From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2003-01-10 18:47:24 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Home Glucose test result - 28!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Cc: snobound@aol.com
Message-Id: <20030110134724.353fab53.whiteweasel@earthlink.net>
On Fri, 10 Jan 2003 17:40:55 +0000 (GMT+00:00)
snobound@aol.com wrote:
> ***The vet does not seem to think the office can do any better.
Considering she has not had surgery, I think you may need to find a more
ferret knowledgable vet. Scan through the archives and read Dr.
Williams' and other vets' posts on insulinoma. Surgery is probably the
best way to go for her right now. Pred didn't work for Podo and Kodo
either. They were (we think) around their eighth birthdays when we did
surgery. Kodo had no symptoms for four months and is now being
maintained on pred where he couldn't be before. Podo is symptom free
with no meds five months later.
> I can switch to some cat food, maybe kitten food!!! (In any event she
> isn't getting Marshall kibble now.)
You are much, much better off with a high quality ferret food, such as
Totally Ferret, Zupreem, 8-in-1 Ultimate, Mazuri, etc... See the
archives again on this.
Also, Bob Church's chicken gravy has been shown to be of benefit to
ferrets with insulinoma. Our experience says that it does help. See
http://www.trifl.org/html The only reason Kodo isn't getting it now is
that he's overweight and our vet doesn't feel he needs it just yet.
>
> ***I asked her for a prescription for that today and she is "looking
> into it."
Our vet uses proglycem as a last resort. His order of things is:
1. Low dosage of pred. When that stops working...
2. Surgery. When symptoms recur...
3. Low dosage of pred.
4. Succeedingly higher dosages of pred.
5. Proglycem
Sometimes a second surgery works in there, sometimes not. It depends on
how much of the pancreas he has to take the first time. This seems to
parallel what other vets I know with good reputations do. Some go for
surgery a bit faster than he does.
>
> > Melissa has already had insulinoma surgery, right? Not long ago
> > either, if memory serves.
> ***Nope she had adrenal surgery at the end of May.
Then surgery makes the most sense to me. We've seen dramatic
improvements in Ker Avon, Podo, and Kodo. In Avon and Podo's cases it
was like getting them back to where they were when they were young.
They are happy, playful, bouncy, and two of the three are off meds
completely.
>
> I apologize for the legnth of my posts. I feel so helpless right now
> like if I don't do something quick I will lose her and I feel like her
> numbers are so low because I am missing something.
You're not doing anything wrong. I do think that it's likely more
aggressive treatment (read: surgery) is necessary. A second opinion
from another vet is always a good idea. I know our vet encourages it
whenever we're dealing with a difficult or life threatening problem.
All the best,
Caity and the non-stop nine