http://www.smartgroups.com/message/readmessage.cfm?gid=1423922&messageid=1258
 
What you are describing is called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).  This is a
serious complication of diabetes and can be fatal.  The smell of acetone
on the breath is common.  The not eating is common and makes DKA worse.
Dehydration is also common and makes DKA worse.
 
Normal saline (0.9%) is the fluid of choice and IV is better than SQ.
I would recommend IV fluid therapy if possible.  How much fluid to give
will depend on % dehydration and amount of urination.  Most of these are
roughly 10% dehydrated.  This amount should be corrected over 24 hours.
After correcting the dehydration then maintenance doses of roughly 100mls
per pound per day can be used.  Potassium supplementation to the fluids
is usually needed too.  The amount of insulin to give is difficult to
guess.  I usually start at 1 unit ultralente insulin BID then adjust
based on glucose levels.  In dogs and cats, we usually use regular
insulin to start with.  I have not used regular insulin in ferrets yet.
 
Antibiotic therapy is also a good thing to treat/prevent secondary
infections.  In cats DKA is fatal roughly 30% of the time.  In dogs DKA
is fatal roughly 40% of the time.  I do not have enough cases in ferrets
to give a good % guess, but you want to treat these as aggressively as
possible.
 
Hope that helps,
Jerry Murray, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3898]