From:
Debi Christy
Date: 2001-03-18 13:31:00 UTC
Subject: Another High? Glucose question
I go away for a few days & you guys come up with all sorts of thought
provoking things....
On the high glucose topic:
I've got an 8-year old late-neutered, distemper survivor male,
Pippen, that turned up a glucose level of 487. By the seemingly
obvious symptoms, stumbling & nausea, we first thought insulinoma but
he was also more active than usual rather than lethargic so we did a
glucometer test at home, which was later confirmed by the vet with a
CBC & urine test to be diabetic.
This ferret has never had insulinoma (or adrenal) symptoms, so we
were somewhat surprised. We started him on insulin and over a period
of weeks his glucose levels came down to 100-110 where it stablized
for a couple of weeks, then suddenly (in a 3-4 day period) dropped to
45. We discontinued insulin and gave Pediapred to bring glucose back
up. He is now fairly stable in a range of 124 to 134 without insulin
to keep it down or pred to keep it up.
The first question: Was this just an incidental pancreas inflammation
that may or may not return rather than actual diabetis?
Second: Given this history, at what high glucose level should we
worry about resuming insulin, or is it likely that it will happen
again?
Debi Christy
Ferrets First Foster Home