Message Number: YG13583 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Lynn McIntosh
Date: 2002-06-05 10:33:00 UTC
Subject: Pred Belly (my solution to weight gain on prediapred)

Hi Danee. I had the same problem with my older ferrets on pred, whereas they
gained weight (soon after starting pediapred) and lost mobility, and have posted about
it before. I successfully took the weight off my old Minnie (whose heart cannot bear
it as well and also had the mobility issues) by nearly weaning her off the pred
(slowly!) and slowly adding in Proglycem. In the end we found a tolerable level of
Proglycem, in a suspended form using diazoxide (less costly and she seemed to
tolerate it better than the commercial Proglycem though I'd not swear to this),
combined with a lower dose of pediapred. She is again her regular weight and getting
around much better! She is also not coughing, though we are not sure if the coughing
was due to pneumonia (an x-ray indicated it was) or the added strain on her heart from
increased weight; she has had a bad heart murmur since birth but is doing incredibly
well in that respect at eight!

The change of medicine was not an easy process as she had trouble with the
Proglycem at a higher dose, and seemed to have trouble when we had her nearly
weaned off the pediapred with withdrawal. Some of the symptoms of too much
diazoxide and too little pediapred are similar, but I was able to discern which was the
problem with close observation and adjust dosing accordingly. (We also tried
methylprednisilone prior to going to the combination diazoxide and pediapred, but that
did not work well.) There are more details in my posts about this to this forum about
Minnie. I don't post often FHL, and get few responses unfortunately, so my posts
shouldn't be too hard to find.

I think this is a serious problem with pediapred; all my ferrets got fat on it. I think it
is wonderful that it is available to treat insulinoma, of course, but have found that the
weight gain is a serious side effect and that adding diazoxide can be a great help with
that. Some of my ferrets which gained weight on pediapred had ultrasounds and it
was indeed mostly fat they were carrying, not "pred belly". Then again, a shelter
operator has posted about this and said she had no problem with weight gain!
According to my info, though, from vets, more food is metabolized as fat somehow
for ferrets on pred. Decreasing food didn't work for me as my ferrets were already
not eating alot and I believed they needed the protein and other nutrition they were
eating. My best to you! Lynn

On 4 Jun 2002 at 13:51, Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Subject: Pred Belly
>
> I now have several older ferrets that take pred daily, either for
> Insulinoma or IBD, and all of them are rapidly developing a huge
> belly... ... 2 of them, they are having problems walking and
> maneuvering because of their large girth. I know from my own
> experiences taking pred for my asthma, that an expanded middle section
> can be a common side effect of the pred... ... I have considered
> limiting food intake... ... I also don't know if limiting the food
> availability for the kids with Insulinoma would be wise. Any thoughts
> on this would be appreciated. Danee