Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2014 16:18:03 GMT -5
So after a month of dealing with mystery symptoms, my 3 1/2 year old Willow has *finally* been diagnosed.
Long story turned brief--I essentially had my first encounter with an insulinomic episode early April, rushed Willow to the vet having NO idea what was wrong; her glucose was normal (though they did not take it fasting--her tummy was absolutely stuffed with food) so she went through an exploratory surgery with the vet's thinking she had a blockage. Of course, they found nothing. She was there for four nights on supportive/recovery care before she came home, and after that she had maybe three other episodes (these have all been relatively minor and short lived--drooling, loss of balance and pawing at the mouth, though she may have had more that I was not there to witness) over the course of two months--which the vet's theorized was cramping/digestive upset--before I finally scheduled ANOTHER appointment after her last episode on Thursday afternoon to get her glucose rechecked, as research had me convinced that she was insulinomic at that point.
This time (and they claim they checked her glucose a number of times while she was there before and it was always within normal range) her glucose came back as 63--and this was still not a fasting level--so the vet prescribed her pred (.2, twice a day) and we have a check up appointment in four weeks. This was yesterday morning.
After Thursday's episode, I've been supplementing her kibble (currently a mix of Dr. Fosters and Orijen whole prey formula) with spoonfuls of gerber's stage 2 chicken and gravy just so I can see her eating and reassure myself that she has something in her stomach. I tried giving her some ground beef today too, just to see if she'd eat it (she's usually a bit easier to introduce new foods to than my male is) and while she showed some interest, licked it and took a small piece to stash--she didn't didn't actually eat any of it.
I'm looking to switch her and her cage mate to whole prey after doing a lot of research on the subject, and I've been making plans to breed my own feeders to help with the cost, once I've gotten to a point where they're accepting whole prey as food. My brother kept snakes when we were young, so I have some experience with feeder mice already, and know I can handle it emotionally, it's just a matter of getting everything set up--and hoping my parents would be willing to volunteer some freezer space for any stock I build up and whatever I need to order from the rodentpro.
My main concern right now is that, being insulinomic, I want to be certain that she can graze throughout the day to keep her glucose stable. Especially with her cage mate--who tends to eat a lot more than her--any leftover mouse/rat/chick might be gobbled up by him, and I work full time and live alone. I'd rather not separate them. I'm also in the National Guard and am gone one weekend each month, and two weeks every summer, and while I have people who can check on them throughout the day when I'm gone, I'm still concerned about her going too long without eating. I've also seen comments that having them eat kibble and raw too closely together is a bad thing, but I don't want to risk her going into an episode by keeping food away from her for any length of time during the transition phase.
Of course, I still want to make the switch and get some experience with whole prey so that any future woozles I adopt can immediately be switched to this diet so I can maybe prevent going through this again; I'm heartbroken over the inevitable end--I love Willow dearly, but it seems all I can do now is try to keep her healthy for as long as I can, and learn from my mistakes. I'm sure the kibbles have not helped (although I've always tried my best to feed the highest quality I could), but my biggest mistakes I believe were treating with ferretlax during hairball season, and supplementing with ferrevite on occasion.
Any and all advice--particularly from other ferrants who've had to make the switch with an insulinoma patient--would be greatly appreciated.
Long story turned brief--I essentially had my first encounter with an insulinomic episode early April, rushed Willow to the vet having NO idea what was wrong; her glucose was normal (though they did not take it fasting--her tummy was absolutely stuffed with food) so she went through an exploratory surgery with the vet's thinking she had a blockage. Of course, they found nothing. She was there for four nights on supportive/recovery care before she came home, and after that she had maybe three other episodes (these have all been relatively minor and short lived--drooling, loss of balance and pawing at the mouth, though she may have had more that I was not there to witness) over the course of two months--which the vet's theorized was cramping/digestive upset--before I finally scheduled ANOTHER appointment after her last episode on Thursday afternoon to get her glucose rechecked, as research had me convinced that she was insulinomic at that point.
This time (and they claim they checked her glucose a number of times while she was there before and it was always within normal range) her glucose came back as 63--and this was still not a fasting level--so the vet prescribed her pred (.2, twice a day) and we have a check up appointment in four weeks. This was yesterday morning.
After Thursday's episode, I've been supplementing her kibble (currently a mix of Dr. Fosters and Orijen whole prey formula) with spoonfuls of gerber's stage 2 chicken and gravy just so I can see her eating and reassure myself that she has something in her stomach. I tried giving her some ground beef today too, just to see if she'd eat it (she's usually a bit easier to introduce new foods to than my male is) and while she showed some interest, licked it and took a small piece to stash--she didn't didn't actually eat any of it.
I'm looking to switch her and her cage mate to whole prey after doing a lot of research on the subject, and I've been making plans to breed my own feeders to help with the cost, once I've gotten to a point where they're accepting whole prey as food. My brother kept snakes when we were young, so I have some experience with feeder mice already, and know I can handle it emotionally, it's just a matter of getting everything set up--and hoping my parents would be willing to volunteer some freezer space for any stock I build up and whatever I need to order from the rodentpro.
My main concern right now is that, being insulinomic, I want to be certain that she can graze throughout the day to keep her glucose stable. Especially with her cage mate--who tends to eat a lot more than her--any leftover mouse/rat/chick might be gobbled up by him, and I work full time and live alone. I'd rather not separate them. I'm also in the National Guard and am gone one weekend each month, and two weeks every summer, and while I have people who can check on them throughout the day when I'm gone, I'm still concerned about her going too long without eating. I've also seen comments that having them eat kibble and raw too closely together is a bad thing, but I don't want to risk her going into an episode by keeping food away from her for any length of time during the transition phase.
Of course, I still want to make the switch and get some experience with whole prey so that any future woozles I adopt can immediately be switched to this diet so I can maybe prevent going through this again; I'm heartbroken over the inevitable end--I love Willow dearly, but it seems all I can do now is try to keep her healthy for as long as I can, and learn from my mistakes. I'm sure the kibbles have not helped (although I've always tried my best to feed the highest quality I could), but my biggest mistakes I believe were treating with ferretlax during hairball season, and supplementing with ferrevite on occasion.
Any and all advice--particularly from other ferrants who've had to make the switch with an insulinoma patient--would be greatly appreciated.
Meat is good for a lot longer than most realize. And as a rule raw fed ferrets don't overeat, so you will learn approx how much the two will eat during a meal cycle(12 hours) so they don't run out, or have TOO much left over.
). Perhaps I'm being way too optimistic... I'm actually pretty confident that Willow will make the switch with few problems, it's her brother Koda that tends to be notoriously picky and resistant to change.