From:
mjanke@miamiferret.org
Date: 2003-12-25 22:59:21 UTC
Subject: RE: insulinoma emergency
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5918019.1072393161755.JavaMail.root@indium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> Also, could somebody please tell me what a seizure looks like.
Sadly, I've been through this many times. In my experience, hypoglycemic seizures don't look like seizures at all... or at least what we normally think of as a seizure... The flopping around, convulsions, etc. This may happen with more serious seizures, but I've never seen it.
Mostly, they'll be totally unresponsive. They may be breathing rapidly, in spurts and they make gasping type actions rather regularly. They may gasp a few times, then stop that for a bit, and repeat this over and over.
The important thing is to keep painting his gums with Karo (or honey) repeatedly until he comes around. This can take anywhere from 15 minutes or so to as long as an hour to an hour and a half. I have also found that it seems to help to thin the Karo down slightly with a little water. Maybe it's more readily absorbed when it's not so thick and gooey.
Don't forget to give him a good high protein meal when he's able to help stabilize his glucose levels. Always keep some chicken baby food on hand for this.
mike