Message Number: FHL5292 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "Pam Sessoms"
Date: 2008-06-26 18:08:32 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Brain Tumors In Ferrets
To: cinnamon_sprite@yahoo.com, ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

Karen,

Sorry to hear about your ferret; must be having some bad symptoms.

I wanted to relay an experience we had with one of ours. Harriet
suddenly presented with horrible neurological signs one night:
falling over to the left when trying to walk, "spasming" to the left
when picked up, one pupil pointing up and one pupil pointing down, and
both eyes vibrating rapidly side to side (nystagmus). It was just
awful. Her blood sugar was normal.

My very kind ferret vet met us in the middle of the night to see her,
and at first, she really thought it had to be a brain tumor, blood
clot to the brain, etc. However, to be complete, she took a good,
long look in the ears. We sedated Harriet so the vet could look
really deep in the ears and visualize the ear drums. She noticed one
ear drum was ruptured and took a swab. Turns out, it was a
middle/inner ear infection. Harriet didn't have externally crummy
ears -- I still don't know quite how to explain that she had an ear
infection that bad and I had no idea until so late.

Harriet recovered pretty much completely from this, although she did
always have a slight head tilt after that. The infection was cultured
to see which antibiotic would work (turned out that Baytril was fine),
and she responded to Baytril and some anti-inflammatory meds quite
quickly.

Anyway, of course, your vet has likely already covered the ear
infection possibility. Just thought I'd mention it in case not -- I
think the sedation was key for finding out what was going on with
Harriet.

Good luck and best wishes,

-Pam S.

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:56 PM, Karen McCabe
<cinnamon_sprite@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know of a good source for information on tumors of the
> brain in ferrets? I've searched the archives here, and am googling as
> well, but so far haven't found much.
>
> I have a 7 year old early alter female, adrenal at under 1 year of age
> (had surgery to remove the left gland at 1 year 5 months of age and on
> lupron for 3 years now), on pred for insulinoma (since March),
> diagnosed (by symptoms) today as having brain tumor.

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