Post by Pooka on Mar 27, 2006 11:03:23 GMT -5
Hey Gang,
Hope everyone is well, I'm not sure if I mentioned it after the last vet visit but our vet wanted to see Pooka again in 3 weeks for a egg exam. So 3 weeks later we set her up an appointment and went on in, that was Friday.
Well Pooka's appetite has gone downhill the past 2 weeks, a factor we attributed to a reproductive cycle. When Dr. Jarchow weighed her she was down to 165 (according to the chart she was 182 last visit) which means she lost 17 grams in 3 weeks. Not suprising really seeing has she has refused all food but 1 occasional meal item every few days since right before that last visit. The real kicker was the follicles have resorbed again, making this at least the 2nd and perhaps the 3rd time she has begun a cycle and not gone full term. The Dr. was slightly concerned and suggested we go ahead and do the xray and a blood panel, which we did. Not cheap, by the way, it came out to be $260 or with 1 xray, the blood work and the visit.
The xray showed Pooka has been eating the gravel from her nest dirt, no big surprise there either, for me or the vet. He said they instinctivly will eat substrate to keep trace minerals up in the body and will especially seek it out during reproductive cycles. There was only a few small pieces and no evidence (either in the xray or in the water dish previous) to indicate impaction. The xray also showed her follicles at normal size. Her bone density was excellent, some of the best he has seen, and all the internal organs seemed of a nice density (he said liver issues often will make the liver stand out in a xray). All in all the xray looked good. Blood work is due sometime Monday, I'll get a call on that. For now he said just keep offering food, she may have a weak appetite due to resorbed yolk powering her and suggested I not worry overly much about the loss of weight and lack of appetite.
Pooka has since started eating, 3 items on the day of the visit, 6 on Saturday and 7 today. Seems she now has a taste for crickets, so I guess I better break out the tweezers for some leg plucking, gotta keep that Pooka bean happy. That's about it folks, I'll check back in with the blood panel results when they come in. Thanks all.
Hope everyone is well, I'm not sure if I mentioned it after the last vet visit but our vet wanted to see Pooka again in 3 weeks for a egg exam. So 3 weeks later we set her up an appointment and went on in, that was Friday.
Well Pooka's appetite has gone downhill the past 2 weeks, a factor we attributed to a reproductive cycle. When Dr. Jarchow weighed her she was down to 165 (according to the chart she was 182 last visit) which means she lost 17 grams in 3 weeks. Not suprising really seeing has she has refused all food but 1 occasional meal item every few days since right before that last visit. The real kicker was the follicles have resorbed again, making this at least the 2nd and perhaps the 3rd time she has begun a cycle and not gone full term. The Dr. was slightly concerned and suggested we go ahead and do the xray and a blood panel, which we did. Not cheap, by the way, it came out to be $260 or with 1 xray, the blood work and the visit.
The xray showed Pooka has been eating the gravel from her nest dirt, no big surprise there either, for me or the vet. He said they instinctivly will eat substrate to keep trace minerals up in the body and will especially seek it out during reproductive cycles. There was only a few small pieces and no evidence (either in the xray or in the water dish previous) to indicate impaction. The xray also showed her follicles at normal size. Her bone density was excellent, some of the best he has seen, and all the internal organs seemed of a nice density (he said liver issues often will make the liver stand out in a xray). All in all the xray looked good. Blood work is due sometime Monday, I'll get a call on that. For now he said just keep offering food, she may have a weak appetite due to resorbed yolk powering her and suggested I not worry overly much about the loss of weight and lack of appetite.
Pooka has since started eating, 3 items on the day of the visit, 6 on Saturday and 7 today. Seems she now has a taste for crickets, so I guess I better break out the tweezers for some leg plucking, gotta keep that Pooka bean happy. That's about it folks, I'll check back in with the blood panel results when they come in. Thanks all.
