Message Number: YG8072 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Steve Austin
Date: 2001-10-22 09:06:00 UTC
Subject: Ferret traumatized?

I posted about 10 days ago about my ferret, Tom, who
had an episode after he was "attacked", but not physically
harmed by my other ferret.
His eyes were open, but not responding for about an hour,
a few people e-mailed me about possible insulinoma, and
hypoglycemia- which at the time did not cross my mind
because he was frightened, and he was young ( suppose to
be 2years or so). The next day I did a fasting glucose,
after 5 hours fasting, and the glucose was 90. So, of course,
I was relieved,
well, today he was limp and not appropriate and I quickly did
the glucose check and it was 38. I called the vet, gave him a little
Karo syrup on his gums, and he woke up quickly, urinated, and
a little dopey, but better. He is scheduled Thursday for surgery.
He is probably older than I thought, and I got him in June, but thinking
back he did have 2 other episodes of weakness after a fight with
my other ferrets in July, and I decided to move him to the bedroom
so he would be "safe", never thinking of Insulinoma.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post, and
a lesson I learned, is that if I had read the post that I originally
sent about Tom, I would have told that person to think about
insulinoma, but for some reason I didn't think of it during the episode,
and that if your ferret has symptoms, one normal fasting glucose
may not be accurate, and it is best to get a glucose during the symptoms.

Patty
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