From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2004-05-05 01:02:07 UTC
Subject: Kodo update (9.5 y/o with multiple problems)
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <12621140.1083725640984.JavaMail.nobody@chromium.smartgroups.com>
Hi, everyone,
To summarize past posts: Kodo is roughly 9.5 years
old. He is blind, has insulinoma, and has a history
of a spleen which gets hugely enlarged. We've been
able to keep the size of his spleen down with
Clavamox: three weeks on, two weeks off. Prior to
Monday he also was receiving 0.4ml of pediapred (1
mg/ml concentration) for the insulinoma.
Over the weekend Kodo was out of sorts -- wanting to
be left alone rather than receive attention, and on
Sunday and Monday morning he didn't even want
Linatone, treats, or his gravy. The latest round of
Clavamox wasn't helping with his spleen either and
Kodo's mobility problems were worse than ever. His
back legs were basically useless. We took him to the
vet on Monday.
The first piece of news was that Kodo's blood glucose
was down to 32. Our vet decided to give him some
dextrose to bring that up. He also noticed that Kodo
was very thin around the neck and the base of the tail
despite gaining weight. All his muscle mass has
disappeared and our vet was clear that this wasn't the
case when he last saw Kodo just two weeks earlier. He
knew something else was wrong and took Kodo off to
have a radiograph done.
The picture we got told pretty much the whole story.
According to our vet you normally can't see the top of
the heart. We could, and there were two large round
masses above it -- very enlarged lymph nodes. A very
large mass (a tumor) was also visible in Kodo's spleen
which explained why the Clavamox couldn't work any
more.
Our vet's diagnosis based on the radiograph and the
loss of muscle mass is that Kodo has lymphoma in
addition to insulinoma. His prognosis is poor. Our
vet doesn't believe he'll make it through the summer.
We increased his pediapred to 0.6ml twice a day and if
that doesn't bring his blood glucose up by next Monday
we'll add diazoxide. We'll complete this round of
Clavamox but if it does nothing as expected we'll
discontinue that. Kodo also got a dexamethasone shot.
It didn't do much for him. His appetite is back and
he can walk again but otherwise Kodo wants to be left
alone and to sleep. Our vet had planned to add
depomedrol (sp?), which I take it is basically long
lasting dexamethasone, if the shot was helpful. I
don't know yet if that's still going to happen. Our
vet mentioned that he rarely uses depomedrol because
there are problems associated with it, but Kodo
already has those problems and long term effects
aren't an issue for him any more.
Please keep Kodo in your thoughts. I am really afraid
we're going to lose him very soon. I am also very
worried about what will happen to Podo if Kodo should
pass away. Right now all of Podo's medical problems
(insulinoma, adrenal, cardiomyopathy) are held in
check with medication. I hate to add stress and
depression to that mix of problems.
Relatively few ferrets see their 10th birthdays. I
had hoped both Dough Boys might just do. It doesn't
seem possible now.
Our vet is always open to suggestions, so if anyone
has any please do send them on.
Regards,
Caity and the worried weasels