when our tiki was with us, there was only one toy in the world she
wanted, and she loved it more than anything else: a box of starch packing
peanuts.  she loved to get in, lie on her back, and swim and kick them
around, and even dig feverishly.  then she'd stretch out and have a nap.
sometimes, she'd dig to the bottom and nap there, so we had to sort of
dig her out to know for sure if she was in there.
 
at some point, we noticed her snacking on the starch nuts.  at first we
thought nothing of it.  she didn't seem to do it much, and we knew they
couldn't get stuck anywhere, so we didn't worry.  then we took her to
the vet for a routine checkup, and she got her routine geriatric blood
glucose test.  it came out low, and we got really scared.  on the pred
she went, and we took her home.
 
one day when we were digging her out of her happy dig box, we noticed
huge clumps of starch nuts stuck together.  we decided that she was
snacking too much, and with the threat of insulinoma, she could no longer
have her dig box.  it was heartbreaking to take it from her, but fuzzy
owners do what we must.
 
next time we took her to the vet for a bg check, her blood was above
normal.  it seems that she was snacking on the nuts so much it was
adversely affecting her blood sugar.  we were able to slowly take her off
the pred, and she turned out to be just fine, as long as the starch nuts
were kept away.
 
so, if you do let your fuzzies snack on the starch nuts, keep and eye on
them, and check the box regularly for bit clumps of starch nuts stuck
together.  if they're just snacking one here and there, still keep an eye
out, but if it's daily or more than once a day, best to take it away from
them for a while.
 
andrea and the somerville dynamic duo, lu and gabe
[Posted in FML issue 4022]