From:
Angela Espinet
Date: 2001-12-23 15:50:00 UTC
Subject: Advice on Insulinoma!
Hello Moki and Chance,
Having a blood glucose of 52 is NOT GOOD! When you
say you are giving Chance PRED. what is the strength?
Pediapred is 5mg per 5 ml, if that is what you are
using you would certainly need to raise the dose at
least to .4cc-.5cc, however a careful monitoring by
your vet is in order here to see if this will raise
his blood glucose enough!
There are other preparations that are 5mg per 1ml
and that would mean the dosage may still need to be
adjusted if his blood glucose is so low! Also another
preparation of prednisolone is 15mg per 5ml, so once
again your vet would need to establish the dosage of
the PREDNISONE and by testing Chance's blood he will
be able to monitor the results!
Much is said about surgery, however I have been
able to keep my ferrets going for 4-5 years without
surgery, just by giving them pred. plus supplemental
feedings of chicken! It is imperative that you feed
Chance some chicken baby food along with his pred.
each time about 20-25ccs, the pred. HAS TO BE BE GIVEN
WITH FOOD! Plus the chicken babyfood is high in meat
protein and is easy for the ferret to assimilate and
to keep the blood glucose leveled off!
Unfortunately for ferrets with hypoglycemia, they
tend to 'oversleep' and do not realise that their
blood glucose has dropped and then find themselves too
tired to get up and eat and this is when we see them
seizure! Many times people do not realise that the
ferret is having minor seizures until they are having
major seizures, by then the problem is quite
advanced!At this point a little honey is needed to get
the sugar quickly into the ferret, then once the
ferret is awake immeadiately follow with a meal of
babyfood or home cooked chicken liquified!
I have 15 ferrets with insulinoma at this time and
I monitor their blood glucose every 2-4weeks, this
gives me a good indication as to the dosage of pred.
necessary, hope this helps---Angela.
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