From:
Tiana Guinard
Date: 2002-05-12 23:20:00 UTC
Subject: Insulinoma surgery candidate?
I have a approx. 6 1/2 - 7 year old Marshalls male who was diagnosed
withinsulinoma in December. I had been maintaining him with prednisone, and
until a few weeks ago he was doing fine. He started crashing, so I
addedproglycem (diazoxide) -- worked great for a week but seems to have lost
its effect. Granted, I am only up to about 30 mg/day (he weighs about 1 kg)
but the extreme expense of the highest dose would be impossible for me to
afford on a long-term basis.
My question is this: I initially decided against surgery because of his age
AND because the vet that I work with has had many experiences with the
tumors growing back after surgical excision. However, I am now wondering if
my ferret would be a good candidate for the surgery. His age is a concern,
and also he has somewhat elevated liver enzymes [ alk phos 51 u/L, ALT
(SGPT) 371 u/L ]. Anyone have an opinion on whether it would be worth
putting him through the pain of surgery/recovery?
Thank you so much
Tiana