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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 6, 2011 0:40:09 GMT -5
What are you feeding her? A good diet works wonders for both adrenal and insulinoma. Even if you give freeze dried raw. It will help. What is her blood glucose on a 4 hour fast? Pediapred and proglycem (which I think works FAR better than pediapred) should be last resort if you cannot control her bg with diet. High protein/fat and low carb grain free food will help. I managed my insulinomic ferret for a long time with no meds. I made sure he ate every 4-5 hours. The pediapred raises bg but causes an enlarged abdomen, muscle atrophy and strains the liver/kidneys. It did not manage my ferrets bg very well. The proglycem was more expensive but excellent. I would check bg, try to control with diet change first.they sell blood glucose monitors at the pharmacy. Some are very accurate. I would check his bg every few days. No need to go to vet for that. Don't get me wrong, these medications are effective. But they are a last resort. Diet change first for insulinoma. Adrenal, get melatonin implant every 4 months (melatek makes it). If you can't get deslorelin, get lupron injections but those are once a month. Des lasts a lot longer. I would not recommend surgery for either condition. Waste of money.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 6, 2011 0:48:40 GMT -5
My vet ordered deslorelin (suprelorin) from Peptech in Australia. Sales person to contact is rosie warren. I think jennifer (mystelidmusk) has their contact info and rosie's email. Your vet has to order it though. PLEASE do not give your insulinomic ferret Ferretvite or nutrical! It is very bad for them. Only makes it worse. Nothing with sugar.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 6, 2011 0:49:33 GMT -5
Mustelidmusk sorry. Spellcheck has a mind of its own. To answer your question, the pred should work within a few hours. If you are not seeing improvement, then I workd suspect something else or maybe you need a higher dose. But, sometimes pred doesn't work for all ferrets. Check bg like 3 hours after giving Pediapred. It should be in the 90's on Pediapred.
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Post by dreamsome on Feb 6, 2011 14:24:48 GMT -5
thanks very much for your input! i agree with you 100% on diet/lifestyle change before medicine. she's on kitten/cat evo. the only problem with trying to control this naturally is that i can't get her to eat more than twice a day; sometimes she only eats once a day!! she loves to be handfed and loves to "chase" her kibble which is basically coaxing her into eating. i've given her the prednisolone for a few days now and maybe i'm hopefully imagining, but i feel like it's starting to kick in. i fed her at 10 this morning when i woke up and she wanted to eat again now at 2!! ;D i'm still trying to slowly convert her to raw like her little brother is on but the only way i've been able to get her to eat the meat like i said is using the ferretvite... i'm not sure how i feel about making a soup as softer textures of the like don't suit her. i've tried making her kibble very mushy with water but that kibble, let me tell you, doesn't break down very easy! she would only eat a bit out of desperation, then would stop. this is a whole other topic, really, but just letting you know that i'm trying! i really started to notice her going downhill this past november- we had just brought little london into our home and within a few days, vienna was sick. at the vets we were told she most likely had ECE and was given some medicines. i've read that the virus can linger in the ferret's body (and is still contagious to other ferrets) for up to a year, so i'm wondering if that's still wreaking havoc on her. i do have a home blood testing kit, in fact! it's still unopened. but how would i test her with that, where do you take blood? would it be accurate for her? thanks for the advice about the prednisolone, i will definitely take that into consideration!! has anyone else had any experience with proglycem? i am really very curious about these deslorelin implants... so if i'm understanding correctly, not only will it help to prevent adrenal, but it will treat it if she currently has it??
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2011 14:55:33 GMT -5
The prevention aspect is still fuzzy - not enough data yet. It might slow down the tumor growth, possibly halt it.
When dealing with adrenal, you're really treating the symptoms, not the disease. But the des. Implant has been very effective in managing the symptoms long term.
There are ongoing studies with using des. as a chemical neuter/spay, to prevent the adrenal glands from going into overdrive. I believe a couple people here have/are going to get des. In hopes to prevent/prolong the disease.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 6, 2011 23:46:05 GMT -5
My 7 month old was given then des implant in hopes that it will prevent adrenal. It was recommended to me by several vets and ferret (vet) experts. The fact that she is getting her appetite back is good. The stress of the new ferret may have caused stress. Stress can throw ferrets over the deep end when they are having latent health issues. With my ferret when he was 6.5 we moved to a new house. The stress of the new environment affected his health. He already had adrenal disease. But it got worse, he developed ulcers, gastric problems, digestion problems. The insulinoma became uncontrollable (with diet alone) when he was about 7.5. Keep her as calm as possible.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 7, 2011 7:52:12 GMT -5
I used to draw blood from the footpads. You need someone to hold her while you collect blood sample.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2011 10:50:49 GMT -5
So you use just any blood glucose meter? How deep do you puncture the footpad?
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Post by dreamsome on Feb 7, 2011 15:08:07 GMT -5
at first, i had thought that it could be stress. but vienna loves meeting new people&animals and has never been stressed over it. then when i introduced her and london, they took to each other right away. vienna especially loved playing with him because he was a ferret like her, too... not a dog or cat (there are 3 dogs in the house and 1 cat that used to love curling up with vienna in the hammock, but they can't play with her the way a ferret can! ) i asked why london wasn't sick if he's the one who was carrying the ECE and the vet said that it doesn't affect all ferrets. but i still feel that it's running its course, although not as intense as before and is really bringing out the nasty in insulinoma. as much as i'd like to be rich.... oh wait, who wouldn't?! i need to get a rough estimate as to how much these medicines will cost. how much is each des. implant? the thought of pricking my little girl makes me feel icky, i have a hard enough time doing it to myself! maybe we can find videos online to show exactly how, because i don't want to just jump in the dark with this....
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Post by Sherry on Feb 7, 2011 16:21:27 GMT -5
The best one to show you that would likely be your vet. They can walk you through it, and you can, at the same time, compare the meter you have with the one the vet has, so you will have a rough idea how much of a difference there is in them. You don't want to have her bg read one thing at the vet's office, then check at home, read a major drop and panic, only to have it actually be a difference in the meters.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 7, 2011 19:32:01 GMT -5
If you are not sure/comfortable then ask a vet to show you. It takes practice. First clean the area with alcohol. Then, rub a little vaseline on the foot pad. If you don't do this the blood will be absorbed in the lines on their foot pads. Buy very thin lancets as they hurt the least. Always use a fresh clean lancet. Grab the foot pad squeeze a little to get the blood into it and then puncture it at the fleshiest part. Then, you need to squeeze until you get a bead of blood large enough to penetrate the test strip. Some people with diabetic cats take blood from their ears. But in ferrets that is not easy. When you are done, clean area with peroxide and put some neosporin on it.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Feb 7, 2011 19:34:01 GMT -5
You should not have to make a deep puncture
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2011 1:19:16 GMT -5
Yeah, I'll probably just ask my vet to show me- don't want to hurt my baby girls
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