Post by Deleted on May 25, 2013 10:54:39 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I am in need of some advice with regards to insulinoma, I know lots fo you are unfortunate enough to have this horrible disease affect your fur kids and Monty needs all your advice.
He came to us through a reputable rescue that I have known for a while and we were told he was about 2.5 years old. He did have bad teeth, and had been fed wet cat food until he'd come into the rescue about 5 months before, and then he was slowly switched over to a mixture of kibbles. He took to the raw overnight, probably as he was used to a "meatier" diet from the cat food. He did have a cataract in one eye, which meant that when he ran or walked along, he would sort of go diagonally so that his good eye was facing forwards, so sometimes he walked into things and was a bit "wobbly" but nothing that couldn't be explained by his eye problems. He is a very happy little chap, he likes to play with his friends and do all of the naughty things ferrets do.
Over the last few months I've noticed him wanting to do less and less exercise. Every day at play time he will come out and play for a while, and then seek somewhere soft to sit and go to sleep. He has always loved to climb onto our laps for cuddles, but increasingly he was falling asleep. He also has started scuffing his back feet along the floor when he walks or runs (only the toe nails, not the actual feet so they aren't getting sore). He seems to run out of energy quickly, and after running around likes to rest for long periods. When he likes to rest, he doesn't like to put weight on his back legs, and while he does have control over them (he can flex his toes etc), he seems really reluctant to put weight on them, which I figured meant maybe they were painful?
We suspected that he might have arthritis or something similar, so we took him along to a vets that we were reccomended to after repeatedly problems with our regular vet. This practise are not an exotics vet, but they do service a rescue which opened up around 2 years ago in the area, and the vet has ferrets himself.
When we took him in, his first question was what was I feeding? When I said a raw diet, he sucked in his breath and told me immedietely to put him on a complete diet. He said that one of his ferrets had his diet changed when he went away for two weeks and was boarded, and had similar symptoms. After a few weeks back on his regular food, he went back to normal. He said that this was insulinoma and that feeding the "correct" diet would make him better.
I asked if we could do a blood test to check his glucose, and he said he would rather not as it meant he would need to knock Monty out as he needs to take blood directly from the vena cava and this is obviously not without risk. I have never heard of this before, and wondered if this was normal practise? I repeated my concerns that it might be something painful, and he has given me some metacam to try for a few days, and obviously if it is this then we will know fairly quickly if it is something painful.
He has insisted that I immedietely stop feeding him raw and put him on a complete diet. He admitted that he had neevr diagnosed insulimona before in a ferret because of it's rarity, but seems convinced that changing him to a complete diet will magically make it go away. When I voiced concerns about grains, sugars etc and the evidence that suggests that this can even cause insulinoma, he pulled out a book which had a paragraph on insulinoma which essnetially said that the symptoms included fitting, seizures etc, and that treatment was to alter the diet (no mention of how). I asked about pred and he said he didn't like to prescribe it to ferrets and wouldn't use it for ferret insulinoma, and that if I changed his diet it wouldn't be necessary. I am really worried that if I start him o a dry food, and he does have insulinoma, this is only going to make him worse. What do I do?
He came to us through a reputable rescue that I have known for a while and we were told he was about 2.5 years old. He did have bad teeth, and had been fed wet cat food until he'd come into the rescue about 5 months before, and then he was slowly switched over to a mixture of kibbles. He took to the raw overnight, probably as he was used to a "meatier" diet from the cat food. He did have a cataract in one eye, which meant that when he ran or walked along, he would sort of go diagonally so that his good eye was facing forwards, so sometimes he walked into things and was a bit "wobbly" but nothing that couldn't be explained by his eye problems. He is a very happy little chap, he likes to play with his friends and do all of the naughty things ferrets do.
Over the last few months I've noticed him wanting to do less and less exercise. Every day at play time he will come out and play for a while, and then seek somewhere soft to sit and go to sleep. He has always loved to climb onto our laps for cuddles, but increasingly he was falling asleep. He also has started scuffing his back feet along the floor when he walks or runs (only the toe nails, not the actual feet so they aren't getting sore). He seems to run out of energy quickly, and after running around likes to rest for long periods. When he likes to rest, he doesn't like to put weight on his back legs, and while he does have control over them (he can flex his toes etc), he seems really reluctant to put weight on them, which I figured meant maybe they were painful?
We suspected that he might have arthritis or something similar, so we took him along to a vets that we were reccomended to after repeatedly problems with our regular vet. This practise are not an exotics vet, but they do service a rescue which opened up around 2 years ago in the area, and the vet has ferrets himself.
When we took him in, his first question was what was I feeding? When I said a raw diet, he sucked in his breath and told me immedietely to put him on a complete diet. He said that one of his ferrets had his diet changed when he went away for two weeks and was boarded, and had similar symptoms. After a few weeks back on his regular food, he went back to normal. He said that this was insulinoma and that feeding the "correct" diet would make him better.
I asked if we could do a blood test to check his glucose, and he said he would rather not as it meant he would need to knock Monty out as he needs to take blood directly from the vena cava and this is obviously not without risk. I have never heard of this before, and wondered if this was normal practise? I repeated my concerns that it might be something painful, and he has given me some metacam to try for a few days, and obviously if it is this then we will know fairly quickly if it is something painful.
He has insisted that I immedietely stop feeding him raw and put him on a complete diet. He admitted that he had neevr diagnosed insulimona before in a ferret because of it's rarity, but seems convinced that changing him to a complete diet will magically make it go away. When I voiced concerns about grains, sugars etc and the evidence that suggests that this can even cause insulinoma, he pulled out a book which had a paragraph on insulinoma which essnetially said that the symptoms included fitting, seizures etc, and that treatment was to alter the diet (no mention of how). I asked about pred and he said he didn't like to prescribe it to ferrets and wouldn't use it for ferret insulinoma, and that if I changed his diet it wouldn't be necessary. I am really worried that if I start him o a dry food, and he does have insulinoma, this is only going to make him worse. What do I do?
Even if she's not dealt with that many ferrets it does sound as though she's willing to learn what she needs to!