From:
AFERRETVET@cs.com
Date: 2002-09-04 03:03:13 UTC
Subject: Re: Ketones Digest 3 Sep 2002 23:13:55 -0000 Issue 72
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <19a.8010515.2aa6d1f1@cs.com>
Hi Julie,
What you are describing is called diabetic ketoacidosis
(DKA). This is a serious complication of diabetes and
can be fatal. The smell of acetone on the breath is common.
The not eating is common and makes DKA worse. Dehydration
is also common and makes DKA worse.
Normal saline (0.9%) is the fluid of choice and IV is
better than SQ. I would recommend IV fluid therapy if possible.
How much fluid to give will depend on % dehydration and amount
of urination. Most of these are roughly 10% dehydrated. This amount
should be corrected over 24 hours. After correcting the dehydration then
maintenance doses of roughly 100mls per pound per day can be used.
Potassium supplementation to the fluids is usually needed too.
The amount of insulin to give is difficult to guess. I usually start
at 1 unit ultralente insulin BID then adjust based on glucose levels.
In dogs and cats, we usually use regular insulin to start with.
I have not used regular insulin in ferrets yet.
Antibiotic therapy is also a good thing to treat/prevent secondary
infections. In cats DKA is fatal roughly 30% of the time. In dogs
DKA is fatal roughly 40% of the time. I do not have enough cases
in ferrets to give a good % guess, but you want to treat these as
aggressively as possible.
Hope that helps,
Jerry Murray, DVM