>Was wondering if giving a blood glucose test is something I should
>always leave up to my vet or if it's something I could learn to do
>at home.
>Leslie

Testing for blood glucose is essentially the same as what humans do
for diabetes.

The procedure isn't hard. The question that always comes up is how
accurate the human glucose meters are with ferret blood vs human
blood, and also in a very different range. (Human meters are designed
to diagnose glucose going above the normal range of ~100 or so, and
ferrets need to measure when it's below that.) That said, generally
the human meters are in the ballpark, so if you establish what normal
is on your meter, you'll be able to detect significant swings from that.

I'd also highly recommend bringing your meter to the vet when they're
going to measure your ferret's BG, and using a drop of the same sample
on your meter and on the vet's. That way you can see exactly how far
off your meter is, in which direction, so you can make corrections to
your readings.

Kevin Farlee

[Posted in FML 7474]