From:
ferret@ferret.lt
Date: 2005-02-20 16:46:18 UTC
Subject: i would like to get your ideas about what has happened to my ferrets
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5978413.1108917978680.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Hello everyone,
I would like to share my long and sad story about dieing ferrets and trying=
to find the answers. I have thousands of open questions and I know that ri=
ght now its probably too late to get all of them answered, but I decided to=
try to tell you all the story (I=92ll also try to be as short as I=92ll be=
able to) and maybe get some thoughts, ideas from you.
In the beginning I need to apologize for my English, especially when it com=
es to specific medical terms and names of body organs (still a lot to work =
on) as well as to apologize if it will seem to you that I could perform bet=
ter while saving my ferrets. I also feel very sorry about incompetence of v=
ets in my country.
The country I=92m talking about is Lithuania, and ferret is extremely exoti=
c animal here. Right now we are becoming bigger and bigger society of ferre=
t owners and I=92m probably one out of the first ones who suffer from probl=
ems getting proper diagnosis and medication for our pets on time. I=92m wan=
dering what we=92ll have to face in the future=85 =
The entire story began with my second litter. Everything was fine with the =
first one of my first jill. She had six healthy kits who found perfect new =
owners. Me on my side tried to do all my best to ensure that. Starting from=
food continuing to trying to be as ready for extra ordinal situations (lik=
e abnormal delivery, not a good mom, health problems of kits etc.) as it wa=
s possible. Everything was perfect until my jill felt into second heat. I w=
as considering an option to take her out of heat with a HCG shot but again =
it appeared that there is no one local to consult with about how it looks i=
n real life, not only in books (I=92m not vet), jill was feeling really fin=
e and healthy so I decided to have a second litter the same year. It was al=
ready August and it has passed relatively long time after her first birth g=
iving. Her second litter consisted of 4 absolutely normal kits. They were d=
eveloping as rapidly as they were supposed to and everything seemed absolut=
ely fine until they have reached 7 weeks old. Eyes and ears were already op=
en and they were already eating soaked kibble. They ate a lot and played mo=
re and more every day, while suddenly one female ferret died. It was at 1.3=
0 am at night. In the morning at 8 am I found another ferret from the litte=
r dead and at 9 am the same day third little ferret died. The fourth one su=
rvived is still alive (at the moment he is 6 months old) and seems fine.
Some facts that in my opinion could or could not have an influence:
1. When kits were 3 weeks old we adopted one new male young ferret from fit=
ch farm, all ferrets shared the same room but we never allowed kits to cont=
act new ferret. We also didn=92t allow him to contact the jill, but after k=
its were already weaned, jill was allowed to have contact with new family m=
ember. Of course she was still having contact with her kits=85
2. In addition to 4 kits there where 3 older ferrets in the house (jill, ne=
w male ferret from fitch farm and one female from the first litter) all the=
y were fine, and didn=92t show any symptoms of any illness all eating the s=
ame as kits, only the dry food.
3. Conditions of =93raising=94 first litter and second were absolutely the =
same (except new ferret in the house) and I really tried to keep their bowl=
s and etc. as clean as possible.
4. One of the kits from Tuesday evening (it was Friday when all they died) =
was already at foster home and died in foster house at the same time as oth=
er 2 in my house.
5. Both females had rabies and canine distemper shots. Newly adapted male h=
ad also got shots very soon after his appearance in the house.
