From:
Ulrike
Date: 2001-10-25 10:42:00 UTC
Subject: Jilly's gone as well now...
Jilly, my first ferret, was put to sleep today. She went downhill this
week, she had become pretty much resistant to prednisolone and had a
constant low sugar except for a few episodes a day when she felt okay and
even had a run in the house. But most of the time, especially about an hour
after food, she'd have really low sugars. She would come out of bed, run
around disorientated and then poop and pee on the floor and after that she'd
keep running around and also run through her mess some of the time. When
she went to the toilet, whether it was in the toilet or on the floor, she'd
do the splits with her back legs and she was too weak to stand up so she'd
fall forwards and lie in her pee and the poop would run down between the
cheeks of her bum and then she'd get up and the pee and poop would be
trapped between the flabby cheeks of her bum. This caused a "nappy rash",
it came on very suddenly and nothing helped clear it, she was on antibiotics
and I applied healing cream and a nappy rash cream to her bum but nothing
healed it. (She'd had this nappy rash at the beginning of the year as well
and it came suddenly and after about 4 weeks it went as suddenly as it
came.) I cleaned her up every time I saw her go to the loo or run around
and I washed her once or twice a day. But it was very painful to see her
the way she was. But the time didn't seem right to have her put to sleep
because twice a day she had a run through the house which she enjoyed.
Until early this week. She didn't have a run anymore but just went to bed
when I let her out. The only thing she enjoyed was her meat. But last
(Wednesday) night she stopped eating. She was very lethargic and depressed
and seemed to be in pain. So I just left her alone. I couldn't sleep at
night and got up very early, I was sooo worried about Jilly, I thought she
might have died but she was still alive. Very weak, she was just a floppy
bundle, like she hardly had any muscle left at all... I put her into a
clean sleep sack and into the carrier, ready for the vets. We went to the
vets as when they opened and at 9.00, Jilly was put to sleep. Jilly was in
pain when my vet felt her abdomen so this suggested that something else was
going on inside her, not just the insulinoma. My vet injected the lethal
drug into Jilly's kidneys but Jilly wouldn't die. So Louise anaesthetised
her and injected her into the heart. Jilly soon died but was still moving
and twitching when she was dead, her little legs and feet were moving like
she was still alive...
We went back to the vets about 5.00 p.m. to observe the post mortem (and
take pictures). Jilly had a huge tumour on her pancreas, the liver had
loads of (8+) tumours on it and the spleen was mottled. The kidneys had
loads of fat around them and with the fat they were probably 2" in diameter.
Which explained why Jilly wouldn't die when my vet injected her in the
kidney because the drug must have gone into the fat, missing the kidney...
There was a cyst on the right kidney which burst when my vet opened the fat
padding up. Vet has sent a lot of tissue samples off to be tested so we
should get results soon.
I'm obviously not feeling happy right now, it's just been 5 days since we
lost Spike. I was glad first when Jilly was put to sleep, her suffering
finally stopped. She's been ill for more than 2 1/2 years and I couldn't
even remember what she was like when she was healthy... But then a picture
went through my head when I had a lie down, Jilly and Angel playing and war
dancing and with it came such a tremendous pain in my chest that it left me
gasping for air and in tears...
Jilly never had symptoms of insulinoma that other ferrets have, she never
had seizures or screamed, she just became very weak with a low sugar and
would drag herself around the room in a disorientated manner. She wouldn't
rest but just keep crawling around. She did become unconscious a few times
but not in recent months.
Ulrike
and Jack, Bella, Mason, Baby, Dana, Fox, Reno, Rose, Jasmine, Hobo, Gremlin,
Bobby and Willow
Missing Angel, Hope, Igor, Barney, Tom, Spike and Jilly
West Wales Ferret Welfare
E-mail: ferretlove@n...
http://www.ferretlove.freeserve.co.uk
Last update 10/10/01
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