From:
Pam Sessoms
Date: 2002-05-21 13:25:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Erratic bloodsugar in insulinoma ferret
Susan,
Sorry to hear you're dealing with wacky blood sugar. But I am very glad
to hear that you seem to have caught it early; those numbers in the 200's
are really not that bad in the grand scheme of things. I have written
quite a bit about my Sonic, who was one of these insulinoma-->diabetes and
back again ferrets - those posts are in the archives (let me know if you
could use a hand finding them).
Anyway, short version, with Sonic, her blood sugars were in the 5-600's,
but taking her down off her insulinoma meds brought it down into the
normal range again for a couple of months. Then she became hypoglycemic
again, so back to the pred. She always seemed to be very sensitive to
pred after that, and she'd start to edge towards diabetes again even on
small doses, so we'd drop her dose down. Then she'd edge back the other
way, and we'd up her pred. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was a bit of a
rollercoaster but manageable. I learned to check her blood sugar at home,
and that was a big help. When she was in a diabetic phase, urine test
strips (for sugar and ketones) made for human diabetics were also very
useful.
She lived for almost exactly a year after the original serious diabetic
scare; suddenly I could not get her blood sugar up no matter what. By
that time she also had kidney failure, cardiomyopathy, and other serious
problems. She went from a moderate pred dose to maxxed out pred AND
proglycem over just a couple of weeks and still was only in the 30's. On
her last day, it would not register at all, and I let her go. My vet did
a post, and her pancreas was so atrophied that she could not identify it
grossly, although there were still islet cells there microscopically.
Interestingly, I have read a few reliable reports of these
insulinoma/diabetes ferrets straightening around with Lupron shots. I
have absolutely no idea how that works, but the body is so complex...
Sonic was on Lupron at least part of the time, but I can't tell that it
did much for her. However, we didn't know about that during her first
crisis so I can't say if it would have helped her out then. There is also
at least one case where it seemed to repond to Baytril, and the theory was
some kind of infection of the pancreas. There may be several reasons this
insulinoma/diabetes thing happens, and it will be interesting to see what
is learned in the future. Some cases go on insulin because they become
dangerously diabetic, with ketoacidosis, etc; some of them respond and
others seem to be terribly insulin-resistant. And, I hate to even mention
it, but sometimes, no matter what is done, this blood sugar craziness
really can be impossible to beat, and some of these ferrets don't make it.
:( BUT I think you are in excellent shape, having caught this with numbers
only in the 200's. I wish I had caught Sonic's then.
Good luck, and keep the list posted,
-Pam S. (not a vet)