From:
caitlyn@mizuhoradio.com
Date: 2009-02-04 18:34:58 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Initial prednisone dosage for insulinoma
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi, everyone,
I'm back after a long absence... This post is long but I want to get
all the facts out. Please bear with me.
Chin Soon is a 5.5 year old female ferret, weighs 642 grams, and until
recently she has had no health problems at all other than minor
vaccination reactions. Lately she's had two symptoms: hind end
weakness and hair loss, almost entirely on her tail. Chin Soon has rat
tail at every coat change and she always grows the hair back quickly.
This year she didn't. My fears were insulinoma and adrenal disease.
I've had a couple of ferrets in the past have both at once. I also
thought of lymphoma. Anyway, off to the vet...
I moved back to North Carolina last year and our original vet here has
retired. The vet we used after that rarely sees ferrets now. The other
vet I really trust moved all the way across the state a few years back.
I decided to try a new vet that was recommended by one of the active
members of the local ferret club.
The new vet checked Chin Soon's fasting blood glucose which was 41 so
that confirmed insulinoma. She wants to do an ultrasound to see if an
adrenal tumor shows up. All well and good so far. She said some other
things vis a vis adrenal treatment that made no sense to me but I filed
that for later research. She called in a perscription for Pediapred
which I picked up yesterday afternoon. This is where things started to
go seriously wrong.
The dosage with the perscription was 1.0ml twice daily, 5mg/ml solution.
Yes, 1.0 not 0.1. Every other vet I've dealt with started my ferrets
at 0.1ml, rechecked the glucose, and adjusted the dosage. I called the
vet's office to confirm that this was an error and that someone slipped
a digit. No, it turns out that because Chin Soon's blood glucose level
was "so low" she really wanted to give her 2mg per day. This sounded
way too high to me so I called that vet across the state which I really
trust. She told me that the dosage prescribed was higher than what they
give with chemotherapy to destroy a ferret's immune system! While she
wouldn't prescribe a dosage without a visit (and I don't blame her for
that) she read me the textbook maximum dosage and it is less than a
third of what the new vet prescribed for Chin Soon.
My decision, of course, is to drive three and a half hours and to take
Chin Soon to the vet I spoke to today. The difficulty is the current
economic crisis: I'm trying to build a small business after dealing
with a long period of under-employment and/or unemployment. I'll have
the money for the vet visit by the end of the week and I hope to have
Chin Soon to the trusted vet by the first of next week. In the
meanwhile I'd like to give Chin Soon a little of the pediapred I have to
relieve her symptoms until that visit. So, finally, here is the
question:
Am I safe giving her the 0.1ml twice a day that our original vet did
with all our previous ferrets with insulinoma? I believe I am but I
have never medicated without explicit vet instructions before and I'd
like some reassurance that I am doing the right thing as an interim
step. Again, this is just for a few days until I can get her to the
trusted vet.
Thanks in advance,
Caity and the terrific trio
(Ella, Zephyr, and Chin Soon)
http://www.mizuhoradio.com/personal/caitlyn/ferrets
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