>I brought Roulette home yesterday at 5:15 pm. The vet said he is
>Hypoglycemic. That I need to keep him out of the Humidity and just givre
>him Honey or sugar if he has another seizure. The vet gave him two shots-
>one was Valium for the seizures and the other one was for the fluid in his
>lungs. He did not send home antibiotics. He also said antiseizure meds
>don't work very well on ferrets. I really feel he was just sending him
>home to die.
Well, unless the ferret is being treated and you just left that out of your
latest letter, I'm afraid that your vet is a bit behind in ferret medicine.
Since they aren't taught in vet schools that isn't unusual. Your vet will
be glad to know that Purcell has an excellent text out through AAHA and
that Hillyer and Quesenberry will have a new edition due out next year
from Saunder of _Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents_. Certainly, Charles
Weiss's instructional video tape is also a win for vets.
Giving sugar EXCEPT to stop a seizure in progress can be very
counter-productive. Instead, surgery to remove the insulinomae or to
remove part of the pancreas (the two best approaches for most, though not
for all), or medical treatment (Prednisone, Proglycem are options) are the
better ways to go. The ferret needs to have food available at all times.
Vets tend to be very intelligent individuals who like to learn. Here are
a few places where you can find VET WRITTEN information on insulinoma to
print out and share with your vet if these are things not known:
http://www.ferretdoctor.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
http://www.ferret.net/medical/
http://www.trifl.org/medical.html
http://home.att.net/~hhoefer/
http://www.lbah.com/Ferrets/insulinoma.htm
Some ferrets with advanced insulinoma find help from a partial pancreatomy.
It's not without its risks, but it has given some over a year of real
quality time as per John R. letter a day or two ago in the FML.
I am curious why he has fluid in his lungs. Was an x-ray done? CBC? Some
common causes are cardiomyopathy (which is terminal but can be treated to
give a nice chunk or more and healthier time), liver disease or kidney
disease (Neither of which is as treatable as cardiomyopathy but you'll
find info on options for each in the refs above.), infections (typically
treatable), lymphoma, etc.
It may be that your vet has done all of these sorts of things, and those
were mentioned in earlier letters. If so, I simply missed or forgot given
my large volume of mail.
Yes, sometimes they bite due to pain. So do human toddlers, pups,
kittens, etc.
As has been said before, I am not a vet, just someone with 19 years of
ferret experience.
[Posted in FML issue 3515]
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