From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-12-03 09:47:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Mystery seizure
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., Caitlyn Máire Martin
<caitlynmaire@e...> wrote:
> Hi, everyone,
>
> Romana is our big mystery right now, and I'm hoping someone has
some clues. Romana is an extremely petite three year old female.
She had left adrenal surgery just over a month ago. The pathology
report showed a fully encapsulated neoplasia(?), and she recovered
well. The only problem is that her vulva has remained extremely
swollen, causing us to wonder if the right adrenal gland may be
affected as well. At the time of the surgery there was no sign of
insulinoma or any other problems.
>
> On Thursday evening Romana was pretty lethargic and didn't play as
normal. Yesterday morning she ate her chicken gravy but then vomited
a little bit of it back up. About half an hour later I heard
whimpering/crying and I found her in the midst of a seizure. Her
entire body was convulsing, and she was making these pathetic little
crying noises. This lasted maybe a minute and a half.
>
> After the seizure yesterday she was like a wet dishrag: totally
limp. She recovered briefly but then went totally flat again. I
picked her up and she didn't react at all. I offered her a favorite
treat and she ignored it. I wrapped her in a blanket in the
afternoon and took her to our vet's office.
>
> About two thirds of the way she snapped out of it, climbed down to
the floor from the passenger seat, and used the litter pan I left
her. She then started exploring my car. I must have looked really
strange at stoplights when she perched herself on my shoulder or on
the middle of the steering wheel. I had no cage; I didn't expect her
to recover like that.
>
> Our regular vet wasn't in, but his associate (who is pretty ferret
knowledgeable in her own right) saw her. By that time Romana was
running around acting absolutely normal. Her blood glucose was 83,
which is low-normal, and certainly not indicative of insulinoma.
This couldn't have been an Addisonian Crisis either. She wouldn't
have snapped back from that and her vulva wouldn't still be oh-so-
swollen.
>
> We are watching her closely, but she's been absolutely normal ever
since. Romana will get checked by our regular on Monday if nothing
goes wrong in the meanwhile. For right now we are absolutely
stumped.
Der Caitlyn -
Remember that at least in early stages - insulin release from
insulinomas can be very periodic - and blood sugar may rebound fairly
quickly.
83 is low, but is not what I consider in the insulinoma range, etc.
There are other causes of seizures, in ferrets - they are just very
rare - epilepsy, infectious diseases of the meninges and brain, even
brain tumors. HOwever, they can be the devil to properly diagnose,
as what goes on inside the cranium doesn't often show up on routine
tests.
Single isolated seizures, while distressing to owners, are usually of
little consequence to the ferret. The key is that they don't go on
for extended periods of time or extremely frequently, as they can
result in anoxia, as seizuring animals breathe very erratically.
At this point, I would monitor very closely for signs of any other
neurologic imapirment or other seizres - let's not rule out the
possibility of an insulinoma on the basis of a single isolated test -
it's one of those things that should remain in the back of your head
for future reference.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM