From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-07-12 12:37:00 UTC
Subject: weighing options for Warpie
As you know, seven year old Warp had a mouth scratch. Don't think
that I posted an update, or that her nausea returned and with it a
new scratch. It wasn't her usual small intestinal problem that was
causing the nausea. She has insulinoma.
Warp is not a surgical candidate, having come close to dying each
time she has had to have surgery when it couldn't be avoided. The
problem is not her age but her constitution; we've had older ferrets
have surgery without any hitches.
Warp isn't even a good fasting glucose test candidate: she is hard to
get blood from, stresses easily, is inclined to having her intestinal
problem dangerously worsen when stressed, is emaciated despite many
meals every day due to her small intestine being so damaged (though
we have her up to 1# 4 ounces which is a big improvement again), etc.
What we did was we fed her a/d at a given time and then Joe Martins
(one of the two ferret-vets at Basking Ridge A.H.), a tech Warp
liked, and I tried 5 times and finally got enough blood about 45
minutes after her meal. It was low (high 60s) on immediate reading
despite the meal and despite distracting her with Laxastat which has
3 sugar sources in it.
Now we weigh options. For her surgery is out unless she is going to
die without it because she just is so fragile an individual.
That leaves Prednisone and Proglycem.
Each has good points and bad for her.
The Proglycem won't knock down her immune system at all which will
help her latest (nasty) claw-given palate scratch heal.
The Prednisone may help reduce her intestinal symptoms as well and
could increase her appetite which may make her eat more often.
On the other hand: the Proglycem won't help her intestine, and the
Prednisone might reduce the healing rate for the scratch (increase
the infection risk) plus the increased appetite will backfire if she
tries to eat larger meals since her body can't tolerate that.
First we are trying the Prednisone, and so far, so good.
Interested in hearing what folks think and any further points for
consideration, though we all suspect this is going to just be a
try-and-find-out situation with the two meds.
Fortunately, even though he is a male, Warp likes Joe Martins. She
doesn't trust many males due to two early abuse situations before she
came here. She's the one who loves to kiss Steve after Steve is
asleep even though she trusts him.
She is also getting very good at peeing on anyone doing something she
dislikes and will hold some back to make later "comments". Joe
laughed and said that he didn't like that tie anyway! When done he
needed a full clothing change.