From:
Kym Barone
Date: 2002-04-20 23:58:00 UTC
Subject: Calvin (Mouth Cancer?) Update
Hi all,
Thanks to all who have written with well wishes on Calvin. I
have an update that is baffling me.
All day I kept a close eye on Calvin. Every time he woke up he
ate more baby food. He continues to drink, and I gave him more
sub-q fluids. I let him out to run with his buddies for a
while he had trouble keeping up because of the hind-end
weakness& hes just got a lot of trouble walking around. But
his will to live is there, hes bright eyed, and while still
way too skinny, hes looking better with the fluids and baby
food in him.
Just now, a little over 24 hours after first finding the sores
in his mouth, I went down to give him more baby food and
fluids (which he did not seem to need, so I did not give them
Ill check again in an hour or so). Since I wasnt torturing
him with the fluids needle, I decided to torture him by doing
a blood glucose. Happily, that came back a 134 not fearing
insulinoma, so Im guessing that the weakness is due to the
rapid weight loss and the fact that he must not have been
eating due to the mouth sores.
After the glucose test was done, I gave him some baby food. He
was dancing all around the table waiting for me to open the
jar, which he started lapping before I got it in the dish. As
an afterthought, I decided to see what the sores looked like.
Theyre almost all gone.
Huh?? How can this be? I now wish Id taken some digital
pictures of them. If youd seen them, youd never believe its
possible theyre gone. The two whitish sores that were above
the canines gone. The two in the corners of the mouth one
is gone, the other is less than half the size. The areas of
the mouth where they were are still very red his gums are
also very red but I swear, they definitely look like theyre
healing the sore I rubbed off with the q-tip earlier
revealed what looked like a hole in the flesh, and that now
just looks like inflamed tissue, not an open wound. I do not
understand how this can be. Im afraid that Im being
optimistic where I should not be. I was convinced three hours
ago that I had a ferret with cancer. Now Im not so sure, but
what else could that have been? I did think of kidney
problems, but there are no ulcers on the roof of the mouth,
and Ive dealt with dozens of ferrets with kidney problems
including kidney failure and they always had ulcers on the
roof of the mouth. He also has perfectly normal looking urine.
I still plan to take him to the vet, however my vet probably
hasnt seen this before (shes wonderful, dont get me wrong!
But my guess is this will be new to her). Considering I did a
search of the internet and found nothing about mouth problems
in ferrets (except pawing at the mouth) and theres nothing in
the Quesenberry book about it, Im thinking this isnt very
common. Anyone who may have experience, or the Drs on this
list&. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
Should I not let myself get too optimistic? At age four, hes
my 2nd youngest ferret, out of 22&. I expect to lose my 7 and
8 year olds to something (knock on wood, not too soon!) but
not my young one&..
Thanks all for listening, and the thoughts, and any help
anyone can offer&.
Kym