From:
Jean@ferretlovers.com
Date: 2001-06-12 20:28:00 UTC
Subject: insulin therapy for diabetic ferret
Hi everyone,
I wrote several weeks ago about my ferret Scoots, who had had surgery
which removed stones from his bladder, his left adrenal, his spleen
and some insulinoma tumors from his pancreas. He had been taking a
long time to recover from his surgery, and I wrote to the list for
help. Thank you to everyone who replied.
Now I need more help. (I really do not know what I would do if I
didn't have this list to turn to, and I really appreciate all of
you!) Scoots had been doing so well... I had decreased his pred
to .1ml twice a day, and he was eating on his own and getting back to
normal. Then Saturday he went back to the way he had been right after
the surgery: stopped eating on his own and lost the use of his back
legs. I increased his pred to .5 ml, without effect. So off to the
vet we went today. Guess what, his blood sugar is over 600!!
My doctor was very confused by this, and we tossed around a couple of
theories about what made this happen. (When I got home I went through
the archives and read about this happening to other ferrets, so at
least now I know I am not alone, and now I know what happened!) What
I cannot find in the archives, however, is how much/what kind of
insulin therapy is given until the ferrets start producing it on
their own again. My doctor did decide to give Scoots insulin, but was
not sure how much to give him. I asked him if he minded if I came to
this list to ask for advice, and he has no problem with it! So now
that we know what happened, we need to know how to treat it until
Scoots is back to normal. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you in advance,
-Jean