Hello Fellow Ferret Lovers:)
 
I have had quite a scary evening and I hope that you can all give me some
advice, help, etc.  My 3 1/2 year old ferret Badger has been having some
odd things going on and I am thinking about adrenal and insulinoma.  I
will describe the symptoms and I hope that you will please write me back
with tips and advice and your own personal experiences dealing with this.
 
Recently, Badge has been losing weight, pretty quickly in fact.  At first
I thought it was just winter weight loss, but he has lost more than the
others and it is starting to worry me.  Then tonight, I was in their room
playing with everyone and Badger put his front paws on the edge of a
litter box to look in and he lost his balance and fell over.  He laid
there for about 2 seconds, like 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi, and while he
was laying there he seemed to be shaking.  Not like a violent seizure,
just sort of mildly shivering.  It freaked me out so I picked him up and
laid him on my lap.  He was sort of standing up but he was holding still
(not walking) and sort of shaking again.  He seemed out of it, like how
people describe when talking about Insulinoma.  He was not salivating more
than normal.  He had also just before that bitten me very hard.  He used
to be a bad biter and he still can be every once and awhile, but normally
with strangers only.  Well he really got me hard tonight and I had to pry
him off my hand.
 
I am going to keep a very close eye on him and try to call the vet in
the morning.  There is a vet that I take my cats to but he is not very
experienced with ferrets as he is fresh out of college.  I would like to
take them to a vet that I have heard is very ferret knowledgable that
lives about 25-30 minutes away.  I will be trying to find out where he is
exactly and make an appointment.
 
In the mean time, what should I be doing???  I have read about karo syrup
or honey in Ferrets For Dummies.  How much should I use??  When should I
do this??  when he seems sort of dazed???
 
When we do go to the vet, what tests should I make sure are performed and
what should the normal results be??  A blood Glucose test should be
performed right??  What is considered Normal for that???  Anything else
I should make sure is done???
 
Any other tips would be very much appreciated.  Thank you in advance, and
please keep my little deaf blaze in your prayers.
 
Jennifer and Badger
[Posted in FML issue 3741]