From:
Julie Fossa
Date: 2003-08-29 19:29:55 UTC
Subject: Harley's rear leg weakness
To: HealthList Ferret <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <20030829192955.19672.qmail@web80506.mail.yahoo.com>
I need some help. A friend has a ferret that is very
unstable, and loosing his ability to walk. This
started mid-February of this year. Harley was 3 years
old in May.
Harley developed a growth on the tip of his tail that
we felt was a chordoma. It was removed 2/9/02. No
pathology was done.
He began to swagger a lot when he walked and so was
seen by his vet again 2/19/03. He was put on 1.0 ml
pred twice a day, since it was suspected that he may
have fallen in his cage. The pred seemed to help for
a while; he was weaned off by late May.
His condition worsened, and she started the pred again
by late June. She didn't see much improvement, so
discontinued the pred.
It has been a progressive condition. She is bringing
Harley Saturday morning so we can test him for ADV,
and I will check his bg at the same time. I am also
going to feel his spine for anything that feels out of
the norm.
Harley has not had an xray. I am working to convince
her that it would be beneficial. She is working on
the funds.
I am wondering, if the mass that was removed from his
tail was in fact a chondrosarcoma and not a chordoma,
how it might be affecting him now? If it was not
comlpetely removed, could it only affect neighboring
vertebrae, or could it move to other areas? I have
looked, and all I can find is that it would cause
paresis and ataxia. There wasn't a lot in the
archives on chordomas or chondrosarcomas. There are a
lot of posts about rear leg weakness, but most focus
on insulinoma.
Right now I'm looking for suggestions for her to go to
her vet with, if her husband lets her take him again.
He is getting touchy about vet bills, and Harley
actually belongs to the 16 y.o. daughter (who is now
working and will help with the bill).
Here is part of what she wrote about Harley:
***
I truly believe
this is
coming from the tumor removed from his tail. It's
nothing that I know
for
certain... just a gut feeling.
IF this were a spinal cord injury, it should improve
with the pred
right??
Well, it's not improving. It did to start with, but
not any more. You
would just have to see him in action to understand.
Sometimes he
walks,
other times he drags himself around. BUT even when he
walks now, he's
awfully wobbly legged. However....when you pinch his
toes, he pulls his
foot
back, so he has feeling there. It's weird, I know. I
just think that
there's something going on there that we haven't
thought about yet.
He's in
good spirits and appears to be in no pain.... with my
spinal injury
there's
pain and lots of it. Ferrets can't be that much
different, or can
they???
Any suggestions are welcome.
Julie
=====
Julie Fossa (419) 225-8158
West Central Ohio Ferret Shelter
We are currently functioning as
a placement and referral service.
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