Hi all.
 
I wanted some advice about my ferret Sammy.  I noticed around March 1999
that he sometimes had hind leg weakness.  I immediately thought insulinoma,
but for various reasons we didn't make a positive diagnosis for some time
(his blood sugar always read 'low normal', and his x-rays showed calcium
between some of his vertebrae making us suspect that spinal impingement
might be causing his leg troubles).
 
Anyway, once we were sure it was insulinoma, Sammy went in for surgery on
May 20.  The vet removed 3 small nodules from his pancreas, but since they
were evenly distributed and not concentrated in any particular part of the
pancreas, he did not remove any additional portion of the pancreas.
 
Sammy did not show very much improvement after surgery, and on June 28 I
started him on prednisone.  This immediately caused a great improvement in
Sammy's condition.  I also started him on Timmy's Tonic, which showed less
marked results.  However, I found I was having to increase the pred dosage
every couple of months or even every few weeks to keep Sammy well.  Around
October or November I started trying supplemental feedings of a special
'duck soup' mix, since I noticed Sammy didn't eat often enough on his own
(sometimes he'd sleep right through the night without eating at all, and he
lost about 1/4 pound up to this point).  By giving Sammy his special soup 4
times per day I was able to cut his prednisone back to 2.5mg every 36
hours.  He's been stable like this for over 3 months, with only occasional
attacks of weakness and drooling, and rarely any disorientation or dazed
behavior, and these attacks could be cleared up in 10 to 30 minutes by
rubbing honey on his gums.  He has also gained back the weight he had lost.
 
Since Saturday Sammy seems to have taken a turn for the worse.  He has had
4 attacks since then, with drooling and hacking, and him seeming dazed at
times, and it has taken about an hour in each case to bring him slowly back
to normal with forced honey, and voluntary snacks once he felt well enough.
Now, I *did* make a change to Sammy's soup recipe on Saturday; I changed it
back yesterday morning in case that was the problem, but Sammy had another
attack this morning.  The recipe change may be related or may be
coincidence.
 
Increasing Sammy's pred dosage or frequency would probably be sufficient
for now, but my experience with Sammy is that this won't help for long.
The pred will probably lose effect all too quickly and keep having to be
increased.  Since in my experience this option seems to be least successful
in the long run, I prefer to save it as a last resort.  Also, Sammy had an
attack on Thursday only 12 hours after his pred dosage, and another today
only 1 hour after his dosage (though I'm not sure how long pred takes to
get into the system; can anyone answer that?).
 
I've read that removal of part of the pancreas often helps ferrets with
insulinoma, but this is generally done early in the disease.  Is there any
chance that a partial pancreatomy would still be helpful for Sammy?  He has
been through 3 surgeries before (neutering, blockage removal, and the last
for insulinoma) and he seems to tolerate surgery very well and recover
quickly (the same has been true of all my ferrets in fact).
 
Sammy's tail fur has also been thinning for several months.  It's still not
*very* thin, but he may have early adrenal disease as well.  I don't know
if that could weaken him and thus worsen his insulinoma symptoms.
 
Bottom line: should I have a partial pancreatomy done on Sammy, and have
the adrenals checked at the same time?  Has anyone had success with a
partial pancreatomy later in the progress of the disease?
 
Sammy is 5 years old, by the way (turning 6 on May 17).
 
I'd appreciate it if any responses could be sent directly to me (as well as
to the List if you like), since I only skim the List these days (I've been
a member since near the beginning, but it's gotten too big to read it all
any more).  I probably will catch any responses sent to the List, but
better safe than sorry.
 
Thanks in advance from me and Sammy for any help.
 
--
John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy
With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy
Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets
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[Posted in FML issue 2986]