Pancreatic Insulinoma - Need Support
Tuesday May 18, 2004
LHPLARRY asks: "My 8 year old golden retriever is undergoing blood tests to check his insulin level after fasting 12 hours. My vet suspects he might have a pancreatic insulinoma. Does anyone have any input from experience to help me deal with this. I lost my last golden to cancer at age 12 but wasn't ready to deal with it again. Has anyone had pancreatic surgery done on their pet for an insulinoma and what were the results?"
Comments
In Feb my 7 yr old Boxer, Tessa, had part of her pancreas removed (and a nearby lymph node) for insulinomas. We should monitor her blood glucose more closey,but we have had no more seizures (knock on wood). I am concerned that she has been a bit testy lately, but sugar is holding ok. Though I cant seem to find a definitve number range for good sugar!
Good luck!
Tricia
Morgan, my Airedale had a pancreatic insulinoma removed in Dec 2005, and now, 6 mos later is having a heck of a time keeping blood sugar regulated. We have to feed him honey almost every night and meals every 3-4 hours.
My boxer Jake just had insulinoma removed on Weds. 6/28/06. He was doing great until last night. He was vomiting. We took him to his regular vet and they gave him a few shots and then they sent me to the Animal Hospital. I feel so bad for him. They are treating him for pancreatitis now. We caught the tumor early so I was hoping that everything would be ok. Now we are living a nightmare.
Our 13 yr old Lhas Apso just had the surgery done jan. 15th. removed tumor and a lymph node. He’s doing well “so far” I was told this could come back 6mth.. to a year. He so much himself right now it makes me sad to think we may have to do this again. Our cost was around $2000.00 Not sure we can do this every 6 month. I was told there are medications that can be used. Sorry I don’t have more info for you. I’ll let you know when and if it comes back.
Susan
My boy had a tumour removed early last month. Liver and lymph nodes were OK. Even so the vet said she expected a recurrence and prognosis was 2 years. She didn’t mention that I needed to monitor glucose, and in fact said that 6 monthly ultrasounds would be more effective than blood tests. Has anyone who has posted here had any further problems?
Insulinoma is best managed with surgery but if any of the lymphnodes are involved the pronosis is poor. The have to eat small frequent meal. Which should be specially formulated for this type of problem. Sometimes steroids are use to help managed medically. But you have to watch for weakness, dizziness, even siezures, hypoglycemia. I think even with surgery it is still not a long term fix. Last time I looked up the duration it is anywhere form 2-60 months. It all depends on how far advance the tumor is and the secondary issues that are caused from the insulin overload. Well I wish you and you k-9 the best of luck. Highly reccommend if possible going to an internal medicine specialist to increase you success rate.
Some asked the reference range for there pets glucose the one I have is 60-115 those ranges are for a healthy dog. Hope that help
My dog had surgery for an insulinoma (May 2006), and after the surgery developed severe pancreatitis. After being treated for pancreatitis, she lost a lot of weight. We suspected Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency, but her TLI test was tested twice as normal. We tried using enzymes (Viokase), and the problem resoved. Turns out the she did have EPI, but for some reason, her TLI ranges were normal. Hope that this info helps.
HI all
My dog has just had a diagnosis of a tumor on his pancreas and have been told that it’s in the worst place possible, which is making our decision whether to have surgery very very difficult. He’s nearly 10 now, but we can’t bear the thought of loosing him but neither can we bear the thought of loosing him during the operation.
My 9 year old cocker had pancreatitis had the tumor removed. Surgeon at university said it was inticately woven and surgery took 7 hours. 2 yrs and 1 month later dog started having seizures. We must feed every 5 hours or so or he will seize.1/2 tab prednisone nightly. We are 30 months post op and dog is still with us. Drug therapy is working but not sure how it will progress. Dog has gained a lot of weight and is very lethargic. He is still loving and the best dog in the world. Time will tell
My 10+ year old Dalmatian, Phoebe had surgery for insulinoma in September 2005. She’s on 10 grams of Prednisone a day to control seizures. They didn’t stop after the surgery, and according to the surgeon, implies that the cancer has metasized into the cells. She never mentioned lympnodes or follow up of any kind, such as future MRI’s, or eating frequent small meals day. She did mention an 18 month prognosis. After doing some reading, I do feed her very small, high protein meals between her two main meals. And outside of gaining a ton of weight, she’s doing great, two years and eight months later.
