From:
Aby0570@juno.com
Date: 2002-11-26 05:23:16 UTC
Subject: Diabetes mellitus question - help!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <18780904.1038288196509.JavaMail.root@scandium>
I've got a two year old boy here -Squiggle- that is apparently diabetic. The results of a fasting glucose/insulin test came back today.
BG 611
Insulin below 1.2 (the lab doing the test had 5-20 as normal insulin levels for ferrets)
At the same time that blood sample was taken a urinalysis was done showing medium levels of ketones and glucose in his urine (1000).
Squiggle is showing all the classic symptoms of diabetes mellitus except weight loss. The first thing I noticed wrong with him, several months ago, was that he was gaining weight. He eats, drinks and urinates more than average. I cut back on the amount of dry food he was getting and supplemented that with duck soup (cooked chicken with fat skimmed off and blended). Squiggle's weight has remained approximately the same (4.1lbs) since beginning that regimen six to eight weeks ago. He does appear to be thinning around the shoulders and hips, but he still has huge "saddlebags" and fat pads around his lymph nodes.
Also, he has lost most of his tail hair and the rest of his hair is thinning. It's more like where he is shedding no hair is coming back in than like the receding hair from tail forward that I saw on my female with adrenal problems.
My vet originally thought Squiggle was adrenal and that high cortisol levels were causing insulin resistance. Do the test results we got definitely indicate true diabetes or should we be checking something else? Would an exploratory surgery be advisable?
Many thanks,
Angela