Message Number: YG13283 | New FHL Archives Search
From: sukieferret
Date: 2002-05-25 20:12:00 UTC
Subject: some insulinoma info and vet finding resources

I recently replied to someone elsewhere with insulinoma basics
that may help some of the folks who have posted here today. i
have removed that person's comments but left my own in case
this may help some folks.

[Note saying that a ferret had insulinoma and nohting was done.]

No op? No meds? [That was my question abuot the vet doing
nothing, which turned out for that person to be the case.]

The body, including the brain need enough sugar in the blood to
function. Hypo means low, and glycemia refers to the sugar. In
insulinoma (insulin cell tumors) the tumors secrete too much
insulin and that forces down the blood sugar. Surgery cures
about 60% of the cases, but in about 40% new growths appear
after surgery. When a ferret is not a surgical candidate there are
two useful medications: Prednisone and Proglycem. Depending
on the individual situation these are given together from scratch,
or Pred may be used for a while and then Proglycem added
later. Prednisone is cheap; Proglycem is expensive, BTW.
There had been a hypothesis that giving dietary sugars was bad
and caused yo-yoing of blood sugar. That might be true for early
cases so dietary precautions might make sense then with
sugars eliminated from diet and surgery/medications used till
more is known; for advanced ones that hypothesis flies out the
window because the insulinomae suppress the normal tissue
and insulinomae are not blood-sugar-level dependent in the
amounts they secrete, so for late cases of insulinoma dietary
sugar may be added to hopefully give some extra quality time. At
the very least this ferret should be on Prednisone. According to
Karen Purcell's incredible vet text the dosing for
Predisone/Prednisolone is 0.10-2.5 mg/kg q 12-24h PO .
Ferrets are not particularly prone to the steroid problems seen in
a number of other mammals.

[Person said that the vet said that testing blood sugar was so
specialized that a university vet clinic would have to do it and that
it would be expensive.]

In-house blood testing is standard and cheap in many, perhaps
most, areas now.

Is your vet interested in learning more about ferrets and is she
on-line? If so, pass along the two URLs below my name for her
to get a lot of ferret-specialist-vet-written materials. A ferret vet
text would come in handy as well. Dr. Karen Purcell's
_Essentials of Ferrets_ which is available from AAHA 1-800-
252-2242

Are there any other vets in your area who would be willing to
learn about ferrets otherwise?

Here are some places for finding ferret vets for anyone in need:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/FML-
shelter-list.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/
FerretVets.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html
http://www.thepetproject.com/starferrets.html
http://ferretcentral.org

-- Sukie
For ferret health information:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-List
http://geocities.com/sukieslist