From:
"xxxxxxx"
Date: 2006-12-23 06:42:48 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Will treating my fuzzy make his quality of life worse?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
If he does end up having lymphoma - after you get a second opinion and
some hard facts through aspriation and testing like Sukie said, give
me a call. I have the latest information on the Tufts Protocol and all
of the contacts for you to get in touch with the creators of the
protocol, plus all of the tweaks that my vet did for my Nilla. She
eventually went into remission but then died of a separate tumor in
the vena cava, unrelated to the lymphoma.
As for pain, once your ferret starts it - you check the blood tests
first to make sure the ferret can handle the chemo. You go slowly.
Tufts does not require any IV treatments, but does require sq and
other injections. The sq fluids are used when you do the almost weekly
injections because it helps the body flush out the chemo drug. Nilla
never felt any pain from this drug nor any of the other meds. It was a
once a week to once every other week appointment.
They will ask you to do staging to see how far the lymphoma has either
spread or to see if it has been reduced - I didn't have the money to
keep finding out, so I did the bare minimum blood tests - just to make
sure that her bone marrow was not being suppressed. If it does become
suppressed, you will have to make a decision to either stop chemo, put
the ferret to sleep. We never got to that point because she went into
remission.
I think the Tufts protocol in the way that we used it is the best - it
is the gentlest on the ferret, it didn't make her sick and it was
basically always just once a week at the most to bring her in for
morning to afternoon.
Shoot me an email for the information if you end up needing it.
xxxxxxx
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "rachaelsleighter"
<rachaelsleighter@...> wrote:
>
> I found out two days ago my 3 year old ferret has lymphoma, or that's
> what the doc said, I'm going to get a second opinion. He has a large
> mass in his belly. He has had it for a long time though, over a year. I
> just though his "big belly" was fat. He is pretty active and eats
> normally. I am afraid if I go ahead with the course of treatments
> suggested - surgery, pred., chemo he will be in pain/sick from the meds
> and not as happy as he is now. but I also want him to live for a while
> yet.
>
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