From:
Ms Stephanie Arnold
Date: 2002-06-12 17:57:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Hard Decision - need some help
Larry,
I'm not a vet, but here's my story. My Maggie has
Adrenal disease and Insulinoma and is 8 years old. She
has been on pred for a year at .425 ccs (20mg pred
suspended in 60ml ferretone) 3 times a day. She also
gets monthly lupron shots for the adrenal disease and
is growing her hair back. Albeit, she isn't bouncy,
she does explore still and likes to follow the cats
around. Maggie started to go downhill again a month
ago because of becoming tollerant to the pred so we
started her on Proglycem (diazoxide) .08 twice a day
and reduced her pred down to .25 cc. She is back to
where she was a month ago.
The lethargy is most likely due to too low of blood
sugar. Have you ever tested Tigger at home with a
blood glucose meter? It's really easy to do and allows
you to monitor when the dosage of pred isn't working
any longer and it's time to raise the dosage. You can
get one at your local pharmacy/drug store. They are
used for diabetics. You lance a toe pad to get the
drop of blood. When my Maggie gets below 60 she is in
danger of having a seizure so we take the proper steps
to help her out while contact our vet to see if we
need to raise the pred dose or what not.
I understand that euthanasia seems like it might be
the only answer at this point but you have other
options. If neither you nor Tigger are ready to say
goodbye then by all means find another vet. I can't
imagine reducing pred for a lethargic ferret just
because it is showing sign of adrenal disease. There
are drugs to combat the adrenal and reducing the pred
won't help the adrenal.
I'm not sure where you are in the US, but I'm on the
West coast. If you would like to talk over the phone,
please email me directly and I will get you my phone
number. I might be offline for a couple of hours
tonight, but will for sure be back on around 10pm PST.
You have options and euthanasia doesn't have to be one
of them.
With warmest wishes,
Stephanie
--- moorgannandorf <lshoup@m...> wrote:
> My wife and I may decide to put our beloved Tigger
> to sleep tomorrow.
>
> She has had insulinoma for 12 months now, and her
> system seems to
> be "breaking down." She sleeps in our arms, she is
> on prednisone but
> a few days ago I noticed her getting really skinny
> around the neck
> area along with hair loss on her backside. Both my
> wife and I
> suspected adrenal disease as well...