From:
psessoms@gmail.com
Date: 2006-11-03 16:42:17 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] RE: A discussion of drugs
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
"What side effects of dex are worse than those of pred? I have had a vet sw=
ear by it as the best youcan do. He also seemed to feel it was better for t=
he ferret than the pred."
She mentioned that in theory, it could be more immunosuppressive than pred.=
She also said, though, that she had not really seen that become a problem=
in the couple of times she'd tried it. My guy on dex did get demodex, whi=
ch is often linked to immunosuppression, but I don't know if it was directl=
y related. All in all, she wasn't speaking too strongly about this. I've =
had plenty of trouble with pred, and if dex proves to be less troublesome, =
I'd be all for it. =
> > Has anyone else tried Octreotide for insulinoma? =
> "Did you use it before, after or with other drugs? I haven't heard of it,=
but then, I haven't heard of lots of stuff! Is it a chemotherapy agent or =
waht? I will look it up if you don't have time to discuss it."
Used it with pred, to try to get the pred dose lower. Then tried it with p=
red and proglycem. It did not seem to make a differerence in either situat=
ion, but again, it was just one case, and a pretty severe one at that. In =
dog research, it seems to help about half of the time, so it seems like it =
might be worth trying it to see if it could help a portion of insulinomic f=
errets. =
I don't think it's a chemo agent. In fact, I have an extremely poor unders=
tanding of the mechanism of its action; I simply do not have much of a sci=
ence background. But I can parrot some stuff from people that do actually =
know what they're talking about :)
>From Fox (2nd ed, p. 300):
"The somatostatin analog, octreotide (Sandostatin...) has been used in case=
s of canine pancreatic islet cell tumor. Efficacy of this agent has been c=
onnected with the presence of somatostatin receptors on the surface of tumo=
r cells; somatostatin inhibits insulin secretion by the tumor cell. One st=
udy alludes to the use of the drug in two ferrets but does not comment on i=
ts efficacy." There are a couple of footnotes to the original studies that=
I can provide if there is interest.
>From the pink book (2nd ed, p. 82) in the Endocrine Diseases chapter by Que=
senberry and Rosenthal:
"Somatostatin, a natural polypeptide hormone secreted by the pancreas, supp=
resses insulin secretion. Octreotide, a somatostatin analog (Sandostatin..=
.) is sometimes used in dogs for the treatment of insulinoma. We have used=
somatostatin in the treatment of one ferret with equivocal results."
"equivocal results." Hmmmm. Wish there was more explanation...
Link to recent abstract on its use in dogs from Research in Veterinary Scie=
nce:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=3Dpubmed&cmd=3DRetrieve&do=
pt=3DAbstractPlus&list_uids=3D15946716
(I'll paste the abstract after my signature since that link is long and mig=
ht break.)
Anyway, obtaining the octreotide was a bit of a pain. No one local really =
wanted to deal with it, although we did *not* try a hopspital pharmacy, whi=
ch might have worked. I wound up ordering it from drugstore.com. It was s=
old in ampules, and I transferred the solution from an ampule into a steril=
e vial and then gave the teeny tiny ferret-sized doses sub-q. =
(abstract and citation below)
Best wishes,
-Pam S.
Res Vet Sci. 2006 Feb;80(1):25-32. Epub 2005 Jun 8. =
Effect of octreotide on plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, gluc=
agon, growth hormone, and cortisol in healthy dogs and dogs with insulinoma=
.=
Robben JH, van den Brom WE, Mol JA, van Haeften TW, Rijnberk A.
The inhibitory effect of the somatostatin analogue octreotide on the secret=
ion of insulin could be used in the treatment of insulinoma. However, curre=
nt information on the effectiveness of octreotide in dogs is conflicting. T=
herefore, the endocrine effects of a single subcutaneous dose of 50 microg =
octreotide were studied in healthy dogs in the fasting state (n=3D7) and in=
dogs with insulinoma (n=3D12). Octreotide did not cause any adverse effect=
s. In healthy dogs in the fasting state, both plasma insulin and glucagon c=
oncentrations declined significantly. Basal (non-pulse related) GH and ACTH=
concentrations were not affected. A slight but significant decrease in the=
plasma glucose concentrations occurred. Dogs with insulinoma had significa=
ntly higher baseline insulin concentrations and lower baseline glucose conc=
entrations than healthy dogs in the fasting state. Plasma glucagon, GH, ACT=
H, and cortisol concentrations did not differ from those in healthy dogs. B=
aseline plasma insulin concentrations decreased significantly in dogs with =
insulinoma after octreotide administration, whereas plasma concentrations o=
f glucagon, GH, ACTH, and cortisol did not change. In contrast to the effec=
ts in the healthy dogs, in the dogs with insulinoma plasma glucose concentr=
ations increased. Thus, the consistent suppression of plasma insulin concen=
trations in dogs with insulinoma, in the absence of an suppressive effect o=
n counter-regulatory hormones, suggests that further studies on the effecti=
veness of slow-release preparations in the long-term medical treatment of d=
ogs with insulinoma are warranted.
Publication Types:
* Randomized Controlled Trial
PMID: 15946716 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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