I really wanted an answer to what had happened. My actions:
1. I took their bodies to the main vet analysis center for autopsy and othe=
r possible tests for bacterial infections and viruses. They have performed =
autopsy to two small kits and found foul gall (hope it makes sense in Eng.)=
and enlarged liver in both. They informed me that it=92s not possible to d=
o viral test anywhere in the country for such small animals like my ferrets=
(right now I know that in one place maybe it would have been a chance) and=
only thing that they said they can do is to take bacterial crop. So they t=
ook the bacterial crop using the kit who died last recently and couple of d=
ays latter informed me that it is clean with aerobic bacteria and in anaero=
bic crop they have found a lot of streptococcus and clostridium. When I ask=
ed them to be more specific in types of streptococcus and clostridium they =
said that I didn=92t informed them in advance that I=92ll be willing to get=
more specific analysis therefore they don=92t have the material any more (=
throwing out the material is something out of my brain possibilities to und=
erstand) and they are not so sure if they would be able to specify bacteria=
at all even if they would still have it. Later on they were telling me som=
ething like they usually are looking only for clostridium perfringens, but =
all of us were already to much confused at that time, not only me, not bein=
g a vet, but also they trying to fight against my questions. They also stat=
ed that on their opinion they died because of these pathogenic bacteria the=
y have found and it could have come only with food. I need to add that I wa=
s doing all these analyses not officially (because we didn=92t want to fill=
a lot of papers) but some people working there where my friends, so I trus=
ted that they will do their best for me (it still maybe that it was their b=
est), so I don=92t have official papers with results.
2. I took food they were eating for an analysis. This time officially. Anal=
ysis was also not very detailed, but it found nothing bad. I have got the a=
nswer list and I was informed that it=92s as detailed as they are able to p=
rovide. =
This is almost the end of the first part of the story. I hope that at least=
someone will be patient enough to go though all this and give me an opinio=
n (and I=92m sorry if I=92m too detailed). Finally I still haven=92t got th=
e answer to what have happened but somehow I really doubt that if was becau=
se of food. Second part of the story is about my jill and I=92m now wonderi=
ng if these stories can be somehow connected or not.
After that I was not able to trust food I was feeding my ferrets all the ti=
me, although it was super premium class kitten food (the best what it was p=
ossible to get here, right now we already have some special ferret foods im=
ported, but most of them are still lower quality than foods like Hills, Iam=
s, or Nutro). So I started my searching for other food and no my ferrets no=
r me where very happy about all this. Anyway, I have never fed them anythin=
g lower than super premium class or adult cat or dog food, so I don=92t=92 =
think that it had an influence on what happened latter to my jill.
First strange thing I started to notice it was her stool. I=92m not profess=
ional, and I was unlucky each time I tried to show it to vet, but I would s=
ay it was melena. First times I saw strange black things it was never in th=
e litter box so I didn=92t understand what it is at all and where it comes =
from. When I first noticed that in a litter box I understood that it was al=
ways a stool of someone of my ferrets. It only appeared from time to time, =
but I quickly understood that it=92s my main jill=92s. When I took her to t=
he vet I was mostly communicating with he just shook his shoulders and offe=
red me to give her a shot of some kind of antibiotics. The vet is considere=
d to be one of the best in the city (I live in the capital) and when I cont=
acted him at first he admitted that he knows not much about ferrets, but he=
seemed like willing to learn, and I have collected as much material for hi=
m as I could get. At that moment I just simply realized, that he has not re=
ad a single sentence.
