Thank you all. So much to reply too.
First off the big concern seems to be diet. I worked hard to get that as close to wild as I could though on the surface it doesn't look like it. Yes their diet is much different than a cat. They need only trace amounts of retinol for example or they get a type of MBD of the spine where as cats need a lot of it. Their phos:ca ratio is about inverse from what you would find in most species. If you just fed them local ants and termites it would not be a balanced diet since they would not be the same values as the wild species they would be eating. I formulated the diet recipe(which I posted and doesn't include the yogurt) to meet the nutritional values found in their wild diet as much as possible. She is 9.5 now and I had her spine x-rayed a couple years ago and it was beautiful. Many places started using the diet since or a close variation of it and had much more success than they once had. They slow their metabolism while sleeping and need lots of vitamin K in their diet because they do not recycle it like most animals. Despite the major differences the basic rules of diabetes would be the same, like lowering carbs and it helps to discus with people who understand the condition even if not the actual patient.
I do beleive most of the source of her condition was an illness when younger that caused internal bleeding and effected her liver and probably other organs but there was obvious signs of her liver being affected. I know I didn't help with some of the treats she was allowed but didn't think of them as being high sugar at the time. The issue with the yogurt isn't anything added it's the left over lactose. Though Greek yogurt should be lower in sugars since it is drained a bit and the lactose is in the weigh I haven't found the store brands of Greek yogurt to actually be any lower in sugar than regular. One thing I had been doing was using goat cheese cultures but on cows milk and making cheese. Age 24hrs or more then strain for 24hrs. Then I blended it with some water to make it a better consistancy to be poured on top of Aurora's soup. This removes most of the weigh so should remove most of the sugar and is still sour milk tasting enough to make Aurora happy enough to eat her food. Recently I had just used yogurt though as I didn't see any BG benefits when doing that. I will go back to doing that though as it should be less stress on her system at the least by having less lactose. One other benefit was Pua didn't like it much so left Aurora's food alone more so she also got less of the cheese than she does the yogurt since she was less inclined to steal though still did sometimes.
@Vyktors Mum that article goes into detail more on what is going on with exercise than I had seen before. Will have to work on the less more often. I would do weekly hikes before and she likes to go go go till exhausted. I can hold her back so she doesn't run as hard too.
I can try using lower fat meat. It does raise the phos in the ratio doing that but others have chosen to do so with the diet and had no issues yet. Plus with her age it's not a real issue unless the ratio is thrown way off or the retinol went too high(that can cause major damage in just a month).
@rhiannon and shadow That does seem like a lot of carbs. I added them for mineral content mostly but then upped them for fiber too. The wheat bran is the main fiber source. The wild diet is super high in fiber but it's insoluble since it's from exoskeletons.
@Hillary & Maui (GA) I wasn't getting accurate reading with the freestyle or alpatrack. What I did was take 3 different control fluids and tested each meter with each type of strip and fluid combo. None seemed accurate as far as her blood goes. So I took the freestyle strip in the alphatrack meter(because it can be coded and FS can't) and coded it down till it was different enough from the base reading on each fluid to account for the difference initially seen when we tested the drawn blood at the vet with the meters compared to lab. This seems to have worked as the numbers were more what was expected and a test at the same time of day as one taken at the vet gave about the same number though different day and blood. 107 lab tested at vet and 109 at home. I'll try the meter as coded next time we have her to the vet to draw but it seems to be working for her.
The yogurt is given for flavor as Aurora will not eat without it added at least a little bit on top. The best compromise I could come up with was soft sour tasting cheese instead like described above. Milk free alternatives still have comparable sugar as sugar needs to be added to have something to ferment with the cultures. It's possible she may react less strongly to one of the other sugars than lactose though. I don't think probiotics on their own have any real flavor.
Wheat bran was about the highest fiber food I could find to add but looking now it does have a good deal of carbs. I thought of it as mostly fiber. I'm used to looking at the protein annd mineral content ect but will need to get used to looking at carbs too.
It's not that much of a problem to test at home. I poke her feet and wait a moment them can get some blood out. Their skin is pretty thick. I meant it's difficult to get veterinary blood samples. It can only be drawn from the vein in the underside of the tail. It takes at least two of us to hold her as the vet draws blood. This greatly inhibits the ability for more invasive tests where they might want to keep her for a bit and draw more than once over a period of time. Pua got a bit depressed when I did a curve on her awhile back but generally she tolerates some spot testing well. They poke each others feet with their claws for fun so I believe she takes it as me playing too rough more than my being malicious and yes a treat does help a lot.
@Sienne and Gabby That is why we were trying to avoid having to go with medications or insulin. It is really uncharted territory. Sometimes with such a rare animal you are forced to have your pet be the guinea pig, like when we used an appetite stimulant on Aurora. There was no record of it's use in anteaters but it worked great and now other anteaters can benefit from the knowledge. It kind of sucks to be first though.
@BJM just anteaters. Sloths and Armadillos share the same super order as anteaters but that's as close as it gets. They are that unique.
I use
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ a lot for finding nutrient info.
Living with Anteaters is us
Glad it looks useful though. I need to update that though I see it's not the most up to date version of the care sheet I have.
A lot of good studies can be found in the Edentata newsletters
http://www.xenarthrans.org/
I could use mealworms if mashed up. She found them hard to eat given whole as a treat. I use dried silkworm pupae a lot since their nutrient content is very similar to ants. She loves soft bodied grubs when I can find them.
I see you are awake
Pua foot
Caught sleeping together
Pua and her shadow
How was the vet visit yesterday?
