From:
fuglemat@online.no
Date: 2005-05-03 22:15:34 UTC
Subject: Possibly insulinoma, what to do now?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2437587.1115158534563.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Last saturday, my oldest ferret (male, 5 years old) had a seizure. He was lying on the top of the cage, shaking uncontrollably, screaming and squeaking and not responding to anything. I put something sweet on his gums and he quickly came around again, acting completely normal (however, he came around after a couple of seconds, so it might not have been because of the sweet). I then fed him some raw chicken. The seizure lasted about 20 seconds, I think (I was asleep and woke up from the screams). I've seen a video of a ferret with insulinoma having a seizure, and it looked and sounded pretty much the same. I later found half a chocolate chip cookie under the dresser.
We took a fasting blood test (3 hrs 20 minutes of fasting) later that day, and it came out high normal (6.8 mmol/L).
I've noticed a couple of times that he looks a bit spaced out. He hasn't had any other symptoms (pawing at the mouth, hind leg weakness, and so on). He's been on a barf diet (so almost no carbs) for the last year, and he was fed high quality kibble the years before that.
What do I do now? I work as an assistant at a small vet clinic, and I was planning on bringing him to work and doing a blood glucose test regularly for a while. The vets there works mostly with dogs and cats and know next to nothing about ferrets. Or should I find a vet experienced in these matters and do an exploratory surgery right away? If this is early stage insulinoma, will it even show during surgery?
Grateful for any help you can give.