Dear June >I wanted him to be compfrotable, after a blood panel which EVERYTHING was >in the normals range, and testing his BG, which Oddly enough was 108..it >has never been that! We chalked it up to a side affect of his disease. >I asked for a shot of dex. The Docs I worked for debated the issue, >worrying about GI ulcers, and maybe they are right, but i wanted him to >be compfortable NOW. 6 hours after the shot there was a remarkable >improvement, able to go the the bathroom without laying in it. I know >I am reaching for straws. When a ferret is not a surgical candidate, and >they start presenting with this..how long does he have? Was the Dex a >bad Idea? I also truly believe his right adrenal is failing. Actually, we don't know what "this" is - hindlimb weakness and ataxia can be a sign of many problems, and the majority of them have nothing to due with the spinal cord. You are assuming that there is a spinal cord injury, but I see hindlimb weakness as a common presenting sign of any disease that makes a ferret weak. We can probably rule out the insulinoma as the cause, as the blood sugar was normal. On the good side, you don;'t have to worry about an ulcer with a shot of Dex - ferrets don't usually develop ulcers as a result of corticosteroid injections, and dexamethasone generally won't do it. The key here is that hindlimb weakness is a symptom not a disease. In itself, it doesn't mean the beginning of the end, the end of the end, or anything else, and you can't give a prognosis for it. You'd be wrong every time. With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, dVM [Posted in FML issue 3262]