From:
"Jeff"
Date: 2008-12-10 15:01:13 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] introduction
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
There is a good chance that the hind end weakness is a sign of insulinoma. However, there are also other possibilities. Below is a link to an article by Dr. Susan Brown about the possible causes of hind end weakness, which is a symptom of something else.
http://www.veterinarypartner.com:80/Content.plx?P=A&A=481&S=5&SourceID=43
As far as learning about insulinoma, your best place to start for info is this article by Dr. Bruce Williams:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/PDF/insulinoma.pdf
And then here, from Mike Janke's site:
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/treatment.htm
And here is a quote from a study by Dr. Williams that concludes that the most effective treatment is surgery to get rid of visible nodules AND part of the pancreas:
BEGIN QUOTE
J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 1998 Nov-Dec;34(6):471-5. Links
Insulinoma in the ferret: clinical findings and treatment
comparison of 66 cases.
Weiss CA,
Williams BH,
Scott MV.
Potomac Animal Hospital, Maryland 20854, USA.
The clinical signs and surgical findings were reported for 66
ferrets with insulinomas confirmed histologically. All of the
ferrets were treated with one of three modalities, and
disease-free intervals and survival times were gathered to
determine the most effective treatment. The three treatment
groups included 10 ferrets treated medically, 27 ferrets treated
with pancreatic nodulectomy, and 29 ferrets treated with
pancreatic nodulectomy combined with a partial pancreatectomy.
The mean disease-free intervals for each group were 22, 234,
and 365 days, respectively. The mean survival times for each
group were 186, 456, and 668 days, respectively. Based upon
the data, recommendations were made for treating insulinoma
in the ferret.
PMID: 9826281 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
END QUOTE
There is also much other info online, but these were, in my opinion, the best places to start.
As a suggestion in general, you really need a good FERRET-KNOWLEDGEABLE vet who you can rely on. If you do not have one yet, then here are links to help find one in your area:
FINDING VETS
http://ferrethealth.org/vets/
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/vets.htm
http://www.ferretcongress.org (crit refs but there is a lot more there)
http://www.supportourshelters.org (shelters and the vets they use)
http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html
http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-vets.html
http://www.ferretuniverse.com/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/Vets.html (UK vets)
http://www.ferrets.org/Veterinarian_Listings.htm (British Columbia vets)
http://www.ferretnews.org/clinic.html (California-specific)
http://www.ferretsanonymous.com/medical.html (California)
http://www.vetcontact.com/en/vet.php?k=3D91 (Specialists anywhere)
You can also ask regional clubs, look in magazines, and do Google searches.
Jeff
In Memory of Neo
Caring for Trinny, Morphy, Baby Girl, Luna, and Dozer
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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