Message Number: YPG327 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "kkelley0171"
Date: 2006-12-04 04:31:08 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: New Insulinoma diagnosis
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

My ferret has insulinoma. If you go to www.miamiferret.org and look under the health
section and look up insulinoma (top right hand part of the screen). That is the BEST place
to read about it. Just like my vet told me - the BEST way to treat this is surgery. Here is a
link to the surgery.
http://www.lbah.com/ferrets/insulinoma.htm
That site gives good photos. Also - same site - here is a link to the video.
http://www.lbah.com/ferrets/adrenal_disease.htm
Review the info on that page as well - but scroll to the bottom and you'll see a black box
with blue text - click on the box and give it a second - the video will start to play and he
shows the cancerous tumors being removed from the pancreas (insulinoma).

This is the best thing to do for your ferret although it will cost you. My vet wants around
700 - 800 for the surgery. 1000 if we want her to go ahead and remove the adrenal
glands. My Lucy is 6.5 years old now and is pretty much too old to go through the surgery
so we are just giving her the prednisilone for now. When it gets to .3 - we are looking at
trouble and possibly close to the end for her.

The goal of having the surgery done is so you can KEEP THEM OFF of the pred. Reason
being, the pred will start to irritate the stomach and digestive system. If it does start to
irritate, then the vet will probably give you carafate and possibly famotidine (pepcid) as
well - to coat their stomach after you give the pred. I can't afford the surgery so Lucy is
not looking at a pretty passing - IF this happens. Basically - their guts "blow up" as my
vet says - they begin to bleed internally in a way and we have decided that if it gets to that
point - will will probably put her down then because she is getting older and she probably
wouldn't make it through the surgery.

If you have the surgery - they will be OFF of the pred. There is no guarantee the vet will
get all of the tumors - so be prepared for another surgery later down the road. You're
buying them time. My vet had a ferret with insulinoma - did the surgery 3 times and on
the 3rd time she just closed her back up because it was too far gone.

I hope this makes sense. If you can afford the surgery - do it - just make sure you have
an AWESOME vet who knows what they are doing.

Read up on the adrenal stuff on the miamiferret.org page as well. Get yourself some
melatonin. There are different views of the melatonin implant vs. orally. I give Lucy and
Sienna the melatonin orally. My vet suggests this because then if something was to go
wrong - you're not having surgery again to remove the chip and you can know without a
doubt how much melatonin they have gotten. But you have to give it to them the same
time every day.

Does this help?? Like I said - have the surgery done. He'll be better off.

Karen

--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "larcd8835" <larcd8835@...> wrote:
>
> We just had to rush our almost 4 year old ferret to the emergency vet.
> She has been diagnosed with insulinoma. (I hope I've spelled this
> right, I am a wreck since leaving the vet and having to leave my
> little girl there.) Her blood sugar was 40. I will do anything to keep
> this ferret healthy and happy. As I am new to this, what do you all
> recommend? I have read past postings, and will have no problems
> testing blood sugar levels and adjusting medications. (I learned how
> to give my Labrador dialysis, I can learn anything!) But what else
> should I prepare myself for to keep my Lillian healthy and happy for
> as long as possible?
>





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