From:
Christal Pollock
Date: 2001-07-26 12:54:00 UTC
Subject: [Ferret-Health-list] ferret teary eyes
Nicole,
Hi, I am new to the Ferret Health List, but I had to reiterate Stephanie's advice. Small, frequent, high-quality protein meals are the basis for non-medical management of insulinoma.
I always compare feeding high-sugar foods to an insulinoma ferret to a person eating a Snickers bar. Sure you get that sugar high, but unless you've eaten something else to keep blood glucose levels steady you will soon "crash". An insulinoma ferret cannot afford this "crash", and may suffer from profound hypoglycemia. (Most ferret owners don't feed semi-moist food, but be aware that they also are relatively high in sugar).
Christal Pollock, DVM
>>> steph@t... 07/25/01 05:25PM >>>
Nicole,
Not to alarm you, but you should not be giving your insulinomic ferret
honey. It has too much sugar which causes the nodules to increase insulin
production hence lower blood sugar. It should only be used when an acute
attack is going on and you need to get him out of a seizure or coma due to
severe low blood glucose. The best approach is to remove all sugar from
their diet and feed frequent high protein meals. Also giving prednisone
helps keep the blood sugar up. I'm not a vet but am currently dealing with
an insulinomic ferret and have seen what works and what doesn't for my
little guy. I've included a bunch of links, in case you don't already have
them that have a wealth of info about insulinoma. Also, I would definitely
do surgery sooner rather than later. If we had done ours sooner he would be
in much better shape now and have a much longer prognosis. He was a rescue
so it wasn't done until he came to us and by then it was too little too
late. A large tumor was removed, but the small nodules had spread throughout
his pancreas. If it had been done early, the vet could have done a partial
pancrectomy and severely slowed the spreading. I'm not sure how ferret
experienced your vet is (and please don't feel that I'm putting her down),
but I would get a second opinion on the surgery and treatment of your guy
from somebody who has dealt a lot with insulinomic ferrets.
Good luck to you and yours,
Stephanie
with Maggie, Bullwinkle, Shasta, Emeline and Icabod
Insulinoma links:
http://www.lbah.com/Ferrets/insulinoma.htm
http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/med/insulin.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/insulino.htm
http://www.ferretnews.org/insulinoma.html - talks about surgery being the
first step in treatment
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/prednisone.htm
http://home.att.net/~hhoefer/ferret_insulinoma.htm - talks about prednisone
being the first step in treatment
-----Original Message-----
From: Nicole Hilliard [mailto:nhilliard@c...]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 8:34 AM
To: Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com
My Ozzie has "teary eyes" too. My vet said it could be a blocked tear
gland.
So, instead of the tear gland draining the tear liquid down thru the
sinuses, the eyes look really watery 'cause the tear liquid has to come
out
somewhere. She said that they didn't have anything small or fine enough to
unplug the tear gland. And, since it doesn't seem to be bothering him (he
wipes his eyes on me all the time), then it's not something to worry
about.
BTW, for all those people who nicely responded to me about my problems
with
Ozzie (seizures, etc.), I took him to the vet and got his blood glucose
level checked. It was low. My vet, Dr. Kelton, thinks he is in the very
early stages of insulinoma. I've followed her advice and put some honey in
his water and made sure he gets more ferretone. Dr. Kelton felt that
surgery
at this point would be wasted because she may not be even able to see any
nodes on the pancreas.
Thanks again for everyone's suggestions.
Nicole
----- Original Message -----
From: <laurie.o@s...>
To: <Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 3:10 PM
> My ferret Taz has "teary eyes". I have a terrific ferret vet who
> cannot figure this out. Taz is nearly 8 years old, & got a clear bill
> of health at his last checkup recently. The eyes are not a problem,
> but I was wondering if anyone else has had this experience with their
> ferret. Thanks.
>
>
>
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