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managing hypoglycemia: nutritional advice



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 14th 04, 03:53 PM
John Faughnan
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Default 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  
Old August 14th 04, 06:58 PM
Spot
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Default

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  
Old August 14th 04, 08:18 PM
Marshall Dermer
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Default

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  
Old August 14th 04, 08:33 PM
Marshall Dermer
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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  
Old August 15th 04, 05:52 PM
Rene
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Default


"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  
Old August 15th 04, 06:18 PM
John Faughnan
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Default

(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
  #7  
Old August 16th 04, 09:42 PM
Steve Crane
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Posts: n/a
Default

(John Faughnan) wrote in message . com...
(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


John,
You are on the right track. Key to managing tumors, as much as
possible, is to starve the tumor and feed the patient. Decreasing
carbohydrates as much as possible reduces glucose upon which tumors
are dependant for energy. In the late 90's we introduced a food
specifically for cancer in dogs. Basically the food is higher protein
38% and fat 33%, lower carbohydrates 20%, and the addition of very
very high levels of omega 3 fatty acids 7.3% and arginine 2.95%, (all
values are dry matter basis) Omega 6 acids were reduced considerably
as they can contribute to tumor metastisis. In a number of clinical
trials dogs fed this food lived an average of 256 days longer than
those being fed typical pet food.
Reducing carbohydrates and the glucose they provide can slow the
growth of the tumor.
  #9  
Old August 18th 04, 01:31 AM
John Faughnan
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Default

"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  
Old August 18th 04, 04:31 AM
buglady
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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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