From:
znt1@cdc.gov
Date: 2003-08-12 20:41:29 UTC
Subject: Case History for anyone who might find similar symptoms
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <12430225.1060721566665.JavaMail.nobody@vanadium.smartgroups.com>
I thought I would post about my little girl Lucy, whom I lost a couple of weeks
ago, just in case it helps anyone else who notices similar symptoms. Sorry if
the post seems really long.
Lucy was approximately 6 years old - a pet store return by a family who wasn't
quite prepared for the rambunctious and determined troublemaker! Lucy had
remarkably few health problems over her lifetime, the only real event was the
removal of her right adrenal gland in June '03. The vet also found a small
nodule on her pancreas which was removed at the time of the adrenal surgery.
Her blood glucose hovered in the 90's.
Two Wednesdays ago I was putting her down for the night when I noticed that
she seemed to be favoring her right rear leg slightly. I checked her out,
watched for any signs of insulinomic crises, etc. All seemed okay and she even
walked around for awhile with no noticeable effort. The next morning I noticed
that she was dragging her back legs behind her, paw pads facing up. She was
able to control her bladder though and attempted to go on her own. I rushed
her to my regular vet who suggested that she might have fallen and hurt
herself and prescribed prednisone to reduce any inflamation.
After I got her home, the more I thought about it, the less I believed Lucy had
hurt herself. She had been somewhat less active since her June surgery, not
jumping on things or climbing as much as she usually did. I had had ferrets
take longer times to recuperate from surgery before and the vet didn't seem
worried. Later that day, Lucy lost the ability to control her bladder or bowels
and had to have her bladder emptied with help. She seemed uncomfortable
when this was done. During all of this she was alert, active and very annoyed
that I had caged her and wouldn't let her try and get around.
I took her straight back to the vet the next morning who then took xrays and
bloodwork at my insistence. The bloodwork came back normal, but the xray
showed something unusual in her vertebrae. The L1 vertebrae was very grey in
contrast to the white of the rest of her vertebrae. At this point my vet referred
me to [a respected veterinary school -- contact poster directly for details if
needed] as they could provide more advanced diagnoses.
Once at [respected veterinary school] I spoke with their head oncologist and
neurologist. More Xrays were taken, plus a neurological exam and a needle
aspirate was tried with no tissue / cells able to be taken. At that time, the Dr's
told me they believed Lucy had an aggressive form of cancer and as she
seemed to be in considerable pain (she actually bit me twice on the way to
[location] which was unheard of for her) and unable to control her legs, bladder
or bowels, I made the heartbreaking decision to have her euthanized. This was
based on asking both the oncologist and neurologist if they were to make the
decision what theirs would be. They told me the hospital could provide Lucy
with radiation /chemo etc, but that they believed she would have very little
chance of surviving longer than 6 months and virtually no quality of life given
her age and current condition.
A biopsy was done after the fact and here is the information the vet provided.
The determination was that Lucy had a myeloid neoplasia that was
undifferentiated (I'm not sure, but the vet seemed to be saying this was worse
than if it was differentiated). During the biopsy, the vet noticed a couple of
small blood clots along her spinal cord. In addition, due to the cancer, the
vertebrae had weakened to the point of pathologic fracture. It was the vet's
opinion that the cancer was extrememly aggressive and had occured within a
couple of months, not longer than 6. They were amazed that it had taken her
as long to show symptoms as she did. The vet said that although this type of
cancer in the spinal cord is not unheard of it's not terribly common either. And
unless xrays had been taken very recently, there was no real way to catch this
without her showing any symptoms.
She was a gret little girl and I'll miss her terribly. I hope this information is
useful.