From:
Lisa
Date: 2001-09-01 09:28:00 UTC
Subject: RE:IBD and Imuran
Hi Trish,
I'm sorry to hear that Mufasa is doing so poorly with the Imuran
treatment. When my ferret Noobie began taking Imuran back in November,
my vet who did the diagnosis (via biopsies) said that Imuran can take
4-6 weeks to start working. I'm also a little concerned about the
doseage you have him on. My vet said that you have to be really careful
with Imuran and make sure that the pharmacy compounds it correctly. At
most, Noobie was on a doseage of .2 once every other day. My vet didn't
want to go over the .2 mark. Perhaps your's is compounded differently,
but I wonder if the much higher doseage you have him on is what is
upsetting his tummy?
Also, if he was doing well on the pred, and you switched him to the
Imuran and stopped the pred, that may have caused a flare-up since
Imuran takes several weeks to begin working. With Noobie, when we
started, we had him on
.3ML of pedia-Pred twice daily and .2ML of the Imuran once every other
day. I also had to have super chem. CBCs done monthly to monitor his
intestinal bloodwork. When his lipase, GGT, and Globulin levels started
to look more normal, we were able to start decreasing his pred then and
start getting him only on the Imuran. For Noobie, the treatment worked,
but it was not a quick fix by any means.
I hope this helps you,
Lisa Shortley