From:
jemzet@hotmail.com
Date: 2002-12-28 21:38:39 UTC
Subject: Multiple Cancers...
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <31056472.1041111519673.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Just wanted to know how common it was for a fuzzy to have multiple cancers.=
My little Peanut (whom I had to put down the day after Christmas) was load=
ed with cancer, but it was kidney failure that really took him. =
It all started last year when Peanut started having alot of loose stools an=
d such. When I took him to the vet he started treating him for Helicobacter=
and Peanut improved slightly when on the antibiotics. Shortly after when t=
he stools went back to being loose again the doctor did a CBC and the only =
thing he found was that there was some liver problems and he treated him fo=
r those. Peanut continued to have loose stools and starting grinding his te=
eth when eating or when I had to force feed him. The doctor put him on a en=
zyme to help him digest proteins and another antibiotic and a very small do=
sage of prednisone... this is what he was treating him with for what he tho=
ught was IBD. It was just a month ago that Peanut was getting progressively=
worse and I decided to take him to the vet again to have another check up =
and bloodwork. This time it came out that his kidney counts were very high,=
so the doctor put him on carafate, baytril, sub q fluids, amoxicillin, Tum=
il-K gel along with an extremely high dosage of Prednisone... he upped the =
dosage of .15cc 1x a day to .5cc 2x a day (which Peanut had a very bad reac=
tion to). I had to cut it back to .3cc 2x a day . Well just after two week=
s of that he didn't really seem to be getting better and when I finally go =
him back up to the .50 cc he had another reaction and the doctor decided to=
cut the prednisone out completely but for some reason Peanut was still act=
ing strange ( shaking, acting delusional, very jumpy and such)just a day af=
ter being off the prednisone I had to take Peanut in again because he was s=
till shaking like crazy. The new blood work showed that his kidneys were fa=
iling... the phosphorus and calcium were totally out of whack and even afte=
r treating him with calcium Peanut was still shaking. It was then that I de=
cided to put him under. It was then that I also decided to get an autopsy t=
o see what was really going on with Peanut. That is when I found out that P=
eanut have a really huge cancerous tumor on his right adrenal gland, a smal=
l tumor on his left adrenal gland, hundreds of small tumors on his pancreas=
, his kidneys were really bad, his lungs had spots throughout them. And all=
this time I thought because of his grinding that there would be some damag=
e to his stomach or intestines (which there weren't).
So the reason why I am writing all this is to warn other fuzzy owner's that=
just because one of our fuzzies is grinding doesn't necessarily mean that =
it is IBD/Ulcer related and if your little guy is not responding to Carafe =
or whatever, maybe it would be a good idea to get a exploratoy surgery just=
to see what is going on. Apparently in my situation it was too far gone. M=
aybe if one was done way earlier we could've stopped some of this cancer fr=
om spreading. So please don't wait that long to have any surgery done for y=
our little one... time is of essence!! And just to let you know... the only=
symptoms Peanut had was grinding of the teeth when he ate/drank, weight lo=
ss back and forth, and just within the past few weeks hair loss alond with =
his soft stools.
Now for the doctors or anyone else in knowledge... is it common for a fuzzy=
to have SO many cancers? Another one of my fuzzies just died in August wit=
h multiple cancers (adrenal, insulinoma, and possible lymphosarcoma). Is it=
possible it is a viral infection being passed between my fuzzies? Should I=
have my other guys checked right away... their ages are 5 1/2, two are 3, =
and one that is not even a year old?
Thank you and I hope this helps some!!!
Janet =
=
=
=
=