I started to look for another vet and by accident I found a person who has =
been studying something about ferrets personally because he wanted to get o=
ne for him self (vet). He performed palpation and everything seemed normal.=
Combining our knowledge we did some basic blood test (what I even was not =
offered in the first clinic) which was in the normal values as I was inform=
ed (I still have the results) and basic stool test, where no erythrocytes w=
ere found. Right now I know that we should have tested some special blood v=
alues which we didn=92t but I was just not able (as not being an educated v=
et) to learn all this so fast as my ferret was feeling worse and worse. But=
after a visit, reading books I discovered that in cases of gastric ulcer n=
o erythrocytes are fond in the stool. I phoned the clinic and they admitted=
that I=92m right, but I was suggested not to do specific test of stool for=
determining digested blood, but to start treating gastric ulcer, since the=
y believed my words, no other bad clinical sighs were present and blood tes=
t was normal. So I started their recommended treatment of gastric ulcer. =
Due to the treatment melena was gone, but my ferret was still becoming weak=
er and weaker every day. Some days she looked much better and I was startin=
g to hope that we are doing fine, but after 3 weeks I lost my hope and took=
her to the same place again. At that time already during the palpation vet=
could feel that her spleen is enlarged. So we did blood glucose test (now =
I can not understand why we didn=92t do it when I first came there) and it =
showed 10. After that its clear that our first thought was insulinoma (here=
I must notice that my ferret was 1.8 years old at that time). We decided t=
o take 24 hours for me to find out what to do and them to read on a little =
bit about insulinoma in ferrets. At that time jill was really weak already=85=
I was already afraid about making her a candidate for surgery, but in 24 h=
ours I came with conclusion, that I want the operation to be performed. =
Before a surgery I called my friend who has finished human medicine studies=
and now works as a pathologist in the main country pathology center (human=
of course) and asked him if he could give me his opinion later on if I=92l=
l bring him tumor after operation. =
In vet clinic I asked them to do photos of operation. When they have opened=
my ferret they really have found pretty big pancreas tumor and metastasis =
into spleen. Lymphatic nodes were enlarged as well. So they removed all spl=
een and the tumor. (I have photos of the operation, If someone would be int=
erested to see them, I just need to ask permission of the clinic first). Bl=
ood Glucose level before operation was 20 and 300 after. So we were quite s=
ure that it was insulinoma but of course due to metastasis I was not given =
good prognosis therefore I personally understood how bad situation is and d=
idn=92t expect much as well. =
Before taking my animal home, her blood glucose level was 120. My assurance=
that it was insulinoma lasted for two days until I received a call from my=
friend from pathology center saying that pathologists don=92t see insulino=
ma and what they all (he asked for opinion of a group of pathologists) see =
is lymphoma. And the tumor itself is lymphatic node with neoplasm with look=
s most likely like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. They have also made micro=
photos of it and these I can show for anyone willing to see with no need o=
f permission. =
The blood glucose level remains unexplainable. I was going to go to the cli=
nic for another blood test tomorrow, when in the morning I found my jill de=
ad. She survived a week and 2 days after surgery. =
Vet clinic which performed surgery basing on what they saw and blood result=
s still would like to stay with diagnosis of insulinoma while human patholo=
gists are staying with the diagnosis of lymphoma. =
We have also performed autopsy of my ferret after her death. But I forgot t=
o take photo camera with me. This was the first time I was allowed to watch=
it. I was shown the place where tumor was and it really looks like it was =
attached to pancreas (again, I=92m not a vet and my knowledge is absolutely=
from self studies). There where more small tumors or it was enlarged lymph=
atic nodes or again both together. The farthest enlarged lymphatic node was=
close to uterus. All upper part of the body was clean including lungs, hea=
rt and etc. therefore no dyspnea were present. On the liver there where som=
e a little bit more white spots than rest of the color. Gastric ulcer was a=
lso present. Now I wonder how much pain did she suffer without me knowing t=
hat. =
So this is basically it. I know that it=92s always very difficult with answ=
ers when it comes to a live body. Sometimes one takes a car for repair, wha=
t is pure mechanics and electronics and it=92s not so easy to find out what=
is wrong=85 But I can=92t stop searching for answers. =
Personally me, I=92m linking to think that it was lymphoma not insulinoma. =
This is how I started to think that these two stories might be connected.
If this was lymphoma, what are the chances that my other two ferrets will g=
et sick as well?
I=92m also thinking a lot about what could I do to make our vets more compe=
tent in the subject? I was trying to find some kind of international semina=
rs or conferences where they could go mostly not to learn but to get more i=
nterested in the matter and to make good acquaintances, but I was not able =
to find any.
I will appreciate any of you thoughts or suggestions.
Thank you in advance.
Jone Smilgeviciute
ferret@ferret.lt
www.ferret.lt
=
=