>Not sure if you all remember, but a while back my mother and I had taken
>Mischief to the vet for being lethargic and "noodly" back legs... the vet
>herself said she thought and probably definately was Insolinoma.  She also
>said he is hypoglycemic (which I have no idea what that is).  I know that
>low blood sugar causes (somehow) the brain to become lethargic.  I don't
>know how and I also dont know how it causes his legs not to work.  He
>wasn't doing bad then, but now I'm becoming VERY worried.
 
No op?  No meds?
 
The body, including the brain need enough sugar in the blood to function.
Hypo means low, and glycemia refers to the sugar.  In insulinoma (insulin
cell tumors) the tumors secrete too much insulin and that forces down the
blood sugar.  Surgery cures about 60% of the cases, but in about 40% new
growths appear after surgery.  When a ferret is not a surgical candidate
there are two useful medications: Prednisone and Proglycem.  Depending on
the individual situation these are given together from scratch, or Pred
may be used for a while and then Proglycem added later.  Prednisone is
cheap; Proglycem is expensive, BTW.  There had been a hypothesis that
giving dietary sugars was bad and caused yo-yoing of blood sugar.  That
might be true for early cases so dietary precautions make sense then with
sugars eliminated from diet and surgery/medications used till more is
known; for advanced ones that hypothesis flies out the window because the
insulinomae suppress the normal tissue and insulinomae are not
blood-sugar-level dependent in the amounts they secrete, so for late cases
of insulinoma dietary sugar may be added to hopefully give some extra
quality time.  At the very least this ferret should be on Prednisone.
According to Karen Purcell's incredible vet text the dosing for
Predisone/Prednisolone is 0.10-2.5 mg/kg q 12-24h PO .  Ferrets are not
particularly prone to the steroid problems seen in a number of other
mammals.
 
>My vet told us that she didnt have the facilities to test his blood and
>that we would have to go to OH state U to have it done.  She also said it
>would cost a LOT of money.
 
In-house blood testing is standard and cheap in many, perhaps most, areas
now.
 
Is your vet interested in learning more about ferrets and is she on-line?
If so, pass along the two URLs below my name for her to get a lot of
ferret-specialist-vet-written materials.  A ferret vet text would come in
handy as well.  Dr. Karen Purcell's _Essentials of Ferrets_ which is
available from AAHA 1-800-252-2242
 
Are there any other vets in your area who would be willing to learn
about ferrets otherwise?
 
Here are some places for finding ferret vets for anyone in need:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/FML-shelter-list.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/FerretVets.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html
http://www.thepetproject.com/starferrets.html
http://ferretcentral.org
 
-- Sukie
For ferret health information:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-List
http://geocities.com/sukieslist
[Posted in FML issue 3793]