From:
Jaclyn
Date: 2001-03-23 20:57:00 UTC
Subject: Lymphosarcoma and Liver problems
Hello all!
Some of you may have experience with this and can tell me what to
expect or what you've experienced.
My 5.5 to 6.5 year old male, Pepper, has been diagnosed with Lymphoma
and probable liver problem (failure, tumor ?? I have to call the vet
again and ask what he told me)
I don't have the exact values, but his blood work came back good. It
did show him to be dehydrated, but his white blood count was good.
I took him to Dr. P because for about three weeks, he had been gaining
weight. Near the end, we were noticing it to be all in the abdomen.
It felt "liquidy" not like swelling. Just like he was a water
balloon. So, I took him in to the vet, who did CBC w/ chem and
electrolytes-sent to Antech, Sub-Q fluids, they then put him under and
did an abdominal tap. He didn't totally drain him, fearing to
decompensate the heart. He did a cytology and found mostly
lymphocytes and some pus.
He prescribed 1/2 of a 5 mg Prednisolone tablet once daily, 1/4 of a
20 mg Baytril tablet once daily for 12 days, and 0.4 cc of 50mg/mL
amoxicillin twice daily for two weeks.
When I spoke with him today, he said since there didn't really seem to
be an infection, I could stop the antibiotics if he went off his food.
I would rather not give antibiotics, but when I do, isn't it best to
finish the course so that no organisms could become "super-strong"?
Also, Prednisone and Prednisolone are the same or no?
Is it okay to give the Amoxi and Pred at the same time?
Is it okay to give with Nutri-cal? (I think I saw something about
that on the FML ages ago.)
Also, for those of you who follow alternative treatments, the vet
mentioned trying the following:
Pau d'arco - 2-4 drops/day
Vitamin C Ester - 50 mg pill crush, mix
Noni (?) juice - 2-4 drops (antioxidant)
He mentioned we could do an ultrasound, but that it wouldn't really
change any of our options.
So...for any of you who have gone through something similar, I would
love to hear what worked for you, how long the ferret had until in
pain or very uncomfortable, etc.
Thank you all!
Jaclyn (Sorry this is so long.)