Message Number: SG11319 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "Patti Higgins"
Date: 2004-11-04 04:53:09 UTC
Subject: Prednisilone dosage if rear end weakness isn't better
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-Id: <200411040453.iA44rFi15994@ss39.shared.server-system.net>

Butter isn't getting any better. He is six years old now, had ECE when
he was 3 years old, and at 4 years had surgery to remove the left
adrenal and one insulinoma found during surgery. Since then the
insulinoma has just gotten worse and worse. He crashes a lot - maybe
once a week. I have to make him eat every 4-6 hours. He is chronically
dehydrated and very pudgy in the rear - OK fat. I mostly feed him from
a can of Iams kitten food mixed with half a can of water Doctor's
orders to improve the protein and fluid intake). In order to help him
lose weight I now add some hot water to one teaspoon of that food and
feed him once every three or four hours. There is always dry food and
water present for the other ferrets but he rarely eats on his own and
never drinks.

Butter is on .4 ml of prednisilone (compounded from 5mg/ml) just
increased from .3 ml. The problem is that he can barely stand up to
urinate or defecate. Then he wobbles back to one of his beds and goes
to sleep until I wake him up again. Butter has been like this for
about a year. Now he is also on milk thistle (.8 ml) to help the
liver, Famotidine .6MG/0.1ML, and Amoxi-Liq 50 mg/15ml. 3 days ago I
started to add 1 mg of Melatonin to his food around 3:00 p.m. - I
think he likes it but haven't seen any improvement.

How much can the prednisilone be increased and would that help with
the extreme weakness in the rear? How can I get more water in him
other than the stressful way at the doctor's office? The doctor
doesn't think surgery is a good option. I am feeding him water with
the medicine syringes after the medications but that is also stressful
for him. How many cc's should I do with the squirting method since the
additional water in the food obviously isn't enough judging by the
skin pinch test (the skin very slowly unpinches).

We considered adding diazoxide but here it would cost $125 for a
prescription and due to the quantity it comes in the diazoxide would
go bad too fast. Are there any cheaper sources? If we were in a larger
city I could find someone to split it with.

Patti and Butter