For those who don't know, after having no insulinoma symptoms and being
fine in her regular blood tests a few months ago Ashling on Friday
suddenly went into grande mal convulsions, had her temp drop to almost
10 degrees below normal, and also needed artificial respiration (gentle
cheek puffs, of course) then emergency care after the home care (which
also included sugars and a 105'F soak before we left home).  She seems to
have escaped heart damage according to the tests done, but her pancreas
and liver are not happy (and she has a little ilitis since that night),
so on top of the Pred which is agreeing with her in a major way she is
having antibiotics and milk thistle.  At this point she does not appear
to be a viable surgical candidate.
 
When a sudden massive turn-on like this happens there may be one of three
most likely things going on (maybe some less likely things which aren't
in the running for her): the ferret's body adjusted to lower blood sugar
levels till they just got too low (unlikely for Ashling because of
previous test results not showing low blood glucose), or an insulinoma
may have been present which just wasn't producing insulin which suddenly
began producing it at high levels (See Dr. Williams' past "Ferrets"
article at http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html , or the growth may
instead be something else like lymphoma.  (We lost a number of ferrets
with whom she had lived to a lymphoma clump so they might all have been
exposed to a silent viral precursor several years before.)
 
So, unless she improves enough that her treating vet figures that it is
reasonably safe for her to have surgery she is being controlled medically
for as long as possible, but she is requiring quite a high dose which
doesn't speak to her having a huge amount of time in front of her.  I
sure hope that it slows down and she can get a year or preferably more
rather than months.  She is a truly incredible ferret -- marvelous,
marvelous individual and we adore her, and she is only 6 and 5/8 years
old so we really hope for more fun and loving time together with careful
care.  It is just so sad if a ferret doesn't even reach 7 years old or
preferably 8 years (or more), especially one who is so incredibly dear.
[Posted in FML issue 4296]