From:
"Claire van den Broek"
Date: 2008-09-23 16:19:49 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: What could my baby have died of?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi Tressie,
We talked about insulinoma with our vet, but there had been no
previous indication of that, nothing on bloodtests prior to the
September incident (he'd had one at least once a year), and no sign of
hypoglycemia anymore a few weeks later, that was the weird thing. At
the time that he got sick right before he died, he was not
hypoglycemic either, oddly enough... that's why both the vet and I
thought it was unlikely that it was actually insulinoma. (He said a
number of other things can cause temporary hypoglycemia) Nevertheless,
it's possible that he was in a very early stage, then it was suddenly
aggravated at the boarding place, and potentially once again in
February? He could indeed very well have fallen as a result, though I
would've expected February tests to show him as hypoglycemic again...
And he wasn't in the least bit lethargic, or staring as he had done in
september, when we found him partially paralyzed in february. The
first 15-20 hours he was very active and alert, constantly. He did not
seem to be in pain either (no tooth grinding for example), until after
24 hrs or so.
As someone else suggested, it's also quite possible that he had both
early stage insulinoma, and advanced lymphoma? I read a bit more about
lymphoma, and apparently the enlarged spleen is very common with
that... On the one hand, I wish I'd done a necropsy, but on the other
hand, I just wanted him to rest in peace, and I feared that it would
have caused me to obsess even more over whether or not we could have
prevented it... with over $1000 in tests and exams in September, and
still no clear solution, and then apparently perfect health until 36
hours before his death, I'm not sure what might have helped,
especially if it was lymphoma... We would have give him prednisone for
insulinoma, if it weren't for the fact that he went back to normal
very quickly, and his blood tests became normal...
It's just so hard to lose an animal you love so much, it's hard not to
keep thinking about it... It makes me a lot more anxious about my
other pets too, who will inevitably die some day...
I'll probably never know, but lymphoma and insulinoma certainly seem
likely candidates, looking back... Thank you all, and I wish all of
you and your babies the best of luck and health!
Claire
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