Message Number: YG12617 | New FHL Archives Search
From: katharine
Date: 2002-04-19 15:07:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Low BG, no other symptoms?

I thought I would relay my experience with Cedes. A little
over two years ago, my vet called and asked if I could take a
ferret. He had suspected insulinoma, his owner couldn't
afford treatment, and had brought him back in to be
euthanized. So, with the previous owner's permission (and
gratitude), Cedes came to live with us.

The owner had taken him to the vet because he had a seizure
and was losing weight. His blood glucose was low (don't know
what the reading was) so my vet recommended surgery and put
him on pred in the meantime. BTW, this was Cedes very first
vet trip in his entire life and he was about 6 y.o. at the
time.

A couple of weeks after I got him, exploratory surgery was
done. His pancreas looked fine, his adrenals looked fine.
However, he had this rubber thingy in his tummy. Doc opened
his stomach and removed that (I still have it...one of our
souvenirs ). He checked his teeth and they looked absolutely
awful. (I always have them check to see if a teeth cleaning
is in order when they're under anesthesia) So, his teeth were
cleaned (to this day, his two upper canines are as brown as
can be, almost as if he's had distemper). Those two things
turned him completely around. My theory is that his terrible
teeth caused him pain when he ate, and when he did eat, he
couldn't hold very much because he had this rubber thingy
taking up a good bit of his stomach capacity. Therefore,his
lack of food caused his blood sugar to drop. Once these two
little problems were taken care of, his blood sugar was just
fine and he started gaining weight again.

Katharine