From:
"Sue Liszewski"
Date: 2004-08-28 05:21:33 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] Lady Ayeka: insulinoma/adrenal surgery; chronic diarrhea
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <BAY15-F16blZz02H67y0004009d@hotmail.com>
Why don't you try supplementing Probiotics? Perhaps with all the treatment
her bacterial flora is trashed. You could even try starting as simple as
yogurt. Another option is twice weekly Vitamin B12 injections SQ. I would
try dexamethasone if pred doesn't work. Also be sure she is getting omega
fatty acids. If all else checks out on biopsy (but somehow I think it will
come back IBD) then you do treatment trials with dietary changes first
then change one thing at a time. Also trying canned pumpkin or green peas
may help. This is just my opinion. Good Luck with your little girl.
Dr. Sue
>From: Caitlyn Martin <caitlynmaire@yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
>To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
>Subject: [ferrethealth] Lady Ayeka: insulinoma/adrenal surgery; chronic
>diarrhea
>Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 21:08:17 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Hi, everyone,
>
>Some time ago someone asked how long could a ferret be
>on prednisone/prednisolone/pediapred and still have a
>successful insulinoma surgery. I believe the original
>poster's vet had said that once the ferret was on pred
>surgery was out of the question. Well... Lady Ayeka
>was on pediapred for two years and seven months before
>her surgery last week.
>
>Here's her background and history which I think is
>pretty unusual. Lady Ayeka is a six year old spayed
>female. Her other medical problems to date were
>benign mast cell tumors (two removed, one at age one
>and another at age six). At age three and a half she
>was diagnosed with insulinoma.
>
>Our vet started her with 0.1 ml (1mg/ml concentration)
>of pediapred once per day. Her glucose went high and
>we began backing off her dosage. At 0.03ml her
>glucose was fine. At 0.02ml it crashed and she had
>significant symptoms. During the subsequent two years
>we had to gradually increase that tiny dosage, first
>to 0.04ml, then 0.05ml, and finally 0.08ml about a
>year ago. Oh, and yes, those leading zeros are
>correct. The dosage was truly miniscule but it worked
>for her.
>
>About three months ago Lady Ayeka started to have
>chronic diarrhea. She's had diarrhea on again/off
>again for her entire life. All diagnostic work was
>always normal. She was treated with tylan with no
>results, then metranidazole (sp?) (a/k/a flagyl) with
>no results. Finally we gave her kaopectate with no
>results either. She'd poop it out white and seemingly
>undigested.
>
>In the past few weeks she started showing insulinoma
>symptoms again as well as classic adrenal symptoms.
>Our vet decided to do exploratory surgery fearing
>lymphosarcoma in her GI tract. He ended up removing a
>left adrenal gland (twice normal size), a large single
>nodule from her pancreas, and taking a biopsy from her
>stomach. The rest of her GI tract looked normal: no
>thickening or inflammation of any sort. Her lymph
>nodes looked normal as well.
>
>Lady Ayeka is recovering very quickly from surgery on
>Tuesday. We let her out with the other ferrets for a
>short, closely supervised time for her mental health.
>She didn't understand why we picked her up after she
>pounced Chin Soon to start a wrestling match or why we
>objected to her climbing. She seems to feel fine --
>good appetite, lots of energy, but... The diarrhea
>continues. Her only medication at this point is
>Clavamox .25ml 2x a day which is what our vet normally
>gives after surgery.
>
>We're waiting on pathology reports at this point.
>
>I guess my question is this: if the stomach biopsy
>shows nothing abnormal that we can treat then where do
>we go from here with her diarrhea?
>
>All the best,
>Caity and the fearsome foursome
>
>
>
>
>
>--
>If you want to share pictures, use the calendar, or start a vote
>visit http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
>
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