From:
tansy
Date: 2007-09-01 01:35:28 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re:Safety of sugar substitues
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi Michelle and Renee, I appreciate your answers, but actually
they do not answer my question. I also have hypoglycemic
tendencies, and avoid sugar as much as possible, but
the whole disease process is completely different in
ferrets. One of the main reasons people who are
hypogylycemic need to avoid sugar, and why they are
sometimes called "pre-diabetic" is because if they
need to keep producing excessive amounts of insulin
their pancreas will eventually stop functioning, and
they will then become diabetics. This process does
not exist in ferrets, it is the insulinomas that cause
the excess insulin, and every ferret I've ever had
that had successful surgery returned to normal insulin
production. I have never heard of an insulinomic
ferret becoming diabetic (exhaustion of the pancreas),
though it would be interesting if it's happened, so
it's never really made sense to me that there is this
mania for eliminating sugar in insulinomic ferrets. In
fact, I have a friend who is a very experienced
shelter operator who lets her insulinomic ferrets have
a couple fruit loops a day which actually seems to
help stabilize their blood sugar (the ferrets seem to
know how many fruit loops they need to get their own
blood sugar right). I am not advocating this, and I
highly recommend surgery by a very experienced ferret
vet, but I still think many people equate the
processes that cause hypoglycemia in people to those
in ferrets and it's NOT the same. Maybe someone at
some point can answer my question ; )
thanks
Val, shelter Mom, not a vet
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/