Being one of several who received a heart-felt letter from a worried
parent I am going to make the request that those who are considering
diazoxide for their ferrets specifically ask their compounding
pharmacists if they can use veterinary grade rather than human grade
diazoxide.

During the early years of that drug vets here used to get hospital
dregs since the unused portions of bottles had to be thrown away or
put to non-human use. I suspect that state laws vary on this score
over regions and time, but it is worth checking into. It is how we
used to get the medication long, long ago when Fritter needed it.

As so many of us know, there have often been shortages of Diazoxide
(and before then the non-generic Proglycem).

What many of us did not know is this information which the parent has
given me permission to share. Mr. Peter Silva wrote in part:

>Your suggestions of giving a ferret diazoxide (proglycem) for
>insulinoma is putting hundreds of children's lives at risk. You see,
>my daughter, along with many others have a condition called HI/ HA
>(Hyperinsulism/Hyperammonemia) and diazoxide is the only medication
>keeping them alive. HI/HA has a few variants, most due to
>malfunctioning pancreas and others are genetic but both can cause
>severe low blood sugar levels. You can read about it at hihagdh [at]
>yahoogroups.com or hyperins [at] yahoogroups.com or go to Children's
>Hospital of Philadelphia website (www.chop.edu) or
>(http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=71509=20 ).
>In those yahoo forums, you see frantic parents trying to secure 
>the medication due to low supplies

Here some working links I found when pursuing this:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/HIHAGDH/
=
<http://www.hyperinsulinismus.de/viewtopic.php?t=196&sid=e731ee11c6c538e218fea8300dceb4a9>
http://www.sur1.org/2003Confreport.pdf
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=71509

The big problem, of course, is to get the manufacturer to make enough
of the drug often enough. That will also sound familiar to many with
ferrets because of the common complaints due to the same problem
existing with Purevax ferret canine distemper vaccine being made too
infrequently in too small amounts.

People need to have the full picture and to ask their compounding
pharmacists about the options. We need to find out of there is
veterinary grade of this med. Sometimes that happens when a med batch
isn't made quite to human standards but is determines to still be safe.

Please, feel free to share this letter with other ferret fora, lists,
and newsletters as long as it is left unchanged and as long as the FHL
or FML URL is given for seeing the original version. (If you are not an
FHL member just look in messages in
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
to get the Yahoogroups URL or look in
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
to get the archives URL

As time allows I plan to ask some others who will know more than I for
details and I am sure that others will also want to follow-through,
after all, these are fora where the people are generous and try to
attain the most good possible in this world.

If editors, or veterinary or pharmaceutical professionals need to
contact Mr. Silva, please, just let me know at sukie at mac dot com,
or sukiec at optonline dot net and I will pass along your mail to him.
(Should anyone rare individuals who woke up on the wrong side of the
bed feel like yelling at him for pointing this out I don't plan to pass
along anything like that, and will remind you that with my recent
bereavement and recent surgery I'd certainly rather not read such
mails, either.)

Some of FHL members and FML members write wonderfully convincing and
charismatic letters to manufacturers, so, let's request veterinary
grade and let's try to express to the manufacturer the importance of
making more of the drug more often.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html=

[Posted in FML 5876]