From:
Mary
Date: 2003-01-08 17:27:43 UTC
Subject: Update on Giesela and Boris' Liver- re Trouble Pooping, long
To: ferret health list <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-Id: <7ED1C996-232E-11D7-A649-000393AB6D96@attbi.com>
I finally got to talk to my vet regarding the x-rays taken Friday,
Giesela's trouble pooping and their livers generally.
First - both had x-rays taken and both Livers are huge.
Giesela's he said was constant looking in texture and density.
Boris' looked like it had some dark lines in it, perhaps defining lobes
and maybe could see the pancreas or spleen (he wasn't too clear) they
had top/bottom and from the side x-rays i think.
Giesela's liver is the largest he's ever seen - "monstrous" was his
word. he says its taking up 1/3 to 1/2 her abdominal cavity. She's
the one who runs around trying to poop.
his feeling is that this might be a referred pain sort of thing.
there is a capsule over the liver that stretches. the liver looks like
it is pushing on the spleen (at anyrate the spleen looks strange he
said) which may be pushing on the intestines.
the stomach is being pushed on - up and back. (for those of you who
understand the anatomy he said the liver is pushing on things sort of
in reverse of a pregnant woman?)
all this causes the animal to not feel good and for the
body to send messages that may be inappropriate - i.e. that the ferret
needs to potty when in fact that may not be right.
plus he said the intestines tend to get irritated when fed only soft
food.
his only recommendation was to try pepto or kaopectate to try to
decrease any irritation.
he said we could do a cbc to see what the white blood cells are doing
but the pred she;s been on would depress the results and normal might
not necessarily mean normal.
everything points to lympho - but you know - neither one has enlarged
lymph glands. how can their liver's be so huge with no lymph
involvement yet? (and lets not forget Giesela's negative liver biopsy
- recommendation - don't bother with liver biopsy's unless they are
ultrasound guided).
we discussed going in - i asked can you take down the size of the liver
and he didn't think so. he said the lesions were usually random and
all over the place. so i'm not sure what the point would be. he
agreed - he said when you take an older ferret whose not well and open
them up you drain off some of their life - if there's something that
your fixing fine. but he most likely would not be cutting on the liver.
he didn't think there was anything that would shrink the liver.
Anybody have any comments or ideas? does the pepto comment make sense?
i'd like to keep giesela comfortable as possible. i'm going to
continue the amoxi because i think she's a bit peppier on it. she
still seem's ok otherwise - interested in going out though its too cold
for more than a minute. mostly she's not up for long. boris seems ok
other than his belly is so huge he can't get up on the tub or in his
old favorite drawer or his real favorite inside the loveseat in the
basement. since his liver isn't quite so far along is there anything i
should be doing? he hasn't been on pred so i'm doing his cbc first,
then put him on pred.
mary
P.S. they've both been hand fed chicken baby food/science ad mix for
several months.
I'm really worried that any decision regarding the time to euth is
going to be ambigous. giesela is so tough, stoic, independent. she's
always been the brave hunter. i know we all die eventually but i can't
stand the idea of her in pain and not knowing. i am just wrecked.