Sandy, my 4 1/2 year old Albino Lady Ferret is facing the "hypoglycemia"
(low blood sugar?) disease and is still alive and kicking.  since her
first crash the second to last weekend of June (I am not calling it
insolnoma yet because she had an ultrasound and showed no islet tumors
big enough to see yet).  (I have 3 ferrets)
 
She was still "in the woods" on Monday (blood sugar at the doctor was 69
eight hours after her twice-per-day meds on Monday, but see the rest of
my update).she does not present any signs at this sugar level and remains
pretty active -- we are working to get the meds right and move her blood
sugar into a more normal level
 
We are taking a test again when the doc wants it and I am watching
her closely, feeding her turkey and turkey broth baby food (with NO
carbohydrates, 4 grams of Fat, and a whopping 11 grams of protein per
serving.  the serving will likely last 4-5 days as a supplement).  she is
EATING her Ferret Food (Hurray), Ferretone, (and no sugar treats!) and
she is alert, in good cheers, and real snuggly.  I also have some soft
canned ferret food I am giving her for variety.
 
She did not feel well yesterday before the doctors' (we were coming in
Tuesday for a Blood Sugar test and bumped it up a day).  The reason I
was concerned was she was drooling on my nap while napping, and once I
realized it I immediately gave her some food in a syringe and she went
back to sleep (after some playtime) without the problem.  Over the
weekend a few times I caught her acting a little spacey, fed her, and
the problem at the time went away.
 
HER PROBLEM OVER THE LAST 4-5 DAYS WAS that she was spitting out much
of her medicine.  Early on she accepted it and had great results, but
as she got stronger she got more sneaky at avoiding the meds.  I tried
everything and just couldn't pull it off.  she was only getting about 50%
of her dose.  She acted like I was feeding her poison.  UNTIL YESTERDAY
when I had an epiphany.
 
 -----
 
 Part #2:  Things got better when.
 
 -----
 
I ran out of prednisone.  She is receiving 0.8 CC twice-per-day and the
doctor gave me little tiny 1/4 tablets to replace them Monday.  She hated
the taste of the liquid and the doctor has told me that we can order
different liquid tastes from a compounding pharmacist.  Monday night I
crushed the tablet quarter between 2 spoons, put the powder in a medicine
dispenser syringe and added about 1.5 CCs of Ferretone.  I let the powder
(which doesn't dissolve in oil) set in the end of the syringe, held her
down by wrapping her in a towel, and she swallowed the meds with NO
PROBLEM.  hurray!!!  I think the pill crystals taste gritty, but the flow
of ferretone masks any taste.
 
She also gets 0.2 CC twice-per-day of Proglycem and a little bit (about
0.2 CC of Pepto-Bismol to coat her stomach to protect her from the
prednisone.  and I just got the pepto tablets to try the same trick as
above.
 
I believe I will be asking for pill forms of the meds in the future as
long as it works!
 
Later,
Mark h.
[Posted in FML issue 3847]