From:
lesliekauffman@earthlink.net
Date: 2004-07-11 03:12:14 UTC
Subject: Insulinoma: Surgery vs. Medication (Long Post)
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5097448.1089515534198.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Hello everyone,
I had a really bad scare almost 2 weeks ago now. I came home, let the ferrets out of their cage and after letting them run around for a little while, I started trimming nails. I usually do this by placing a little Ferretone / Linatone on their bellies and clip away while they are busy licking.
Well, a few minutes after I had clipped my boy Daggett's nails I noticed he was spacing out and a little wobbly. And then he started getting worse. He was trying to walk, but kept going sideways, which seemed to distress him quite a bit. Eventually he fell over and didn't get back up. This all happened within a few minutes.
He was limp, unresponsive and he started drooling. After I realized that my freaking out was NOT helping him at all, I remembered that these were signs of Insulinoma. I ran to the kitchen and got some honey to rub on his gums. (Where would one find Karo Syrup, by the way??) After doing so, he would go back and forth between responding to his name and being completely limp. He finally came out of it about an hour and 1/2 later and I made sure to give him some A/D mixed with chicken baby food.
He has now been to the vet 3 times. According to her his blood work was normal (tested twice), so we moved on to an ultrasound. Although she couldn't see any signs if insulinoma there (though I know that sometimes they are so small you can't see them on an ultrasound), he does have enlarged lymph nodes in his abdomen, 2 cysts on his kidneys, and his spleen is enlarged.
She gave me 4 options for him:
1) surgery
2) biopsy of the spleen though the abdomen (via ultrasound to determine if he has Lymphoma??)
3) put him on medication (in which case, she said we would not be able to go back and do surgery at a later date)
4) do nothing and let him live out the rest of his life trying to keep him as happy and comfortable as possible, by givinghim small amounts of Nutrical several times a day.
Of course, I have a few questions:
1) if we did the surgery, what is the average time this could possibly prolong his life? I'm skeptical to do the surgery if it means a major part of the rest of his life would be spent in recovery / pain and I know there is a good chance that they would not be able to remove it all and that the symptoms could come back.
2) How long (again, an average?) might he be able to survive on medication alone? I have read that it would need to be increased over time due to his body adjusting the amount of insulin it's producing as a reaction to the medication.
3) What to do about the lymph nodes, kidneys and spleen??
And just a few more facts about Daggett that might be relevant:
He is a cinnamon Triple F ferret that just turned 6 at the beginning of May, He has NEVER shown any signs of insulinoma prior to this episode and has been a little wonky ever since, though a little Nutrical seems to perk him right up, he's sleeping more than usual and just doesn't seem to be himself at all. He's not really interested in playing anymore and seems annoyed when Bean (my little girl) tries to get him to play. He's also had runny poops off and on since this whole thing started, so he's presently taking .2 ml of Amoxicillian 2 x day for that.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
And I also just want to thank the FHL and FML! If it weren't for reading those lists over the years, I wouldn't have known what to do. Thank you for saving my little boy's life!!!
Leslie, Bean and Daggett
p.s. I apologize for the long post and for sending it to both the FHL and FML.