From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2002-02-06 21:59:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Lucy's gone; necropsy results
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., bwiborg@w... wrote:
> Lucy made it thru the night but was very weak this morning. I
brought
> her in to the vet and she said there was nothing more they could do
for
> her. I decided it was best to end her suffering. It was a horrible
> thing to watch and I cried thru it, and then all the way home.
>
> I asked the vet to do a necropsy on her. She called tonight with the
> results. Lucy's liver was full of cancer, she said probably
lymphoma,
> and as a result, her blood wasn't clotting so she has been slowly
> bleeding to death. She started hemorraging on Saturday. She thinks
that
> the build-up of blood was putting pressure on her lungs and throat
which
> was causing her to have difficulty breathing.
>
> Does this make sense to any of the vets on here? I haven't heard of
> anything like this before. At least now I know there was nothing
more
> that could have been done for her and she had very little time left
> anyway. She sure put up a fight to live, tho. She was eating Lucky
> Charms right up until the end, when they injected her.
Dear Barb:
I am sorry for your loss. Don't feel ashamed at all about crying
during the procedure - I've euthanized all of my own animals and I
cry too, pretty much every time. - Its a totally natural reaction,
but does not obscure the fact that you are doing the right thing.
While it may have been a hard thing to watch, it is far easier to
bear than to watch Lucy wither away with terminal cancer.
Regarding the discussion of lymphoma in the liver - the liver is a
very common place for lymphoma to strike, and it is often silent
until close to the end. I am hopeful that you authorized the
submission of some of the tissue to confirm the diagnosis. Lymphoma
does not generally result in hemorrhage in the abdomen, so it would
be a good case to have confirmed.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM