Hi, my name is Carolyn Kingeter, I don,t post alot, but in response to all
I have seen lately about diabetes in ferrets, I have info that may be of
help.  For a couple of years I did post about diabetes and there was very
little info to be found about it anywhere.  I can tell you I have had 3
ferrets die from the disease, which we all know is very rare, two of them
with counts over 750.
 
The last ferret, Tyler, who I loved dearly, died almost a year ago to the
day.  By now I know the signs, and caught it early.  Excessive drinking,
urinating and weight loss.
 
Now everyone can take this for what it is worth, but I did everything in my
power to keep Tyler alive and to try and find out why my ferrets were
getting diabetes.  First of all , there are smokers in my household and
even though they were not aloud to smoke around the ferrets, it was still
in the air.  Because of this, there were alot of breathing problems.  I was
told a long time ago to give them pred.  for there breathing problems, and
it did help.  Every ferret that was given pred.  through out his lifetime ,
developed diabetes.
 
With Tyler, I took off work, hand fed him, tried giving him 2 or 3
different kinds of insulin, as little as once a day and as much as three
times a day.  I sub q hydrated him at home and checked his diabetes
constantly myself with the keto-diastix.  Nothing really helped, I , nor
the vet could get him regulated, the stick would show ketosis, and he was
wasting away
 
I realize that alot of people will not agree with me on this, but unless
it is absolutely necessary, I will not give my ferrets pred.  I know diet
is also very important for ferretsand that they should not have alot of
sweets, but I do not feel they get diabetes from them.  Also if your ferret
does get diabetes, don,t run him back and forth to the vet constantly like
I did, unless absolutely nec., it stresses them out and their sugar goes up
and they can't get a true reading on them anyway.
 
One final point, when checking your ferrets sugar at home, only use the
keto- diastix(shows the sugar and ketosis amounts in the urine) othe stix
show false possitve on all ferrets.
 
Carolyn Kingeter
[Posted in FML issue 2549]