From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-08-16 23:45:30 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] Insulinoma treatment & medication amounts HELP!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7387600.1092699930898.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> 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.
Second edition of this book (page 443) gives
10-20 mg/kg PO
q12-24h
so that is a lower max than before.
I do NOT know why they reduced the max from what you found in the first edition and am wondering now since we never had any side effects with the med.
> 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.
New edition says on page 444
0.5-2.0 mg/kg PO
q 12-24h
so they left that one the same
>In reality, many have give MUCH more than that with good results.
Yes, certainly we've been in that position.
Let's face facts, when it gets down to either giving a mmercy shot or trying something that otherwise wouldn't be tried, then if there is a chance of helpng the animal have more quality life it kind of becomes a "what the heck" situation. We personally also had good luck with added dietary sugar for those in the end stages of insulinoma, but that varies greatly among ferrets, too.