From:
Kris McDevitt
Date: 2001-04-16 01:11:00 UTC
Subject: problems with 3 MF kits
----- Original Message -----
From: Dawn McDevitt
To: ferret-health-list@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 10:08 PM
----- Original Message -----
From: Kris McDevitt
To: ferret-health-list@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 10:02 PM
In July of 2000 I pirchased 3 male MF kits approximately 8
weeks of age (so I was told). On Christmas day the albino
Spike was rushed to the emergency hospital vomiting, pooping
bloody mucous, and then just laying there. Blood work was
normal, he was tested for parasites, given fluids and withing
a few hours seemed fine. My regular vet checked him out the
next day and said the same thing. They both thought tthat
maybe he had eaten something to cause the problem.
2 months later the same thing happened, and I found blood and
mucous all over the cage when I got home from work. Spike
seemed fine though since I was not sure when in the last 8
hours it had happened. (My vet was out of town.)
A week later on February 7th Spike's brother Angel (the
champagne/cinnamon sweetheart) seemed to have developed a cold
within hours by the time I got home from work. He was
sneezing and was acting very lazy. He did't want to move
around a lot and didn't want to eat. I fed him baby food and
ensure but within a few hours he was having trouble breathing
and would not move around at all.
I rushed him to the emergency hospital where they took an
x-ray and they found a large thoratic mass in his chest
compressing his lungs and heart. They gave him an IV and
stablized him overnight. I transferred him to my vet the next
morning where she did a chest tap and retrieved bloody fluid.
She said it was lymphosarcoma and after treating him for 8
hours he was very depressed and not responding. She said
chemotherapy wouldn't help at that point and there was nothing
else we could do but end his suffering at about 7-8 months of
age. I was completely crushed!!
Since then Spike has had 2 other episodes of blood and
vomiting while I was not home. I took him to the vet last
week and his blood work showed lymphocites (SP?) level of 4752
and that 3500 was normal. She is treating him for
proliferative colitis and eosinonophilic enteritis since she
does't want to puthim under for surgury or x-rays with his
blood work the way it is now. We are re-running the blood
work again in 3 weeks but she said that I should prepare
myself that it sounds like he's got lymphosarcoma like Angel
since his count was so high.
The last brother Doyle (a sable) seems fine but is having
blood work done when Spike has his done again.
I am looking for help understanding all this and a second
opinion. I have had 3 other ferrets in the past that didn't
have health problems until they were over 4, 5, and 7 years of
age. Im not sure if any of them were MF. How does there
health guarantee work? If all 3 of these babies are sick,
what can I do??????