From:
floydmala
Date: 2002-05-05 08:19:00 UTC
Subject: Nikki is Sick
Dear Dr Williams,
I know you must be unbelievably busy, however I was wondering if you
could give me some
suggestions. We have a 7 year old female sable ferret named Nikki.
She is my wife's and my
world. She has not been what we would consider to be a typical
ferret in that for the first 6 ½
years of her life she has been nothing but a bundle of energy.
Recently (about 4 - 6 weeks ago)
she has really slowed down. She has shown signs that her rear legs
were getting very weak and
there would be times where she would just kind of collapse with them
while walking or standing.
We assumed that it was old age catching up with her and possibly
arthritis. She seemed to go
from someone who was 50 to someone who was 90 almost overnight.
Three or four days ago she
seemed to have caught a cold. She had a runny nose and began to do
something she had hardly
ever done....cough. Today 5/4/02 when I came home my wife was very
upset as Nikki had gone
behind the couch and laid down. This is unusual because she never
sleeps there. She usually
sleeps in our bottom drawer in our sweatshirts until recently when
she stopped going in there and
started sleeping in the sweats that my wife keeps by the side of the
bed or back in her cage. I
don't know if all of this information is helpful or not so I thought
that I should include it.
Once I got home today my wife and I decided to take her to the
emergency vets as all others had
already closed by early afternoon. Upon arrival we were helped by a
female veterinarian who has
been a previous owner. She recommended x-rays to look for heart
disease or arthritis. Upon
returning with the x-rays she showed us the area where Nikki's lungs
were supposed to show up
as a large dark spot and the windpipe was supposed to be straight.
Instead the windpipe ran up
on an angle and there was a large white colored mass where her lungs
were supposed to be. The
vet said that the black area of her lungs up near her spinal cord
looked to be only 10% of their
normal size. The white mass that I am looking at on her x-ray starts
at her 4th rib and runs to her
ninth. The vet said that this large mass either was an advanced case
of congestive heart failure or
a tumor. These were the options that she gave us.
1. Try to drain this area with a needle and see if it was a fluid
back-up. The down side was she
would have to put Nikki under an anesthetic which if it was heart
disease could kill her.
2. Give her a shot of Lasix and than treat her with a half a tablet
of Lasix 12.5 mg #5 every 12
hours, a half of tablet of Enacard 1mg #5 every 12 hours and one half
a tablet of Digoxin 0.125mg
#5 every other day. She said than take her back to our vet for
another x-ray in 3-5 days to see if
the fluid went down.
3. Put her down.
She said that if it was a tumor in her chest there was nothing we
could do as surgery would
probably kill her.
We opted for number 2 to try the medication and see if it brings the
fluid down. The frustrating
part is that she said that even if the problem was congestive heart
failure, treating her with
medication might only get us 2 days to a month more time at the
most. In Michigan Ferrets only
became legal at the time we got Nikki and we often wonder if our vets
are really up to speed on
all of the information about them. So now we have a few questions to
ask you with the
knowledge that there is nothing we won't do if we can help to bring
her back to near normal and
extend her life as long as it is pain free and happy.
1. Is this all we can do for a suspected heart disease. Are we
really only looking at a month at
most if we treat her with these medications? Is there anything else
out there that may work
better.
2. If it is not heart disease but instead lymphoma a tumor, would it
be too hard on a seven year old ferret to try
surgery on her. Would it be better for her if we just put her down.
3. Could it be anything else. We did not put her down now because
she does not appear to be in
pain. She has gotten very skinny especially in her hips, she
breathes very shallow and she does
seem to be in discomfort, however she does still walk through the
house, eats and although
shorter stools she does appear to be going to the bathroom regularly.
Please let us know anything that you can. If there is hope we would
be glad to hear it, if there is
none and it would be better for her to ease her down, we would like
to know that too.
Thank You so much for your time for not only reading this letter but
for all you do for all ferret
lovers.
From two heart broken parents,
Floyd and Karen Larson
49793 Teton Pass
Shelby Township MI 48315
(H) 586-254-2452
(W) 586-825-2742
I have answering machines on both phones and we will gladly call you
back at your convenience.