From:
"Britta"
Date: 2011-09-19 19:03:46 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] 6-year old female ferret with Insulinoma
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi Everyone!
I have never posted here before but I have been reading all the updates in my emails daily, so I know how knowledgeable this group is. I need some help or maybe just some reassurance...
I have a 6-year old female ferret named Mischa who was diagnosed with Insulinoma a little more than a year ago. She has been on Pred and Pepcid ever since. The vet started her out at .05 cc Pred twice daily and then increased it to .10 cc twice daily and then in the last month, she has been increased again to .15 cc twice per day. The last increase was due to a glucose reading of 29, which I know is extremely low. She had not eaten for a couple hours before the test. For the Pepcid, she started at .05 cc once daily and is now on .10 cc once daily. I have also been feeding her Gerber 2nd Stage Chicken & Chicken Gravy/ Turkey & Turkey Gravy baby food and Maxcal (this is what my vet calls it, but I can't remember the real name right now -- "maximum calorie" high-protein canned prescription food, NOT the sticky stuff that comes in a tube) several times per day. She unfortunately stopped eating her kibble a few months ago... it seemed like it was almost too much for her to chew it.
So my questions are these:
She has been having some very watery, light-colored (like the same color as the baby food - light beige) diarrhea since Saturday afternoon and I have also had some trouble getting her to eat as much as usual. I know this is probably due to the fact that her stomach is not feeling all that great, but usually she scarfs down any food you put in front of her. She usually eats half a can of Maxcal or at least one jar of baby food (2.5 oz each) in each feeding, but now in the last few days, its less than half of that and she's done.
She has also been fighting me like crazy when I give her her meds. I mix her meds with a small amount of Strawberry or Vanilla Ensure to try to mask the bad flavor and Mischa used to love getting it because she thought it was a treat. But now, I am having to scruff her and really try several times to get her to take the medicine while she tries to push me away from her and turn her head away. Once I do get her to swallow most of it, she spits whatever was still left in her mouth all over. It makes me feel terrible to have to put my baby through something that seems like it is so traumatic for her.
And lastly, she has been vocalizing in her sleep and when she is waking up. It kind of sounds like moaning, but also sort of like gagging... kind of hard to explain, but not a noise that sounds good to me. I guess she just seems rather "unhappy" in general and the noises kind of reinforce that.
She also has (and has had for months) all of the other "typical" Insulinoma symptoms - wobbly hind end, staring off into space (but she has been mostly blind for a year and a half), sleeping pretty heavily and much more than she used to, etc. She has only had a couple of times where she was really staggering while trying to walk, leaning to one side and drooling excessively, but as soon as I gave her a nice meal, she snapped out of it. She has not had any seizures to my knowledge.
I guess I am mostly wondering how much of this is normal... am I doing the right things for her? Am I over-reacting by thinking that she might be close to "the end"? Any suggestions on what I can do to make things easier on her? I just don't know what to do, but I can not bear the thought of her being in any pain or suffering at all. I do have a vet appointment for her tomorrow afternoon, by the way, so I guess I will see what she has to say.
Sorry for all the rambling! Thanks in advance for the help!
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