Has anyone heard of having low blood glucose levels because of tumor growth
in something OTHER than the pancreas?  One of our guys starting having some
hind end weakness, and I suspected insulinoma.  We had his blood glucose
level checked (fasting), and it was low (this was 3 weeks ago).  We also
had some other tests done, requiring sedation, and during this the vets
felt a mass unconnected with other organs (as well as an enlarged spleen).
Exploratory surgery was today, and mass was the mesenteric lymph node (this
ferret's father had lymphoma, so this isn't surprising).  The odd thing is
that the vets did another blood glucose test before surgery, as well as
after surgery, and he was within normal limits both times!  That is, his
blood glucose levels looked fine today, even though they had been low
before.  (In addition, his insulin levels are normal, as via another blood
test, and his pancreas looked fine during the explo).  The vet suggested
that perhaps the growth of the tumor in the lymph node was requiring extra
glucose, pulling it out of the blood stream, and thus giving the apparent
symptoms of insulinoma, without it actually being caused by pancreatic
cancer.  Has anyone seen this before?  I had been planning on asking the
vet about starting him on proglycem, but given that his levels were normal
today, I'm not sure what we should be doing.  He's never seizured, he's
never drooled or looked "spacy", so there are no "hard signs" of
insulinoma.  The only signs are the hind end weakness, which could be from
anything, and the fact that the blood glucose level was low that one
day.... (We'll find out for certain about lymphoma later, as the vet is
sending off a biopsy of the lymph node, as well as a section of the spleen
(which she removed) for analysis.)
 
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 Rochelle Newman              [log in to unmask]
 Assistant Professor          (319) 335-2417 (office)
 Department of Psychology     (319) 335-1979 (lab)
 University of Iowa           (319) 335-0191 (fax)
 11 Seashore Hall E
 Iowa City, IA 52242-1407
 http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/Newman.html
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[Posted in FML issue 2435]