 yo mongrel to die within a few weeks of her complex liver mass. See: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...g .google.com Since she'd had years of an intermittently annoying colitis, we started her on "last meals" of cooked lamb. Costly, but not too much for a much loved friend soon to pass on. Given her prognosis (liver CA) and age we had no interest in any interventions or even any further study. Long walks, good food, family time, etc. Basic hospice care. She's still around, now going on 14 years and 8 months. (This happens in human hospice care too. Cancer is usually unpredictable.) We've slaughtered a flock of sheep. My wife thinks this is all a complex canine scam. We repeated her lab work, and it looks fairly mediocre, but she looks pretty good -- albeit rather thin. Eating lamb 3 times a day agrees with her. For an ancient person, she's rather content and perky. Her glucose, however, is drifting downwards -- from 70 in 2/04 to 50 in 8/04. (latter is an AM glucose and, as sometimes happens, she didn't eat that much that morning). Hypoglycemia can be seen in severe liver failure, but she's not jaundiced. Nor is she symptomatic. I wonder if the tumor mass is simply demanding a lot of glucose. Does anyone have any experience with a glucose source we could add to her diet? Her current diet is very high in protein but she also takes Canine WD -- high in complex carbohydrates. What do dogs like? She's never shown much evidence of a sweet tooth. Perhaps Karo syrup added to her WD high-fiber diet? Tips much appreciated. We still expect her to die soon, but we've stopped trying to pin it down. john meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, hypoglycemia, terminal care, dog, canine, management, diet. |
#3
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John,
I much admire your attitude about this. Clearly you love Molly and are quite rational about her condition. You could use a food processor to blend white rice and cooked lamb into a paste that Molly might enjoy. A little bit of oil would help it through Molly's system and would reduce the rate the carbs are absorbed from the rice. Please keep us posted about how things go. --Marshall ]"John Faughnan" ] wrote in message om... ]] Back in February (6 months ago) we expected our 14 yo mongrel to die ]] within a few weeks of her complex liver mass. See: ]] ]] ]http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=5c0dbfb4.0402091616.306c2a96%40posting .google.com ]] ]] Since she'd had years of an intermittently annoying colitis, we ]] started her on "last meals" of cooked lamb. Costly, but not too much ]] for a much loved friend soon to pass on. Given her prognosis (liver ]] CA) and age we had no interest in any interventions or even any ]] further study. Long walks, good food, family time, etc. Basic hospice ]] care. ]] ]] She's still around, now going on 14 years and 8 months. (This happens ]] in human hospice care too. Cancer is usually unpredictable.) We've ]] slaughtered a flock of sheep. My wife thinks this is all a complex ]] canine scam. ]] ]] We repeated her lab work, and it looks fairly mediocre, but she looks ]] pretty good -- albeit rather thin. Eating lamb 3 times a day agrees ]] with her. For an ancient person, she's rather content and perky. ]] ]] Her glucose, however, is drifting downwards -- from 70 in 2/04 to 50 ]] in 8/04. (latter is an AM glucose and, as sometimes happens, she ]] didn't eat that much that morning). ]] ]] Hypoglycemia can be seen in severe liver failure, but she's not ]] jaundiced. Nor is she symptomatic. I wonder if the tumor mass is ]] simply demanding a lot of glucose. ]] ]] Does anyone have any experience with a glucose source we could add to ]] her diet? Her current diet is very high in protein but she also takes ]] Canine WD -- high in complex carbohydrates. What do dogs like? She's ]] never shown much evidence of a sweet tooth. Perhaps Karo syrup added ]] to her WD high-fiber diet? ]] ]] Tips much appreciated. We still expect her to die soon, but we've ]] stopped trying to pin it down. ]] ]] john ]] ]] meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, hypoglycemia, terminal care, dog, canine, ]] management, diet. ] ] |
#4
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Dear John, Such a beautiful picture of Molly and such an interesting web site: http://www.faughnan.com/index.html Thanks for all the information and beauty on your web page. --Marshall |
#5
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"John Faughnan" wrote in message om... snip Her glucose, however, is drifting downwards -- from 70 in 2/04 to 50 in 8/04. (latter is an AM glucose and, as sometimes happens, she didn't eat that much that morning). Hypoglycemia can be seen in severe liver failure, but she's not jaundiced. Nor is she symptomatic. I wonder if the tumor mass is simply demanding a lot of glucose. If it is demanding a lot of glucose, wouldn't adding more glucose to the diet allow it to grow even faster? Does anyone have any experience with a glucose source we could add to her diet? Her current diet is very high in protein but she also takes Canine WD -- high in complex carbohydrates. What do dogs like? She's never shown much evidence of a sweet tooth. Perhaps Karo syrup added to her WD high-fiber diet? Tips much appreciated. We still expect her to die soon, but we've stopped trying to pin it down. Raw honey, maybe? Tooth decay can be a problem, but I think you are beyond worrying about that. I don't know if this is a good suggestion or not, just thought I would throw it in. Congratulations on helping your friend, even if it was accidentally:-) René |
#6
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(Marshall Dermer) wrote in message ...
Dear John, Such a beautiful picture of Molly and such an interesting web site: http://www.faughnan.com/index.html Thanks for all the information and beauty on your web page. --Marshall Thank you Marshall! There are a few more pictures of Molly her whimsical "cv": http://www.faughnan.com/thunder.html, though most on our private family site. Her private email address no longer works though -- it was getting too much spam. Dogs don't much care for email anyway, and don't understand why junk email was named after a perfectly good food. Thanks also for the food tips from everyone. The other thing that occurs to me is that low glucose might be more of a problem for her tumor than it is for her -- tumors lack many of the adaptive mechanisms that regular cells have. I think I'll treat her more symptomatically. If she seems sluggish I might try putting a small amount of sugar in her drinking water and see how that works. We do feed her now 3 times a day, but I think I'll leave her dry dog food out in her dish for between meal snacks. Thanks! john |
#8
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#9
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"Rene" wrote in message ...
Hypoglycemia can be seen in severe liver failure, but she's not jaundiced. Nor is she symptomatic. I wonder if the tumor mass is simply demanding a lot of glucose. If it is demanding a lot of glucose, wouldn't adding more glucose to the diet allow it to grow even faster? Good thought Rene! Steve and Marshall made the same comment, Marshall mentioned a Science Diet product that was designed to slow malignancy progression by decreasing simple carbohydrate intake and shifting to a high fat/high protein diet. Sort of like Molly is on now ... thanks, john |
#10
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"Steve Crane" wrote in message Reducing carbohydrates and the glucose they provide can slow the growth of the tumor. ........eliminating carbs works even better. buglady take out the dog before replying |
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