From:
"Christine"
Date: 2003-09-20 15:21:02 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Extreme, fast-onset weight gain (LONG?)
To: grape_apes@charter.net, "ferrethealth" <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <410-2200396206523111@mindspring.com>
Hi,
After reading your post, I really wanted to comment on something similar
that happened with our ferret, Wuzzitt, last year. He too, started
gaining weight rapidly and became very lethargic. At this time he was
about 4 years old and had always been a beautiful, playful boy. His coat
became dull. I thought at the time that this looked much like diabetes,
although this is uncommon in ferrets. We did a blood panel and also
checked his blood sugar once and it was high--in the 300 range. I was
surprised. So we started regulating his diet, providing exercise for him,
and monitoring his water consumption/urination. A short time later we
checked the blood sugar again--a couple of times in a day. It was much
lower--almost normal--and he seemed to be improving. At the time it was
determined not to start him on insulin therapy yet. One morning, just a
short time later, something seemed to be very wrong. His temperature was
very low. He was rushed to the vet and there went through a keto-acidotic
crisis: his blood sugar was out of control. Repeated doses of insulin over
several hours did nothing to save him.
Now of course, this may be totally unrelated to what is going on with your
ferret. You mentioned a glucose of 104, which is good. However, you may
want to do a 24-hour glucose curve with her or even a single fructosamine
check. Blood glucose can vary dramatically in a 24 hour period so at any
one point during that time it might look normal. Again, this may not be
the problem, but I wish I would have been more aggressive treating Wuzzitt
and hope that my experience could alert others to this scary possibility.
This is something that's fairly simple to rule out, too.
Best wishes,
Christine
To: <moogirl@mindspring.com>,
"ferrethealth" <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
From: "April Armstrong Campbell" <grape_apes@charter.net>
Message-ID: <5230193.1064077862825.JavaMail.nobody@vanadium.smartgroups.com>
Hi-thanks for sharing this info. Her BG has been measures a few times in
the past and has always been normal, but a curve certainly couldn't hurt; we
have had one diabetic ferret at our practice, but Shannon's case doesn't
seem to jibe with that at all. We have a much better in-house glucometer
than we used to have, though, so it won't cost me an arm and a leg to check
it out!
Thanks so much!
-April AC