I just got back from the entire crew's trip to the vet. First the good news: the girls all seem to be fine, just jumpy from the move. He took a blood sample from Carrots just to be sure, since she is the most subdued. Rocky is on the other end of the spectrum, waving her tail and running about frantically. On inspection they all look healthy so unless Carrots' tests show something it's back to business as usual with the girls. I'll have results on Monday. Someone (either Rocky, Ellipsis, or Smiley) regurgitated some worms on the way home though.
Now the not good news. Peanut has a very high white blood cell count and major signs of kidney disease. The vet thinks it's a particular kind of gout where crystals enter the tissue (I forget the name he said). He also has pinworms. Vet prescribed Fortaz, with subcutaenous injections every other day, which I'm not looking forward to doing. Peanut's weight was down from 84g to 76g since Monday (he hasn't eaten anything in that span) so I'll also start syringe feeding him Carnivore Care. He's even more listless and I'm really worried about him by the vet was pretty optimistic. We go in for a follow-up on Tuesday. If he's not doing any better by then we will revisit crypto as a possibility. My vet doesn't like to test for it since he feels the test is unreliable enough to be useless. If the current treatment doesn't help I'm going to insist on the test anyway. In the meantime I will switch my mealworms to a different gutload (or at least start the transition since picking them all out of their current bedding is pretty impossible). Can they live in the Repashy diet or do they need to be taken out and gutloaded separately before feeding? Thanks to everyone for your helpful and hopeful comments. I feel much better knowing that I have a panel of experts helping me along. -Jessica
