We've written about Nicky before and a lot of folks have helped.  We're just
looking to get some ideas on his latest health status.
 
Nicky's about 7 or 8.  He's a shelter rescue so we don't really know.  He
was diagnosed with an insulinoma after his low blood sugar was discovered in
April.  He was on 1/2 cc prednisone twice a day.  A few weeks back, he had a
seizure at the vets office while we boarded him there while we were on
vacation.  A few days later, our vet recommended we add Proglycem to his med
routine.  1/10 cc twice a day.  A couple days later, another seizure at
home.  We brought him out of it with some syrup and nutrical.  The vet then
had us double his dosage of Pred.  We also got a recommendation from some
on-line ferret friends to add a kind of gruel to his diet.  The gruel is
made by blending up the solids strained from low sodium campbell's chicken
noodle soup, his normal science diet wet food, nutrical, karo syrup, some
vegetable oil and a little water.  He gets this for dinner.  For breakfast
we mix some with the Science Diet.  This gruel is supposedly designed to
give him an easily absorbed diet of nutrients he needs that will help
stabilize his blood sugar throughout the day.
 
It seems to be working.  No more peaks and valleys of hyperactivity after
getting his sugar up too high, and no more low blood sugar seizures.  But
while there are no more acute emergencies, he seems to have stabilized in a
condition that's not the greatest.  Here's the current symptom list.
 
1) Hind end weakness.  He has the energy to propel himself across the floor,
but he can't seem to be able to hoist his body off the carpet.  It's a real
problem when he gets into the litter box (or even when he doesn't make it)
as he poops and pees all over himself.  He's been getting baths every night
to get all the muck off of him.
 
2) He's gotten really fat.  I don't know if its from the new diet or from
the increased dosage of pred, or from the new addition of proglycem.  I also
don't know if all this excess belly weight is the reason he can't hoist
himself up.
 
3) Loss of bowel control.  It's not a complete loss.  He's able to make it
to the box sometimes, but nowhere near the way he used too.  He also seems
to be unable to make it over the sides and into the box sometimes and he
poops on the floor while his front half is in the box.  We've got some boxes
with the sides cut out for easy access, but this doesn't seem to help him.
 
4) He's depressed.  It's so obvious to tell that he knows he's sick and that
he doesn't like being this way.  He still tries to be active when we get
home from work.  He paws at the cage door and bites the bars until we get
him out.  Then he motors about the room for a few minutes and then gets into
his little bed on the floor and goes to sleep.  Sometimes, however, he can't
even get his hind end up onto the bed pillow.  It's that weakness again.
 
5) His appetite is fine and he eats heartily, but he doesn't seem to be
drinking that much.  We've tried adding some pedialyte to his bottle but the
mix doesn't seem to help either.  He must be drinking something, because we
do scoop out some pee from the box, but not much.
 
Has anyone seen any of this before?  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Is
he just getting old?  Most importantly, we want to improve the problem of
the poop and pee getting all over him.  Not only is it unhealthy for him to
go that many hours from when we leave for work til when we come back with
that stuff on him, it's also really time consuming and inconvenient to bathe
him each night, as well as run his cage floor carpet through the washer too.
Not that we won't do it.  We'll do what we have to.  We'd just rather try to
find a way to prevent it.
 
Of course his depression is sad too.  I wish there was some way we could
cheer him up.
 
Thanks for your suggestions.
 
Paul & Melissa
[Posted in FML issue 1711]