From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2004-10-06 03:36:06 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Eliminating in bedding
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5122060.1097035649715.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>
--- wheesht53@yahoo.com wrote:
> If Buddy has surgery and tumors are removed, does he
> have a chance of regaining his strength?
If the problem is strictly insulinoma, yes, that might
well happen. Since he's pretty old he may never
recover 100% of his former strength, but he may get a
lot of it back. Kodo was seven and a half when he had
insulinoma surgery and he regained probably 80% use of
his hind legs. He still had problems with hardwood
floors and we used area rugs and blankets to give him
the firmer footing he needed. Podo was eight when he
had insulinoma surgery and he regained full use of his
hind legs for at least a year and never had the kind
of problems he had before surgery again. He passed
away just short of age 10.
> Could it
> be that he's so weak that eliminating in his bed is
> just him taking the path of least resistence, or is
> this a sign of the end?
IME a ferret has to be really badly off to do this.
It generally means they can't get to the litter pan at
all. We saw this with Ker Avon and with Kodo at the
very end of their lives. Avon was just plain
paralyzed and Kodo had major difficulty with motion.
Could it be the end? Sure, it's possible. It seems
to me, though, that you have absolutely nothing to
lose by letting your vet do the exploratory. We had
two ferrets who were near death who had exploratory
surgeries on the condition that if our vet didn't find
something he could treat they wouldn't wake up. In
Ryo-Ohki's case he found tumors everywhere and we said
goodbye. In Pertwee's case he found a diseased
kidney. Our vet had given Pertwee a 5% chance of
survival. He had three and a half good years after
that.
Good luck!
All the best,
Caity and the fabulous four