From:
Angela Espinet
Date: 2003-11-06 15:22:23 UTC
Subject: About Pertwee!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <13205705.1068136506018.JavaMail.nobody@chromium.smartgroups.com>
Hello Caity,
So sorry to hear about Pertwee, I know from
reading past posts he was a real favorite of yours,
however I wanted to add some obsevations from years of
keeping ferrets.
It has been my experience that ferrets who
literally have 'just dropped dead' have ALL had liver
cancer. ALL have been perfectly fine and then I have
found them dead, have had necropsies done and always
the same results, liver cancer.
In fact I lost a good friend over one such
incidence when I was accused of not caring for her
ferret. He was found dead one morning and had been
fine the night before, his necropsy showed liver
cancer and yet she insisted it was my neglect that
killed him! Fortunately I had been through this
experience several times so I knew it was something
that could not have been detected, nevertheless I felt
terrible about it.
It just so happened that another ferret at the
shelter had died a few weeks earlier, she had been
dancing around only a couple of hours before her
untimely death. My friend knew the ferret, so my
veterinarian was able to convince her that liver
cancer can go undetected, she did feel a little
better, but it was hard for her to lose her ferret
this way and she remained aloof toward me---Angela.
[Some types of malignancies when certain organs can be hard to detect, but
others do show themselves in testing or examination. Also there are other
possible causes of sudden death. For example, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
can be hard to find. A different malignancy, lymphoma, although it often shows
itself can also be present and undetected till the end; a number of FHL
members, incuding vets and including our family, have experienced that
ocassionally. It is wise to necropsy because there are multiple possible possible
causes of sudden death, and with some there may be a contagion and a need to
medicate the other ferrets so necropsy with patholgy then saves the rest. --
Moderator's note so that people will understand that there are multiple causes
and necropsies with pathology are important]