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Post by kelseyjl on Mar 1, 2011 19:51:35 GMT -5
So little background as I haven't posted on here in awhile...
I switched my 3 ferrets to raw a few months ago and everyone is doing really well...Shiza and Fergie are just older than 2 yo and Punk is 4. Punk is one of my original 2 ferrets and his brother Willy died just over a yr ago due to cancer. Anyway Punk has never had any health problems and last night when I weighed him he was at 2.4 lbs...the biggest he's ever been!
On Friday morning when I went into their room to feed them before work, Punk's head was cocked to the side and he was a little wobbly and didn't have the good balance he normally does. By Friday night he was completely normal but decided to take him to the vet anyway.
Today at the vet she checked his glucose and it was like 40...so another round of insulinoma here we come. My parents just had to put our family dog to sleep yesterday so this wasn't the news I wanted to hear. Anyway vet put him on 0.2 mL of prednisolone once a day and said to feed him smaller, more frequent meals. Well I normally feed them 2x a day, in the morning and at night. I can't come home in the middle of the day to feed them, not every day at least. And now I'm just concerned with him only eating 2x a day and the insulinoma that he won't stay well so I don't know what to do.
Any experiences w/ferrets w/insulinoma that are raw fed? Recommended or not? What are my best alternatives? I was so praying the switch to raw would offset the previous damage from kibble and I'm positive it at least delayed it, but the disease is here now and I want him to prosper so any ideas would be appreciated, thank you.
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 1, 2011 20:48:28 GMT -5
Sorry to hear that, insulinoma isn't any fun. You'll want to make sure to give her some soupies before her pred so she'll be eating 2x a day extra there, I know some break it into 3 doses and feedings. Can you just leave raw in the cage? I always have food out with my group since they all eat at different rates and times. What are you feeding for raw?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 20:52:47 GMT -5
My experience was that raw feeding was what gave my girl as good of a quality of life as she had until the end.... I adopted Ovana when she was about 3 (after she'd been fed cat food most of her life) and immediately switched her to raw. We had her for 15 months before she passed on, and I believe the raw controlled and hid her insulinoma symptoms as she wasn't diagnosed until just a couple months before she passed on, at which point she went downhill fast. My vet suspected the raw had controlled it well enough to keep the disease hidden until it reached the end stages, as she had been in monthly during that whole time for Lupron treatments for her adrenal disease.
Your timing should be ok for the feedings since raw can be left out quite a while, it's my understanding soups are fine for 6-8 hours, bigger chunks 12-24, and whole prey 48+ since the fur/skin protects the meat. If you leave extra food available with easy access for her to free-feed all the time, and then make sure she's also getting meals twice daily while your home (I called it soupy time, I'd feed Ovana her pred with a special soup twice a day, it was also good bonding time) I think you'll be fine, especially during the early stages. I also had better luck dosing the pred at a half dose twice a day rather than just a big dose since it seemed to stabilize the BG better spread out a bit, and feeding a meal before dosing is important since it can cause ulcers on an empty stomach. If the diet needs to regress for ease of digestability, you'll still want to keep it high protien and grain free as starches are converted to sugars which make the BG spike and drop even worse...I don't remember where but there are some really good soup recipes on the forum for when things get to that point, if you do a search. There's no cure, but it can be managed for a while, I wish your little one the best of luck.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Mar 1, 2011 21:06:36 GMT -5
Raw will help insulinoma. Give nothing with carbs or sugar. I would make sure he eats every 5 -6 hours and always give food before pred as it causes gastrointestinal problems and ulcers. I personally did not like pred. My ferret's insulinoma was better controlled with proglycem (diazoxide).
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 22:31:59 GMT -5
If your ferret will eat feeze-dried raw...
I HIGHLY recommend providing freeze-dried raw between meals for snacking. And I would feed it DRY if your ferret will eat it dry.
I feed my ferrets freeze-died raw meals , and I do not moisten it for a reason......If anyone develops insulinoma, I can offer the DRY food between meals. I've found that ferrets tend to avoid wet food that has been left out and is cold, dry and stale on the outside.
If your ferret will not at freeze-dried raw, you can try some starch-free Epigen kibble left out for between-meal snacking.
Remember, Epigen is too ow fat to be the only food source for ferrets, but if primary meals are high-fat, snacking on Epigen will be better than regular kibble. (Freeze-dried raw would be better than epigen)
-jennifer
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Post by Heather on Mar 1, 2011 23:36:38 GMT -5
I've only had personal experience with one insulinomic ferret. Calypso did very well eating a raw diet, I just made sure that she had raw food available to eat. Perhaps, increasing the amount of food available so that your little one can have food available might be an answer. Freeze dried food might also be a solution
ciao
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Post by kelseyjl on Mar 5, 2011 1:06:07 GMT -5
The good thing about Punk is he ALWAYS eats immediately when I put the food in the cage both times each day. So at least I know he won't be getting his medicine on an empty stomach.
I do leave the raw in the cage but sometimes they eat it all by the next feeding. I have started giving the normal amount of food in the morning and extra food at night so they get like a meal and a half at night. That way, even though I know they're stashing some of it, Punk won't ever be without food.
It's really not possible for me to make sure he eats every 5-6 hours. He has access to raw all the time so he should be fine though.
I used the freeze dried raw to help them transition to full raw but they didn't take to it as much as they do raw. And it's so freaking expensive. I used to get the Stella & Chewy's beef and chicken patties but they discontinued that product and now all their patties have so much extra crap in them. They didn't like the AFS patties that much and there's no substance to the sprinkles. Even the Wysong has so much added crap into it. I just don't like any of the available options anymore haha.
So I think I'll just continue giving them extra food at one of their meals and see how that goes. Punk is responding really well to the med, his energy level is way up, so I think I'll just give this method some time and adjust as needed.
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Post by Heather on Mar 5, 2011 1:13:33 GMT -5
Good luck, it sounds like you've got a good handle on what you're doing  . ciao |
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