From:
msr_xf
Date: 2002-01-15 15:52:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Diabetes?
Hi. I'm not a vet, but I can relate our first-hand experience with a
ferret with diabetes. In your case I really, really hope her glucose
returns to normal after the pred is discontinued.
Our fuzzy, Squeeker, had insulinoma surgery and was on pred both
before and after surgery. She did well for about 6 months after
surgery then suddenly began having the one great big neon sign type
obvious symptom of diabetes -- she began drinking excessive amounts
of
water and just flooding her litter box with urine, to the point that
it was incredibly heavy and soaking wet when picked up. At the vet
her fasting glucose was in the 340's.
In our case, pred was discontinued and she was started on insulin
injections. It was very tough to control her glucose levels --
either
they were sky-high or so low she was having seizures. Too much
insulin or too little. We continued on this roller coaster for about
a month, when she developed a very severe UTI due to all the glucose
in her urine. She left us that weekend.
Good luck to you -- I really, really hope things work out. If it
does
turn out to be diabetes, I hope you can pool all your resources and
discover a good method for controlling it. We've got the best vets
ever here on the list to help! :-)
-Natasha Mohr