From:
"Brenda Lebby"
Date: 2009-09-16 19:05:48 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re:Is it possible for a ferret to have insulinoma and diabetes at the s
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Hi Sukie...so sorry for your loss of Whizbang.
I have a 6 year old female who was diagnosed with insulinoma right after I adopted her a little over a year ago. She had advanced symptoms right from the start so I'm not sure how long she had insulinoma before being treated. The first time we went to the vet her glucose was only 39. The Doc didn't offer me much hope because she was in such bad shape. We started her on pred and a couple weeks later her glucose was up to 89. The Doc was very pleased! A month later she was in the same range so decided we could go three months before the next check. I noticed that she started drinking huge amounts of water and urinating just as much! She also gained a lot of weight in her belly. The next Doc visit her glucose was 412. The Doc was very surprised, said it was a first for her in over 20 years of treating ferrets. She consulted with another Vet, who is a bit of a ferret "expert" and he suggested a special diet and of course decreasing the pred. Came back in a couple of w
eeks and her glucose was still in the upper 300's. Decreased the pred more and the glucose continued to come down, but then it came down too low, 48. Increased the pred again and went back up. She's been pretty stable in the 160-170 range, which is a little high but better than her being too low...but she continues to go up and down. We were wondering if she might have developed a pancreatitis with her insulinoma, but her temp was never elevated. The Doc did do an ultrasound of her abdomen and didn't find anything remarkable. So, I purchased an alphatrak meter and when I see her exhibiting symptoms of either increased or decreased glucose I check it out and adjust her pred accordingly. Otherwise I do it about once a month and she's been fairly stable.
>From what I understand it's pretty rare. Her sister was diagnosed with insulinoma about 3 months ago so we were curious if the same thing would happen and perhaps have some genetic connection, but so far we're having a hard time just keeping her in the upper 60's.
Brenda
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