From:
rockiesnropers@hotmail.com
Date: 2006-06-02 14:30:49 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Juvenile Lymphoma
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Hi!
I will start this as an express apology for cross posting from several forums, but my husband and I are quite possibly living on borrowed time for our ferret baby.
He is approximately 6 months old and has had all his vaccines. He was tested for ADV and was negative. We have always had trouble getting him to eat anything other than baby food or Duk soup.
We noticed Topper not eating much on May 15, in fact he refused even treats and baby food. We finally got him to take a little Caro syrup and some Duk soup well watered down, but no more that 5mL or so. He was extremely lethargic, but had pooped and stools were normal, so we figured it was not a blockage.
When we got up the 16th, Topper was back to playing and seemed normal except for not wanting to eat. I went back to feeding him baby food which he ate readily. I still felt that something was wrong and after discussions with several other ferret owners and a shelter mom, I took him to the vet.
Blood work was fairly normal except for WBC which was 15.1, just over the normal threshold. The vet felt Topper had an intestinal infection, but also suggested the possibility of DIM. We began a general antibiotic and returned for more bloodwork last friday.
In the interum, we were able to get him to eat about 20 pieces of kibble a day, and probably 45-50 mL of soup a day. His poops started getting soft and he was still pretty lethargic. He would play for about five minutes and then lay down and not move for 20 minutes or so. We also started doing temps and he has not been over 103.9 at any time.
The WBC had gone up to 16.7, lymphocytes were up too and were more than 75% of the WBC count. His platelet count had more than triple. BUN, and BG were both really low. Xray showed no mass. Vet told us that with temp data, he could probably rule out DIM without biopsy, but that instead, since the antibiotic was not decreasing the WBC, we were instead likely dealing with lymphoma.
We started on 0.5 mL pred 2x and will retest blood and xray tomorrow.
The questions that we have are: Are there any successful treatments for JL and what are they? We have looked at all kinds of information, but want to be readily informed so we know what to do and if there is nothing to be done, how long we have to prepare.
We still aren't 100% positive that it is JL, but we want to have an idea of how to fight it if we can if it is.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Laura and Charles Thornton
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