From:
"Amy Seyler"
Date: 2007-10-05 13:21:14 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Rapid weight gain, insulinoma + elevated calcium levels in blood work
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi Nanci --
We did see this same thing with a ferret of ours a few years ago. He
doubled his weight in just a couple of months. We did everything --
blood work, x-rays -- everything was normal. Nothing showed up in
bloodwork; x-rays also showed tons of fat. He also turned adrenal
around this time and despite his size we decided to do the surgery,
because he was only 4. Vet looked around while pulling the adrenals
and didn't see a thing.
Fritz became more and more uncomfortable. He struggled to walk, and
mainly just laid there. We changed diets, put him on a exercise
regimen -- nothing helped. Then the beginning of September that year
(this had begun in March/April) he became diabetic, spent the night
in the ER, and was put on insulin. Within 5 days he was dead. When I
had the necropsy done it showed the culprit -- he apparently had
liver cancer that had spread all over his body. We are not sure if
that was what caused the weight gain originally, or why all of his
bloodwork kept looking normal, but it was pretty heartbreaking to
watch him those last few months.
I hope that's not the case with Critter. Good luck in finding the
cause.
You can search under "obese ferret" and Fritz in the FHL archives,
because I was posting about it at the time trying to get ideas.
Amy, Dave, Sarah & Paul (and their gaggle of giggling ferrets)
RIP Ian, Elektra, Claudia, Sidney, Max, Hannah & Fritz
Missing Tasha
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "Nanci" <motorcityferrets@...>
wrote:
>
> 6 year old ferret began treatment with prednisolone in May, along
with
> diazoxide (boy I can never spell that right). Within the past 6
> weeks, critter - who has been doing well until now - has gone from
his
> normal weight of 850 grams to nearly 1600 grams. He gained 90 grams
> in 9 days recently between vet visits!
> Blood work showed an elevated calcium level of 17.5 as the only
value
> out of the ordinary. Critter is eating well but isn't moving much,
as
> his legs are literally giving out under the new extreme weight. The
> vet could not palpate any sort of tumor. X-ray showed no tumor
> either, just lots and lots and lots of FAT. Critter is NOT a huge
> boy; he's a typical 2.5# north-american, factory produced critter.
> His body is grossly disfigured by the extreme weight, so he's
clearly
> over-the-top obese for his frame.
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