My dog had insulinoma surgery in May 2006. Her insulinoma seems to have returned around November 2007. The most helpful thing in the world has been a Petsafe brand food dispenser. If the following link doesn’t show up, just do a search for “5 meal dispenser Petsafe.” I keep three machines side by side, and feed her every 75 minutes during the day. This way, I can try to keep her glucose levels up and minimize prednisone (she has been on it since November), and I can leave the house and know that she is still being fed (all the time). http://www.thepetstoreonline.com/petsafe-pf5-11-5-meal-automatic-pet-cat-feeder.html
I never rave about products, but this one is a must-have for all with insulinoma pets. Luckily, my insulinoma dog is the alpha of my pack of two, so I know that she is the one eating the meals and not the other dog!
Donna-I think that we emailed a bit a few years ago (maybe it was a different Donna…)
Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that I tried to start a Yahoo group for owners of insulinoma dogs so that we could share advice. Do a search under Yahoo groups, and join it! Right now, I’m the only member,but if enough people join, we can help support each other and share advice/resources
loved all the input on your experiences with insulinomas. After doing a lot of research I’ve discovered Diazoxides are suppose to be the best help post surgery with prednisone.
Anyone tried this?
kim.
We are 5 days post surgery for insulinoma in our 10 year old border collie. She is doing quite well, with her sugar having returned to normal, and no after affects so far. Her insulinoma was caught during a routine annual blood screening at our vets, so she was not symptomatic yet. Small dime sized lesion was removed from the pancreas at surgery with no metastisis to other organs or lymph nodes.
I highly recommend annual blood screenings for older dogs. It can catch many problems that you wouldn’t know of otherwise. Its a small price to pay to catch problems earlier.
I have set up a Yahoo group for people who have dogs with insulinomas. Go to Yahoo and then to Groups. The name of the group is insulinomadogs.
It is a great and supportive group.
Again, recommending the Yahoo group. Lots of info there. For those of you in the U.S. who are trying to find Diazoxide, Diamondback Drugs in Arizona can compound it VERY reasonably.
After our 11 year old boxer Sammy had a seizure, we rushed her to the emergency vet. Long story short, she had a pancreatic tumor removed, but the cancer had already spread to her liver and lymph nodes. Two days after the surgery we took her home. Two days after that she seemed fully recovered, she even wanted to play in the snow. Unfortunately, two weeks later she had another seizure despite normal blood sugar (normal range is 70-150). Turns out the cancer has spread to her brain. We’re going to visit her in the hospital today to put her down. I feel like we did all we could, but it still stinks.
My dog Spunky is 10 years old. The vet says he has an insulinoma tumor that has spread to his liver. It is 9 months since we were this. He is on pregnasone and pain pills and now refuses to eat. Is there anything anyone can tell me to help him? Thanks, Ruth
I have a beautifil female Border Collie named jasmine who is now 11 1/2 yrs old.She is my ‘baby’ and best friend. Her symptons started 2 and a half years ago. She fainted one morning before her breakfast. I took her straight to the vets, they did an in house blood glucose level test which was very low. I had to fast her for 12 hours to have the insulin/blood glucose ratio test which was sent to pathology. It showed high insulin and low blood glucose and therefore the vet’s initial diagnosis of pancreatic insulinoma was confirmed.I was and still am devestated. she went on prednisolone (an insulin antagonist) and small meals several times a day. She was operated on very soon after prognosis and they found a tumor the size of the nail on your small finger, which they removed.The vet had a very thorough look around during the operation and said that the lymph nodes all looked normal. She came through the operation very well and was symptom free for 2 years(we had taken her off the prednisolone and cut her back to 2 meals a day)Unfortunately January this year she fainted again when she had got up off her bed waiting for me to get her breakfast.They did the blood glucose/ insulin ratio test again but I had only fed her 3 hours previously when she had fainted so it came back “inconclusive”. soon after I took her to Lort Smith animal hospital to have a scan done to either try to see if there was another tumor or if there was anything else going on. Unfortunately with this type of cancer it can be on organs or inside which makes them very hard to find. The test didn’t show anything significant so at this stage i had to make a choice of whether to have her operated on again or treat her symptomatically. Apart from these fainting spells she was happy and healthy in every other way. I wanted to give her the best possible chance to give her as happy,healthy and ‘normal life’ and to try to beat this (apart from fainting she has been in no pain, thankfully!) They operated a second time and