From:
Regina Harrison
Date: 2001-05-04 03:30:00 UTC
Subject: pred belly?
My six year, six month old ferret Amelia has been on pred since late
November for insulinoma. Although she's generally a healthy, robust ferret,
we didn't opt for surgery because her BG was too low to consider her
stable-- she tested at 43 (!) before pred, and has since leveled off in the
upper 60s. My question is, I recall people talking about pred bellies, due
to fluid retention. Amelia's definitely looking round these days, and I'm
suspecting that's the cause. I am seeing her vet next week for a blood
glucose check, but thought I would also ask here first: is there anything
that can be done to combat this side effect, or are there potential health
risks that result from the fluid retention? She eats, drinks, and uses the
litterbox healthily.
I can also feel that her spleen is enlarging again (it reduced dramatically
after starting the pred, nearly back to normal), so that's something else
for the vet to look at. In the past, she's always bounced back from
surgeries (1 blockage, 1 adrenalectomy)like a super ball, but it's so hard
to judge how she'd do now. Part of me holds out hope that we could do
surgery for the insulinoma and spleen and buy her lots of time, but I'm just
too afraid of her crashing. :(
As an aside, here's a seasonal reminder about the dangers of heat stroke!
Here in the northeastern US we are having a bizarre heat wave; it felt
ridiculous to put in the AC on May 2, but without it I'd have one fried
ferret. Keep your ferrets in mind when planning out your seasonal home
changes!
Regina
Regina Harrison regina_z@h... or regina@c...
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/8096
the tears are welling in my eyes again
I need twenty big buckets to catch them in
and twenty pretty girls to carry them down
and twenty deep holes to bury them in
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