Nommers
4 years
female
1.5 pounds (normal weight)

Recent history
Sep 2013 - Diagnosed with adrenal disease. Hair lose on tail and rear.
University of Tennessee blood test confirmed. Left part of adrenal
gland observed larger than normal so was removed. Right part looked
normal and left. Pancreas and other organs examined but looked normal.

Oct 2013 - Low blood glucose suspected because of lack of eating and
low level of activity. Blood glucose measured every 30 minutes after
morning meal. Blood glucose reached 25 within two hours. Diagnosed
with Insulinoma. Prednisone 0.5mg twice/day prescribed. She refuses
take the Prednisone straight. I mix it with 1/2 cube of frozen Duck
soup. I recently reduced the amount of total sugar in the duck soup
by 1/2 and added 2.5 oz of chicken baby food.

Nommers has never been a large eater. Recently, when eating, she only
nibbles on the food I have available:
Wysong Archetype1 ferret (dehydrated chicken)
Wysong Archetype Burger (dehydrated beef and chicken)
Wysong Ferret Epigen 90 (kibble)
Wysong Archetype2 ferret (kibble)

For the most part, she shows interest with our two other ferrets
and she runs around and plays with them. The only time I notice
less activity is when her weight has decreased.

I usually weigh her about every other day and notice that she may loose
about one ounce of weight in ten days. Then, to keep her from loosing
more weight, I increase the duck soup to one full cube. Within two or
three days she regains her weight back to 1.5 pounds, so I reduce the
duck soup back to 1/2 cube. She has _never_ refused to eat the duck
soup. I have been doing this since her surgery and Insulinoma diagnoses
thinking it would be temporary. Now, two months later, I am still
expecting the problem to fix itself.

I do not understand why she does not eat enough over 10 days. It seems
like she does not want any food after eating for about a week. Then
she goes on a fast. During this time, I have seen her go to the various
food dishes but walks away without any food.

Many times she makes panicked rounds of all of her food dishes several
times. It looks like she knows she should be eating this food but
hopes the next dish will have something she will accept.

But after giving her a larger quantity of duck soup, she becomes
interested in food again.

Three doctors have examined her and find no obvious cause of
reduced/non eating. They offer, but do not recommend, x-rays, blood
tests, and other expensive procedures but are not hopeful that the
tests will reveal the cause of her condition.

I do realize that Duck Soup is _not_ a balanced food and is not
intended for long term usage. That is why I am looking for comments
from others who have seen similar situations.

-- 
William

Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some, and draw and paint
and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
-Robert Fulghum, author (b. 1937) 

[Posted in FML 8009]