From:
Steve Austin
Date: 2003-08-06 13:22:23 UTC
Subject: some more experience with Devil's Club for insulinoma
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <20030806.092237.2664.1.kazpat1@juno.com>
Could it be the high protein meals itself did the trick?
Some ferrets do improve on just diet alone as well.
However, that doesn't mean the tumors are no still there growing,
if the animal is young and healthy I think surgery as early as
possible is still the best alternative, at least at my vet it was $300
and 2 years later all is still well, no meds. I would definitely
consider alternative solutions if surgey was not an option, or had
failed, at some point it wouldn't hurt if quality of life is not good
with
traditional treatments.
I am happy your girl has been doing well, and good luck with
the surgery, hopefully it will be very successful. Remember to
monitor the blood sugars post op if possible as they tend to shoot
up for a few days and that was the toughest time of recovery for my
ferret.
Having the home glucose monitor was the best investment, not only
to monitor the one with insulinoma, but I can screen other ferrets that
are acting a little sluggish or off.
Patty
> However, I noticed my 4 year old Mary developing the
> signs of insulinoma, though she never "crashed". I
> took her to my vet and she had a fasting blood sugar
> of 50. So I scheduled her for surgery (hopefully next
> week) but in the meantime I started her on 5 drops of
> Devil's Club q 12 hours followed by a high protein
> meal (chicken gravy or baby food). The first couple
> doses I pretreated her with about 1/4 teaspoon of
> icing sugar along her gum lines about 20 minutes prior
> to the Devil's Club in order to bring her blood sugar
> levels up. I noticed an almost immediate improvement
> in her attitude- more playing, active, not shaking.
> After 3 weeks on this regime I retested her fasting
> levels and they were now 110.
>> tansy
>
> __________________________________
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