From:
"Jeff"
Date: 2008-12-16 04:30:35 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Insulinoma - need help!
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
If you read thru the FHL archives you'll find a number of posts about success or lack of success from surgery for insulinoma. However, those posts from some of the more respected ferret vets on the FHL are in favor of surgery as long as the ferret is a good candidate, taking into consideration age and other health factors.
For example, here is one from Dr. Ruth promoting surgery as an effective way of treating (she is responding to an assertion that a ferret who has both adrenal disease and insulinoma might not fare well in surgery):
BEGIN QUOTE:
>Ferrets with insulinoma do not do that great during surgery.
**I must disagree with that statement. I do surgery on ferrets with
insulinoma all the time, and the vast majority of them do very, very well. I suspect that the experience and comfort level of the surgeon has a great deal to do with that - but like I said, in my hands, insulinoma is not a deterrent to surgery, rather, it's another thing to go in and treat during that surgery!
Dr. Ruth
END QUOTE
************
And another from Dr. Bruce Williams:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG10123
BEGIN QUOTE:
>It is no secret - at least on this list, that I far prefer to do
>surgery early on, and reserve medical treatment for non-surgical
>candidates.
>
>It is inevitable that these ferrets will become refractory to the
>prednsione over time, and then surgery will be required. However, at
>that point they may have become non-surgical candidates.
>
>Surgery gives a 60% chance of cure if done early, and this number
>decreases over time. The remaining 40% will develop additional
>tumors within the next 10 moths, but that's the equivalent of a 10
>year interval for a human.
>
>With kindest regards,
>
>Bruce Williams, DVM
END QUOTE
**************************
And here is a study that found that the most effective treatment is surgery that will remove any visual 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
********************
Also, during the time when you are treating with drugs prior to doing surgery, if that's what you elect, then you might want to consider Prednisolone rather than Prednisone.
Hope that helps you.
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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