From:
daakipman@terra.com.br
Date: 2003-02-19 21:09:30 UTC
Subject: many problems
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <22278687.1045688970622.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Hello,
My mother and I have a 7 year old female ferret who is having some proble=
ms and we just have no idea what they are...
If I=92m not mistaken, it was in the year 2000 that she had a chordoma at=
the tip of her tail and until it was properly diagnosed and properly remov=
ed, it grew quite a bit; and the everything seemed to be fine.
About a year later, she had an "episode" (I don=92t know what else to cal=
l it): I took her out of her cage in the afternoon as usual, she woke up na=
turally but a couple of minutes later she just went limp and "spaced out". =
I called her name, rubbed her where she likes to be rubbed, put water and t=
he treats close to her mouth so that she could smell them and/or eat, just =
to get some reaction from here, but nothing... I check of course to see if =
she was still breathing and stuff, and she was, but what seemed was that sh=
e had fainted with her eyes open, and just could not be bothered to wake up=
. Maybe five minutes later (and me just crying my eyes out) she woke up, at=
e her treats and acted as if nothing happened.
**a little note that I think might pertain is that we weren=92t living in t=
he US at the time, so I couldn=92t take her to a vet because nobody there h=
ad any idea as to what a ferret was ("is it some kind of a cat?" the vets w=
ould ask me)**
Like I said, she=92s 7, but she only started acting her age last year (20=
02), by "acting her age" I mean sleeping more than she used to, not jumping=
EVERYWHERE and ferreting around as much.
Now she had a brother who was 3 and a half years younger than her (he was=
an albino). He died in December 2002 and the wound is still very fresh in =
me. Now I=92m living in Brazil, and here at least they know WHAT a ferret i=
s, but they don=92t know that much about it either, so I=92m not exactly su=
re as to what he had. An American vet (a saint!) diagnosed him by e-mail, a=
nd I used my online ferret "expertise" to diagnose him. We came to the conc=
lusion that it might have been one of 3 things: ECE, Inflammatory Bowel Dis=
ease or some gastrointestinal cancer. He was sick for about 7 months, and w=
hen he used to be this big fat ferret, he was just skin and bones, it was j=
ust horrible. I think that he only lived that long because his appetite did=
n=92t diminish until the last week, when he really took a turn for the wors=
t, his stools had blood and on the last day, he spat up a lot of blood, and=
that=92s why we figured that it must have been GI cancer. At least he died=
relaxed in his sleep.
I don=92t know why I mentioned all this, maybe to say that Moka (my 7 yea=
r old baby) felt his loss tremendously. She became more lethargic, started =
to eat less, but then she got better. =
Another good news is that we found a vet that seems to know quite a bit a=
bout ferrets.
Then my brother gave us a baby ferret because he thought it would make ev=
erybody happier. Moka didn=92t like him all that much, he was just too live=
ly for her, it seemed to make her tired just to watch him jump around; and =
of course the baby didn=92t understand why she didn=92t want to play with h=
im. =
I don=92t know exactly when it was, but about 3 years ago (just after she=
had her chordoma removed I think) she started slipping a lot with her hind=
legs, just being weak in the hind end. We attributed it to a combination o=
f her lazy personality and the slippery marble floor and her middle age gai=
ning on her (she was about 5 at the time). When she would play and jump aro=
und, she wouldn=92t slip. That continued till about last year, as I mention=
ed, she =93ferreted=94 less, and slipped more. =
In January our new vet diagnosed her with an enlarger spleen; we did an u=
ltrasound, she consulted another 2 vets with extensive experience with ferr=
ets, and they came to the conclusion that it=92s nothing serious; they pres=
cribed a medicine and were following directions and giving it to her every =
day, and almost 3 weeks have gone by and her spleen is a lot less swollen.
BUT, today, this morning, she had an =93episode=94, again, only this time=
much worst. We called her, she came, and as she was walking she fell to th=
e side and lost control of her bowel movements. I picked her up and she sta=
rted sort of gasping for air and drooling at the same time and with a =93sp=
aced out=94 look again. My mother called the vet, she arrived 20 minutes la=
ter, and said that she went into a hypoglycemic shock, gave her some sub-Q =
glucose fluids (or something, I don=92t know exactly in English) and when s=
he finally =93woke up=94 we gave her some Nutrical (which she ate a LOT). N=
ow she=92s sleeping and the vet said that she would come back in about 4 ho=
urs to check on her again and maybe give her some more glucose.
While my mother is with her, I am here online trying to find out anything=
and everything that might be possible. I=92ve discovered that she might ha=
ve Insulinoma and that there is no concrete cure for it and that the best t=
hing to do is surgery, and also that Splenomegaly might be one of the conse=
quences of Insulinoma. Sure, there is one vet here that could do the surger=
y, but then I=92d have to get on a plane for 2 hours just to get to where h=
e is.
Now, what I=92m asking with this loooong post/e-mail (that is if anyone h=
as read this far) is what do you think? Is it really Insulinoma or does my =
ferret just have diabetes or something treatable like that? Is that even a =
possibility? Help please, I=92m just desperate. Tonight when the vet comes =
back I=92m gonna give her all the web pages where I=92ve found pertinent in=
formation and I=92m gonna read it all myself of course, but I really need s=
ome answers from someone who has been through this already, just some opini=
on, some advice, please=85
I thank anyone who has at least read through this all,
Sincerely,
Daphne
=