>I have a ferret who has been having problems with her sugar.  She had
>a couple nasty attacks a couple months ago, so she took Pred for about
>three weeks and then was back to normal.  Well in the last three days
>her sugar has dropped so many times I can't count and she isn't bouncing
>back like she did before.
 
Chris,
 
Ask your vet about giving her Proglycem (diazoxide) along with the pred.
I have a ferret with insulinoma who is no longer a surgical candidate
(he's very old and has two other inoperable tumors, plus anemia).  He's
on pred and Proglycem twice daily.  This combination of meds keeps his
sugar level within manageable levels for the most part.
 
After bringing your ferret's blood sugar up with the sweet stuff, it's
important to get some protein into her ASAP, or she will crash again when
the sugar wears off.  That sounds like what is happening to her.  If she
won't eat kibble, try a kibble mush, or turkey baby food, or anything
she'll eat with good quality protein.  That will stabilize her blood
sugar level for a longer period.  And keep her eating.  My insulinomic
ferret sometimes forgets to eat, so I feed him kibble by hand several
times a day to remind him to eat.  If I don't, that's when he tends to
crash.  As long as he gets enough kibble (plus his meds), he's stable.
 
If she is also grinding her teeth or chomping at the air, she may be
nauseous too, which will keep her from wanting to eat.  If this is the
case, ask your vet about giving her Pepcid AC or carafate to soothe her
tummy.  My vet also prescribed Pepcid AC for my insulinomic ferret.  Per
my vet, I mix one tablet with 10 ml water, and give him 0.5 ml twice a
day.
 
I hope this helps, and good luck.
 
Nancy and critters
[Posted in FML issue 3878]