From:
tm55417@yahoo.com
Date: 2003-04-08 17:10:21 UTC
Subject: Post seizure recovery (long)
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <11100086.1049821821160.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can give me some advice or relate their experie=
nces to me. We have an insulinomic ferret at home who seems to be having so=
me difficulty recovering from a seizure. A little background. The little gi=
rl developed insulinoma about a year and a half ago. About one year ago, sh=
e had surgery. The vet removed what was described as a rather large nodule =
during the surgery, didn't see any others, so she left the pancreas intact.=
The ferret developed post surgical diabetes which was brought under contro=
l within a couple of days with insulin injections. She was symptom free for=
about six or seven months and then started to show signs of insulinoma aga=
in. We were reluctant to perform surgery again because of the previous comp=
lications, so we opted to treat her medically. We started with pred and eve=
ntually added proglycem to the treatment. This has worked quite well for he=
r for the last six months or so even though her BG was hovering around the =
60s. In January, she stopped eating on her own, first, because she had a br=
oken canine that needed to be removed, and then because of pnuemonia (proba=
bly asperated because we had to force feed her). We finally started to get =
her to eat again a couple of weeks ago, but she will only eat Church's chic=
ken gravy. Her BG was checked on Sunday morning and tested in the 50's. Som=
etime Monday morning, she started to have a seizure. I'm not sure when it s=
tarted, but my wife found her on the bottom of the cage covered in urine, s=
haking, drooling, head bobbing and unable to move. We administered some kar=
o syrup and then rushed her to the E-clinic. She was given some dextrose, B=
G tested in the 140's then tested again 30 minutes later in the 50's. She s=
eems to still unaware of her surroundings and still has hind end weakness a=
nd can't move around. We hoped she would come out of it within a couple of =
hours. The vet is concerned about permanent brain damage, and that she may =
not completely recover. Has anyone experienced this before, or does anyone =
have any advice. We have upped her pred and proglycem dosages but obviously=
haven't seen any effects yet. She is currently on one ml of pediapred and =
0.5 ml of proglycem (50 mg/ml) both of which are given every twelve hours. =
I know she has some room to go with the pred, however she is almost at the =
max with proglycem.Thanks in advance for any help you may provide.