Hi Judith
 
I read your post about your diabetic ferret Sabine and I thought I would
tell you about my diabetic ferret Ben ;o)  I live in the UK and my Ben used
to have Insulinoma which he developed last Feb 99 he was put on Preds and
we had a very hard time keeping his blood sugar levels up to a decent level
he was always so low but then in October 99 he developed very high blood
sugars, his sugars did jump around for a while so his vet did not put him
on Insulin until it ended up staying very high all the time.
 
Ben has been on Insulin since Jan 24th this year, he is on Insuvet, Lente
an "Insulin Zinc Suspension (Mixed) BP" it is a Beef based Insulin and is
long acting so it works for around 24 hours so I only have to inject Ben
once a day, Ben was started on 2 units a day and then 5 day's later was
upped to 4 units and now he is on 5 units a day.  Ben's blood sugar's were
staying around the 600mg/dl mark before he went on Insulin and now his
sugars are around 200mg/dl.  I am also diabetic and I am also on Insulin so
I know that being on Insulin you need to eat set amounts of food at certain
times throughout the day.  I test Ben's blood sugars with my home blood
testing meter, I use a finger pricking device on one of the pads on his
feet and Ben does not mind this at all, he does not even wince ;o) I only
test his blood sugar about once a week now because his sugars have levelled
lovely but I just like to make sure he is not going too low, I still do
lots of urine glucose tests though, usually owners of diabetics pets would
only use urine test strips to see how much glucose is in the urine and the
vet will do the blood sugar tests, you have to be very careful not to let
your ferrets blood sugar fall too low that is a very big worry when using
Insulin, you have to make sure your ferret eats enough throughout the day,
because you are injecting Insulin that will work to lower the sugar but
your ferret will also have to eat a certain amount of food to stop the
sugar falling too low but you already know this,the biggest tip I can give
is to feed your Sabine enough food throughout the day to balance her blood
sugars that will fall too low if she does not eat enough but also not too
much that her sugars go too high, I already had Ben on set amounts of his
*soup* before he went on Insulin so we then started him on a low dose of
Insulin and increased that until he had a dose that kept his sugar not
too low but not too high either so I think it is was easier adjusting the
Insulin dose to the amount of food he has a day, it's like you have to
balance the food and Insulin.  I feed Ben on a *soup* which I make by
grinding up Totally Ferret food in a electric coffee grinder so it is like
powder and I add some chicken baby food and warm water and I feed Ben 4
times a day because Ben will not eat normal food anymore but Ben has been
off normal food for over a year now so I have been feeding him this soup 4
times a day for all that time but I find it HELPS keep Ben's blood sugars
under control by feeding him set amounts of food at set times 4 times a
day, he has soup morning,afternoon,evening and just before I go to bed at
night which is quite late at night.  I grind up so much Totally Ferret food
and I store that powdered TF in an airtight container and I give Ben three
teaspoons of the TF powder and one teaspoon of the chicken baby food and
then I add about 25ml of water that I have boiled in the kettle and I mix
the powder and baby food with the water and wait until it has cooled to
luke warm and is not too hot, I feed this amount to Ben in each of his 4
times a day soups, maybe your Sabine will not need as many teaspoons of TF
powder as Ben because Ben is bigger than your Sabine, I am not sure though
how much you would start her on, maybe just a little less, I know that if
Ben loses weight I would up his amount of food and then Insulin but he is
staying at a good weight right now.  I do not add anything else because
Totally Ferret is a complete food and it has plenty enough carbohydrates to
sustain Ben's sugar levels without the need to add any other source of
carbohydrates, I only add the baby food because Ben does not like just TF
and water but when I add this bit of baby food he loves his soups then ;o)
Ben has been eating all his soups everyday but if he did not eat all of one
of them or if he would happen to go off them for whatever reason in the
future then I would have to syringe feed him because he HAS to eat these
set amounts of food to keep his sugars level.  Because Ben has only been on
Insulin for around five weeks I can't really give you much advice as I am
still new at having a diabetic ferret so I hope someone else has maybe more
advice for you also your Sabine is on a different Insulin to Ben but you
still need to give her food often.  Ben is doing very well on the Insulin
he is on ;o)
 
I am sure there are other people who know more about treating a diabetic
ferret but I just thought that my Ben is doing so great I thought maybe it
would be of help to you and your Sabine ;o)  Ask your vet if you need to
adjust the dose of Insulin or see if by feeding Sabine 4 times a day at
least would level her sugars out more.  By the way Ben has not had one low
sugar attack since being on Insulin and I am sure his soups have prevented
them, I hope I have not tempted fate now saying how well he is doing ;o)
His urine glucose readings are negative now as well whereas before he went
on Insulin they were always sky high!
 
Don't give up hope Judith, when you get set into a plan of regular feedings
I am sure your Sabine will settle down a lot better ;o)
 
From Karen,Ben,Glyndwr,James,Cian,Kealan,Tia,Ella and Jodie :o)
 
*Love and missing my darling Billy so much*
 http://www.okeefe2.freeserve.co.uk/
[Posted in FML issue 2975]