>From: Lisa Goggins <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Please everyone answer! Insulinoma!!!! > >How long has or did your ferret live with insulinoma with medical >treatment and care but no surgery? I have been reading lately and was >shocked to find my Otis has about 186 days to live without surgery. I >had no idea it was this short. Well, 7.5 year old Amelia's been on meds for a year and a half and counting, although I'm afraid that her time is getting pretty near. She was on just pred in steadily increasing doses for about the first 12 months, and has been on pred and proglycem (diazoxide) for about the last 6 months. I think it depends a lot on the individual ferret and their overall health and attitude. Which brings me to the other part of my subject, surgery recovery. A couple of people have mentioned that their ferrets have been bouncing not long after surgery by skilled vets and that this is further proof of the vets' skills. I don't entirely disagree, but again, I think this is due just as much to the nature of the individual ferret. Cully and Amelia had adrenal surgeries by the same surgery team. Amelia was rattling her carrier door when I picked her up several hours after her surgery, and she was raring to go when we got home (and quite irked when I caged her for her own good!). Cully, on the other hand, was very mopey and had to stay overnight with extra pain meds because he clearly wasn't handling the experience well at all, and I had to hand feed him for a couple of days. His surgery was equally successful, but he was an easily discouraged ferret in an emotional sense, so he took the experience much harder. So, it just goes to show that even with the best vets available, some ferrets will have a harder time recovering than others, just by their natures. Regina Regina Harrison [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/ blog: http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/zblog.html Is that my business? Well, what is my business? Do I know? Did I ever know? Let s not go into that. You re not human tonight, Marlowe. Maybe I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right. --Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister [Posted in FML issue 3756]