From:
Pam Sessoms
Date: 2003-01-16 01:20:20 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Melissa Ferret Update
To: snobound@aol.com
cc: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <Pine.A41.4.44+UNC.0301151956370.50030-100000@login0.isis.unc.edu>
On Thu, 16 Jan 2003 snobound@aol.com wrote:
> On .4 Pred of 5mg/5ml & .1 Proglycem, Melissa is looking good, but the
> result of her 2nd blood glucose test since taking the Proglycem, was in
> the high 400's (twice). The vet has reduced her Proglycem to once a day
> OR .05 twice a day
This happened to two of mine - one was Sonic and one was Tammy. I really
don't want to stress you out anymore than you already are, but...
honestly, these are usually tough cases, assuming the glucometer is
correct. Is she thirsty, peeing in large amounts, and does her breath
maybe smell kind of strange (fruity, or like fingernail polish remover)?
One of the best things you can do at this point is head out to a drug
store and get some Keto-Diastix; they are in with the other diabetic
testing supplies. This will let you test her urine for sugar and ketones.
Expect the sugar in her urine to test outrageously high on the dipstick,
higher than it will read on the blood test. The ketones are the more
important thing on the dipstick. Anything over trace ketones is
dangerous. Talk to your vet, but mine wanted to be paged anytime day or
night if we saw anything over trace ketones for an emergency start on
insulin.
When you are doing her blood tests on her feet, you now need to be really
careful to wipe them off to clean them. People have had problems with
misleadingly high readings on diabetic ferrets; things like getting
readings in the 500's with dirty feet but readings in the 250's-300's with
clean feet. Presumably this is because the fuzzies walk in their urine
and the sugar dries on there, leading to a higher reading than is had with
clean feet.
If she doesn't come right back down into a normal or low range on the
blood tests with the current treatment plan, you might talk to your vet
about stopping the Proglycem cold turkey. I've always wound up with
ferrets being taken totally off their insulinoma meds when this happens.
Some people's ferrets have wound up on insulin, although I don't have
experience with that.
This insulinoma-->diabetes stuff isn't really very well understood yet.
Maybe a vet or someone with more expertise can offer some ideas. However,
I will say that occasionally, these ferrets seem to be starting with
adrenal disease and their blood sugar will magically even out with Lupron.
At least one magically turned around on Baytril (bacterial pancreatitis of
some sort?). Melissa really hasn't been on her meds for very long or on
very high doses; have to wonder what's going on in that girl's pancreas...
There is more in the archives, if you're up to a little searching:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/
I really hope she turns around quickly. This has been a rollercoaster.
-Pam S.