To any vets or anyone with any experience with this, please help!  My ferret
Podo who we adopted 2 months ago has been very lethargic and does nothing
but eat and sleep.  At first we thought it was just his adjustment to our
home.  We knew nothing of his background or his age.  We adopted him from a
lady who had only had him for 3 weeks but he "didn't get along with her
cats" so we eagerly stepped in.  We have four other happy go lucky ferrets
and two tolerating cats.  I took him to the vet today to see if maybe he had
low blood sugar.  I had seen it mentioned a few weeks ago on the fml and the
symptoms seemed to fit him, so I made an appointment with the vet.
 
Our vet, who does not have a whole lot of experience with ferrets, did a
blood workup on him, and told me that indeed he did have low blood sugar.
He said it was supposed to be around 100 and that Podo's was way below 50.
He said that everything else looked fine, but he was concerned about the
cause of the low blood sugar.  Since he does not have a lot of experience
with ferrets, he said that he would have to have a day to do some research
on what the problem might be.  He suggested perhaps diabetes or insulinomia
after consulting his notes.  As to treatment, he had no idea.  He gave Podo
some glucose, which did seem to perk Podo up for a while afterwards.
 
Other than sleeping all of time and eating on the few times that he is
awake, Podo seems to be in good health.  His coat has improved dramatically
since we acquired him, his stools are normal from what I can tell, and his
body weight is average for his head and foot size.  He eats a high protein
cat food supplemented with linatone.  He has never war danced or shown any
energy whatsoever.  We also think that he may have been abused previously,
he has nightmares, squeaking in his sleep, and when he is picked up his
whole body curls with his claws digging in.  He looks like an albino with
red eyes, but his fur is yellow with white here and there.
 
Please, if anyone has any ideas that would help my vet out, please let me
know.  You can post it on the fml or e-mail me directly at [log in to unmask]  I
am going back tomorrow with a yuran sample, and to see what my vet has been
able to find out.  Thank you.
 
Shelley (a very worried mother)
Sasha (I'll take care of you Podo)
Seera (Who cares about anyone but me?)
Meesha (Gimme kisses!!!)
Spectre (I am the king of this house!)
Podo (Zzzzzz..)  :<
[Posted in FML issue 1464]