From:
tansy
Date: 2002-05-09 19:15:00 UTC
Subject: Myeloma and lymphoma in a climate of ADV
I put my ferret Bella down this morning after an x-ray
yesterday evening revealed that her rib cage had
collapsed because her ribs had eroded away due to
myeloma.
Myeloma is a fairly rare but horrible cancer that
affects the stem cells in the bone marrow. In Bella it
apparently started in her spinal canal, and she
developed hind end paresis with no abnormal findings
on blood work, or on her xrays until last night (these
were the 3rd set in appox. 3 months).
I had come to the conclusion that she had done herself
some kind of injury after the original scare, and
before she started having difficulty breathing appox 2
weeks ago.
In the meantime, 3 days after Bella developed hind end
paresis my ferret Issac also developed it.Within a
week I had 2 ferrets who couldn't walk and were
incontinent. Issac had been fighting IBD on and off
for the last six months, but otherwise both ferrets
were both breeder ferrets under 3 years old, so my
thoughts immediately went to ADV...
Given the controversy, and the gravity of the
situation both animals were tested by 2 labs. All 4
tests were negative. And as I related earlier this
week in a post, Issac's necropsy report showed that he
had Lymphoma and died approximately 2 weeks ago. Bella
died today of Myeloma, the diagnosis so far based on
symptoms and charactristic findings on x-ray.
My point? Just that we don't get so get caught up in
ADV to the point we forget all the other nasty things
out there that kill our ferrets. In this case, there
wasn't really anything that could have been done for
my ferrets while I wasted time and energy being
hysterical worrying about ADV. And I have a vet who
never forgets those other things, bless her. But the
ferret community does seem to get fixated on one
disease over the rest at times, and it's important not
to let that happen because if things had been just a
bit different, it COULD have harmed them...
I will leave all those clinicians out there with one
possible tip that may help in the differential
diagnosis of myeloma when treatment might still be an
option: the pain it causes. Bella was really in a lot
of pain quite often (she was medicated for it), but
the level of discomfort may assist in differentiating
it from other causes of paresis. I hope so.
tansy
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