First of all I want to thank you all for the emails I got about Tibbie
and his insulinoma.  He had been doing so much better, up until 2 days
ago.  Here is a message I cross posted to the Ferret Health List.
 
        ----------------------------------------------
 
Hi, I have posted several times about my insulinomic 6 year old male
ferret Tibbie.  For a few weeks I have had him on a karo syrup and soup
diet.  His prednisolone was not working at all, but the diazoxide does.
The karo/soup diet works great for hours.  He went from having low 40's
blood sugars all the time to 100's, 70's lowest.  He has been weak from
the prolonged pred use and has gained a lot of weight.Two vets that saw
him thought he may have lymphoma.  The x-rays looked like fat though, but
all of his lymph nodes are large.  At that time his blood sugars were
always low and I did not want to put him through the stress of additional
tests, especially if nothing could be done.
 
He was on .6ml prednisolone- strength 30mg/5ml 2x a day
diazoxide- .5ml  2x a day strength- .25mg/0.25ml
fluromoside (sp?)(otherwise known as  lasix)
The lasix is because the vet saw some fluid in his bronchial tubes in the
x-ray.  To make sure he didn't have the startings of congestive heart
failure we started him on a low dose.
 
I cut back the pred.  on the 3rd to .45 because he would not eat and had
to be force fed.  His stomach can't handle that.  When I cut it back he
ate just fine.  Since then I cut the pred back by .5ml every day.  Did I
do that too fast?  Can that do something to him?  He was on .30ml and I
upped it a little yesterday to .35ml to see if that helped any.
 
I cut the diazoxide back to .4 because it works fine at that dose.
 
The lasix I change according to how much fluid he looks like he has in
him.  He has trouble getting around, he pees a river and then he can walk
around better.  I am right now giving him .35ml 3 times a day
 
Two days ago he started taking carafate 1ml 3 times a day.  He had been
pawing at him mouth and grinding his teeth a lot.  I have not heard him
doing that, except right after he gets the carafate to I may reduce that
to 2x a day.
 
About 2 days ago he started breathing faster and and times a little
labored.  He doesn't want to get up and move because that makes him
breath harder.  He was doing so good up till 2 days ago and was much more
active.  I don't hear fluid in his lungs, they don't sound raspy.  He
isn't gasping for air, just breathing a little harder and faster.  He has
been breathing faster for months since he put on so much weight.  He also
hasn't been peeing much, especially since he has had more lasix lately.
Usually a half hour after he gets his lasix he pees a ton, then he pees
every few hours.  He only seems to go every 4 or 5 hours and it's a small
amount.  We have cut his food back, he only eats soup, but still he
should go more.  He doesn't seem to be in pain, just uncomfortable.  If I
hold him so he's on his back he panicks like he can't breath.  I don't
know if I can get ahold of a vet today is the problem.  I know I can
tomorrow, I just hope he doesn't get any worse.  Any suggestions?  sorry
for such a long post.  He has had surgery once for insulinoma, his spleen
removed and his left adrenal gland removed.  The vet said she couldn't
even find the other adrenal gland.  He also has had thinning hair on his
head, behind his ears and a little on his shoulders for a while.
 
Angelica
[Posted in FML issue 4697]