Ping and Mable--updates and pix

[pinky]

The Pingster is holding his own, a little less active, but I think the hemangioma is not growing. I've decided that I can't bear the thought of him dying on the operating table, and so I'm not opting for surgery.

Breakfast time:







His strange Buddha meditation pose:


And finally, my favorite Ping photo of all time. You can see that he must have tussled with a littermate when he was young.


Mable: I think the fenugreek seeds are working! Her test strip indicates glucose, but it doesn't turn as dark as before or as quickly as before. I am giving her ten a day, and she loves them. Of course, they could be adding to her chub, since she's got about 5 extra grams on her, but if they do the job I just have more to love!

Two notes: (1) she has the ruby-eyed mottled gene, and so her eyes glow no matter what I do with the camera; (2) the "CRITER" you see in the one photo comes from when I had my first hamster, Critter. I was living with a family, and the 6th-grader was artistic and wanted to decorate the aquarium. She spelled Critter's name wrong, but that made the decor all the more endearing, and, despite the fact that that tank has been through 14 years of cleaning and the artwork is wearing away, it has sentimental value and I can't bring myself to remove it!

[Die Fledermaus]

Seen the tank before, of course. Maybe you should store books and stuff in it to preserve it. With me, when the tank's plastic rim wears down I can no longer hang a metal wheel on it. Placing wheels on the bedding is futile with gerbils.

Beautiful charming photos; some of the best I've ever seen.

On the feet? Seen that before, too. No danger of running off??

Glad the seeds are working!

I had a scare with Jason a few weeks ago. For one day he showed clear symptoms of serious FLUTD. And then it all, thankfully, went away. Maybe prayers helped.

[pinky]

May 27, 2012 15:44:59 GMT -4 Die Fledermaus said:

Seen the tank before, of course. Maybe you should store books and stuff in it to preserve it. With me, when the tank's plastic rim wears down I can no longer hang a metal wheel on it. Placing wheels on the bedding is futile with gerbils.

Beautiful charming photos; some of the best I've ever seen.

On the feet? Seen that before, too. No danger of running off??

Glad the seeds are working!

I had a scare with Jason a few weeks ago. For one day he showed clear symptoms of serious FLUTD. And then it all, thankfully, went away. Maybe prayers helped.

Yes, I figured some had seen it, but it's a cool story.

Thanks for the compliment on the photos. They both are pretty cooperative.

You are probably remembering the one of Fuzz years ago on my bare feet. No, she's really a good ham to have out and about--she's not that fast and she doesn't nip when having her location corrected.

What is FLUTD? Feline leukemia U___ T___ D___ ?

I've changed my mind--the hemangioma is growing. It will eventually get in the way or wear him down (it already is) and I may have to make that icky decision we all don't want to make. Let's not go there. I've already cried about him twice recently.

[Die Fledermaus]

Your photos look like flash was used, but it did not overexpose at any point.

FeLine Urinary Tract Disease.

Sorry. . . going for the operation? Always hard.

[Die Fledermaus]

Saw on the Hallmark channel Marc Morrone's Pet Keeping show: MARC MORRONE

He featured dwarf hamsters, and had fifty of them running around in a big open pen. Photos off the TV screen later.

[Die Fledermaus]

Here are the photos (off TV) mentioned above. Nice setup.

I am also posting photos in Other - see if you can ID them.

[pinky]

Fifty, and none fight??

It's taken a while, but I've figured out how to take decent ham photos! Mable's eyes can glow even in ambient light, so of course the flash accentuates it.

What is kinda cool is that the eyes of mottleds who have the gene glow to some extent regardless of the color. So if one takes a shot of a black mottled, the black eyes will have a subtle red glow.

I am having a hard time telling if the hemangioma is growing. If it is, it's doing so only slowly. But no surgery, regardless. What happens, happens. He seems to have better days and lesser days, but basically he's ok.

Mable's urine glucose is definitely less. If the strips are a true quantitative measure than it's down by 50% or more.

[Die Fledermaus]

They are obviously there for only a brief period, the fifty. For the camera.

How do you get urine from such a small critter?

Speaking of critters, try to ID the critters in the Others forum, before I give the answers.

[pinky]

A half-pint canning jar is not much larger in diameter than a ham-sized tube, and so with patience one can get the critter to pee in it. I have also extracted bedding, cut out soaked areas of towel tubes and extracted them, and rinsed out wheels to get samples, though these are for yes/no determinations only since there is a dilution factor introduced.

[Die Fledermaus]

Always wondered how they do artificial insemination. But let';s leave that to another board. I am going to sleep now anyway. Good job with the urine.

You know Howard Hughes had jars of the stuff all over his place? Funny I just thought of that. Speely indeed.

[pinky]

Update:

The tumor has grown some. Ping will still run fast on his wheel in fits and starts, and when he walks or runs you can't tell from his stride that something's up, but in general his activity is depressed and he sleeps more. I have also noticed that the cage has a new odor, and whereas he used to smell almost not at all, he now has that odor at a slight level.

Pix:

I find him sleeping in his Buddha position a lot these days. The tumor is to the left of his two left paws.



Tumor is to the right of the yellowish scent gland discharge.



He gets kale or other green leafy every night, so he's fortified in case he has a bleed. He has access to a lot of food, but as he is still small I'm clearly feeding him and the tumor.

Doing what I can for my boy. Time will tell.

[Hamsters82]

I'm glad that Ping and Mable are doing well. And as always they look soo cute!!

[Die Fledermaus]

Does cutting back on sugary starchy foods help in limiting angiogenesis in tumors? I heard sugar feeds tumors.