Ferret not playful

[Deleted]

Hi All

I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or maybe some insight into what may be going on.  Our girl is about 6 years old now and recently, within about the last 2 weeks, seems to be almost completely uninterested in her toys and is nearly impossible to get hyper.  For her, this is not typical.  She lost her cage mate about 6 months ago now and although she probably hasn't been quite as happy and playful since then, she still would play with toys and get hyper.  Over the past couple weeks, she has been flatting much more than normal too. 

She still eats very well (raw), drinks well, and her poops look fine. She is still curious, follows us around everywhere acting like she wants to play/attention but then she just won't "get into it" when we try to play with her.  We took her for a glucose test which come out consistent with previous tests (a little on the lower side but not cause for concern yet).

Any thoughts?

As always, thanks for your help!!

[Heather]

At 6 yrs of age, with a borderline BG and given a sudden decline in activity I would definitely consider adrenal disease.
ciao

[Deleted]

Just to be clear, it's not that she isn't active. She still seems to have a lot of energy and actually seems to be awake more often. She likes to wonder around and still shows signs of curiousity. The only thing that has changed is that she doesn't show much excitement while she plays, like she used to. For example, before she would dook and become hyper fairly easily whereas now it seems like nearly impossible challenge to get her to do that.

She got an 84 on her blood test (vet said 90-100 is normal, with below 70 being an indicator of insulinoma)

We are unsure if her new behaviour is just from her age or boredom, or do you still think it sounds like adrenal?

Thank you for your help!

[Heather]

The fact that she's borderline insulinoma might be part of the issue. Will your vet consider treating her insulinoma with low dose pred to see if this might help her energy? The other consideration is sometimes, adrenal will give false BG readings where the ferret is actually sicker than the reading actually shows. These are possible considerations.
ciao

[Sherry]

Adrenal would be my big concern as well. You can always try a 3 month lupron trial to see if it has any effect. But watch the bg. Adrenal artificially raises blood glucose levels in some, so once treated the bg drops down to where it would have been had adrenal NOT been and issue.
And even if she doesn't respond to the lupron, no harm done.