took a lymph node and in my heart of hearts I knew this wasn’t a good scenario.She was very ill on the night of the operation (Friday night, I didn’t think she would pull through that night) but by the Sunday she was having and enjoying small ‘Walkies’ To my heart break we only got 4 months before the symptoms came back so we are currently treating her symptomatically. Now she is back on the medication and being fed Eukanuba puppy food as it is high in fat, every three hours including 3 0′clock in the mornings as she wasn’t making it through the night from her last evening feed to breakfast and she started having mini seizures whilst lying on her bed first thing in the mornings;- this is a new symptom. She is doing well at the moment on this regime – she is symptom free (at the moment) and has neen for about 4 weeks now.The prednisolone has side effects such as muscle weakness, excessive panting, weight gain, excessive thirst and this is on 1 5mg tablet daily but once again she is in no pain so we just cope with the side effects.I have asked the iniverse that old age and the cancer will just go hand in hand. After long discussions with the vets and lots of research and many sleepless nights I have decided I will not put her through another operation The vets say it would be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack and as it was found in the lymph node it could be anywhere and/or everywhere. So I will give her all the love I can and the best quality of life i can. The prognosis is that the fainting will become more frequent over time and she will become less lucid. They said I will know ‘the time’when it comes. We are able to increase the amount of medication in the future (she can go to 2-3 daily)At this moment in time she is happy and loves being fed every 3 hours (I add other things such as chiken or tuna just small amounts so she doesn’t get bored with the dry food.Thank you for redaing my experience and iop I can help anyone going through a similar experience please let me know if I can help. Thank you Susan
Our Dog Chantz was diagnosed with an insulinoma about three weeks ago. They did an ultrasound but didn’t really see much. So we either needed to do a cat scan or just go straight to surgery. We decided to do the surgery. They ended up finding a tumor in his pancreas, in lymphnode, in the liver and there were spots on his liver that they cauterized. They sent him home two days after the surgery and I had to take him back in the next day cause he wouldn’t eat and was just vomitting. They ended up giving him plasma that night to help his pancreas. That was on a Friday, he came home on Monday and was doing so well. Still in a little pain from the surgery but doing really well. I am actually taking him in today to check his glucose level and I am praying that it is ok! At the moment, we are feeding him 4 times a day and as long as his glucose level stays in the normal range, they say we can go back to two feedings a day! With all the testing and surgery, we spent about $6000. It has been well worth it. I am just glad we actually had the money to take care of him. We know it will eventually be back, however, once it does come back, we can treat him with medications. This was devasting for my husband cause they have such a bond! We have no kids and our animals are our babies. Just want to let you know that this can be very stressful so be prepared to deal with the high stress.
My adorable lab, who is a ray of sunshine in my life, developed epilepsy back in march, and my vet told me no 9.5yr old dog develops epilepsy. After being put on medication, which helped to an extent, then other things started happening, her glucose level dropped dangerously low. After blood tests, and scans which showed nothing! But thankfully my vet never let up, saying he had an inclin about it maybe an insulinoma tumour. After she had a really bad weekend, she was referred straight away to a specialist and by the thursday, she was at the specialist! Again she had more scans, with nothing showing, but was put on a glucose drip over night and i was asked if they could open her up the next day, which i agreed to. There they found this tumour on her pancreas! Within 4hrs of her op she began to pick up.
I truely believed i was going to loose her, from a dog that lived life to the full to one that couldnt even get to the garden, but now i have my boucing ray of sunshine back. I have been told her tumour was malignant and can in the future, should it come back, be treated with medication, i also took her to a holistic vet, and she is on a homeopathic tablets now as well. I feed all my dogs the natural way and believe that if this is going to help her then i will do it.
She has been renamed by a close friend ‘Sunshine Princess’ and thats what she is, she was a fighter and i treasure every moment i have with her.
Dont give up with yours, mine came really good and made a full recovery. Wish you all the luck
My 11 year old greyhound was diagnosed with an insulinoma. We started using diazoxide almost 1 year ago, opted out of surgery,and she is still going strong! If I can offer anyone any insight into her treatment please email me rbnvaughn@aol.com. She’s my miracle girl!!