Hello -
 
Bailey is a 5 to 6 year old female with an Adrenal surgery under her belt,
and going on a 2 year diagnosis of Insulinoma.  She has been on Prednisone
for a month and Proglycem for two weeks.
 
The Proglycem did AMAZING things for her.  She would wake up and play two
to three times a day, eat up to 80 CC's a feeding, was alert and bouncing
off walls.
 
Then last week she just crashed.  Went to eating nothing.  Usually we can
get her to eat with a syringe.  Now, nothing.  Have to scruff her and force
her to eat.  Won't drink, won't play, nothing.  Took her into the vet on
Friday.  She had some X-rays which immediately revealed Pneumonia in one
lung.
 
She stayed at the vet Saturday and went home with him on Sunday.  He was
going to tube feed her to get her jump started.  She fought that so much
that he ended up feeding with the syringe.  A day of Amoxycillan and food
perked her up, he said.  She woofed around and was happy.  He tried to get
her to eat her hard food last night and nothing.  Today when we went to
pick her up, he told us the Pneumonia could be from being stepped on (she
got stepped on pretty hard, one of the reasons we took her in) but said
that was 99% unlikely, even if it had caused fluid in the lungs.  He said
that since we were feeding her with syringes for the past three weeks, she
could have developed Aspiration Pneumonia.  He asked if she had gagged
while feeding, and we said yes.  We had thought it was due to nausea since
she wouldn't eat on her own.  He said that this diagnosis was also
unlikely, but impossible to diagnosis as The Cause, and nearly impossible
to treat.
 
We got her home, and she took very little from a spoon.  She has eaten
nothing but Duck Soup for close to two months now.  This is, obviously,
entirely our fault.  We were more worried about nutrition and stabilizing
her Insulinoma than her eating hard food.  When she got difficult to feed,
before putting on the Prednisone and Proglycem, she willingly took food
from a syringe.  So we thought, "Hey!  Great!" and kept working with a
winning plan.  Now I hear that this could very well cause what is making
her sick, is highly unlikely to cure and to boot, she won't eat any other
way!
 
She will not drink water willingly.  She will not eat Iams at *all*.  She
will not take Duck Soup without a fight.  She is currently on .4ml of Pred
twice a day combined with .1ml of Proglycem, and for the time being, on
anti-biotics twice a day.  She will whole heartidly take her medicine mixed
with Ferretone.  Actually, Ferretone is all she will take willingly.
 
I simply can not say, "She'll eat when she's hungry" because she won't.
She plummeted over 80 grams in bodyweight in 3 days.  She will allow
herself to starve, which triggers unbelievably bad Insulinomic reactions.
She is constantly grinding teeth.
 
I do not know what to do.  It is absolutely tearing me apart that she is so
sick.  I lay on the floor with her to make sure she's breathing okay.  I am
so in-tuned to her that I wake up out of a dead sleep when she grinds her
teeth at night, or when her stomach gurgles.  I can not take the risk of
feeding her with syringes anymore, but I know no other way to force feed.
I do not want the trauma of tube feeding.
 
I am also extremely distressed that I did not hear of this disease, or see
any warnings of this when syringe feeding is so encouraged when a ferret is
sick!
 
Anyone with any way to get their ferrets to eat, please please email me.
She absolutely HATES Brewers Yeast, so count that out.
 
Julie
[Posted in FML issue 2853]