From:
mjanke@miamiferret.org
Date: 2004-08-16 22:21:55 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] Insulinoma treatment & medication amounts HELP!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2610814.1092694915674.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
According to "Ferrets, Rabbits and Rodents - Clinical Medicine and Surgery" (often referred to as "the pink book"), diazoxide maximum dosage is 60mg/kg per day, divided into two or three doses per day.
Your boy is a bit over 2kg, so theoretically he could get much more than your vet says. 1 ml of the diazoxide you're using is 50 mg. That means you could give him a little over 2 ml (100 mg) a day. I have no personal experience with that high of a dosage, so I'm just giving you the text book values.
As for pred, yours is 3mg per 1 ml. Again, according to "the pink book", you can give a maximum of 2mg/kg twice a day. In reality, many have give MUCH more than that with good results. I've known some that have gotten as much as 10 mg per day, spread out over two doses, and those were a bit more average sized ferrets, not a big boy like you have.
Again, these are text book maximums, not what yours may be able to tolerate. And, this is the first edition of the pink book, so it may have changed since they came out with the new edition. A lot of experience has been gained in the years between the first and second editions.
mike
Author wrote:
> I am working with a vet, but there are not any very knowledgable ferret vets around. I do research for her, she consults with another vet that did Tibbie's surgery. He has built up pred gradually. I merely wanted the max dosage for his weight.