From:
Jimw1956@cs.com
Date: 2004-03-20 02:26:24 UTC
Subject: New to the group...with a sick ferret :(
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <23994289.1079750605067.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>
Hello all, this is my first post to this group, which I just found out about.
My wife Kathy and I have been the proud parents of a wonderful little ferret
named Gwen for the last 5 1/2 years. Gwen is like our little baby, as we have
no children.
We have been blessed with a healty ferret for all this time...until recently.
Gwen seemed to slow down a lot, and didn't want to play much at
first...considering that she was aging, I thought this just might be a natural change.
Then, however, she began to only want her chicken flavored treats to eat, and
experienced a weight loss. We live in an area where there really isn't a good
ferret vet, so we took her to a neighboring city about 100 miles away to a vet
who had some experience with ferrets. She did a blood test, and examined
Gwen. The results of the test didn't show anything, other than she was slightly
anemic, possibly due to the weight loss. The doctor examined her and said she
didn't feel anything abnormal...tumors, etc.
We brought her home for that weekend with instructions to call the vet with
her condition that Sat., which we did. By this time Gwen had almost stopped
eating altogether and we were getting really frantic. When we called the vet
she said to call her back in a few days and let her know how Gwen was. At this
point we knew something had to be done soon, so I found a well qualified vet
in La. who is very experienced with ferrets.
He did an exam and found a mass in her stomach, which he felt was probably
something she had swallowed. He sceduled and did surgery the next day, only to
find not a simple obstruction, but some type of abnormality with her stomach.
It seems the stomach lining of about 25% of her stomach has extremely thick
and hardened. He said normally this tissue would be about the thickness of a
couple of sheets of paper, and that hers was about the consistancy and
thickness of a piece of cardboard.
He said that the area had the appearance of being cancerous, but he would not
know for sure until he gets a biopsy back next week. He said in 18 years of
his practice he had not seen anything quite like this. My question to the
list is, have any of you seen or heard of this type condition before? He also
said there was no sign of any other problems in any surrounding areas.
Please keep your fingers crossed for our baby, and keep her in your prayers,
and let me know if you have ever seen this problem before.
The suburb of New Orleans is about a three hour drive for us,
but we came down here today and tomorrow to visit her, and let her know she
has not been abandoned. We had hoped she might be able to go home for a while
, but I think she is going to have to stay for a few more days, and possibly
until the biopsy comes back and maybe some type of path can be followed as far
as treatment.
Thanks for reading my long post, and any info or encouragement you can offer
would be greatly appreciated.
Jim, Kathy & Gwen.
End of ferrethealth Digest
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