From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-05-08 13:54:00 UTC
Subject: Re: insulimona: pediapred dosage?
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., Jean Chiasson <Jean@f...> wrote:
> Here's the story: Scoots went in for surgery two weeks ago. We
suspected adrenal disease, and we knew he had stones in his bladder.
We also were slightly suspicious of insulinoma, as he had had one
episode where he was completely lethargic, but perked up after having
some ferretvite. We were not too worried about insulinoma, though,
because his blood sugar had tested low normal (if I remember
correctly it was 61).
Oops, not low normal, but low. 61 is definitely low.
>
> Dr. **** thinks that the enlarged adrenal was producing enough
extra hormones to combat the insulinoma, and that was why his blood
sugar was normal. He also said Scoots was probably pretty anemic from
losing his spleen, and that is why his recovery was taking so long.
Well, the sugar was low, and the anemai theory is sound (but a quick
blood test would be able to confirm it.)
> Scoots finally started eating on his own after that! I bought a
kitchen scale so I could monitor his weight at home, and he is now up
to 2.125 pounds. So I reduced his Pred dosage, first to .75 ml twice
a day, then to .5 ml twice a day. He is still doing great, so now I
want to reduce his dose again. My question is (after all that
background) should I reduce his dose to .25 ml twice a day, or just
do .5 ml once a day?
Have you checked his glucose after surgery - before making any
empiric changes in the glucose, I think that I would want to check
all of the parameters, especially if the prednisone was responsible
for him perking up after surgery.
If the blood test checks out well, then I'd drop to .25ml twice daily.
With kindest regards,
Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP
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