From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2009-02-08 23:14:08 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Posting for a friend : Seeking Lymphoma Advice
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi, Judy, and everyone else,
I have lost seven ferrets to lymphoma over the years. In every case
these have been older ferrets (ages ranged from five and a half to ten)
and the life expectancy has ranged anywhere from a few days to 19
months after diagnosis. That's a very wide range and there are simply
too many variables for any of us to predict how your little one will
do. I've been told by several vets I trust that the average life
expectancy after diagnosis is only 90 days.
In each case we discussed chemotherapy (mainly the Tufts protocol) and
ruled it out. The three vets involved all felt that with an older
ferret the chances for a good outcome were fairly small and the quality
of life under chemo wouldn't be all that good.
In each case we gave prednisolone (pediapred). If a ferret needed more
pred than they could tolerate, as was the case with Nyssa, we moved to
injectable, long lasting steroids. With Nyssa, the one who lived 19
months with lymphoma, we ended up giving her depo medrol on a monthly
basis. That was in addition to .27ml of pediapred (1mg/ml
concentration) which was the most she could take without severe
diarrhea.
In addition to steroids we gave medication to relieve symptoms. Two
ferrets, Lady Ayeka, who lived six months with lymphoma, and Nyssa, had
the disease attack their GI tract. We tried a couple of things to
relieve diarrhea. Kaopectate kind of worked but what really did the
trick was diarsanyl. It's a nasty brown paste that we got from the vet
in somewhat liquid form. The ferrets hate it but it helps quite a lot.
As things got worse for Nyssa we added buterphanol as pain medication.
(Thanks to Sukie who let me know about it and to the vet who agreed
that it would help.) We gave it only when she was not feeling well and,
once again, it helped keep her quality of life up. It's an opiate and in
theory it should have put her to sleep but instead she would play more
when she felt better.
The bottom line is that nobody expected Nyssa to live to see her seventh
birthday. She was eight when we decided that her quality of life was
gone and it was time to let go. With excellent vets and the right
medication we probably were able to give her as much quality time as
possible without chemotherapy.
The ones who died very quickly either were very old or else they were
probably were too far gone by the time we realized anything was wrong
and had aggressive cases of lymphoma.
I'm not saying chemotherapy isn't a good option in some cases. It just
wasn't for my ferrets in the honest opinions of the vets involved. I'm
sorry I can't give you a more definitive answer. That's obviously
going to be something you and your vet will decide together.
I documented a lot of what Lady Ayeka and Nyssa went through in a blog
at http://ferretsofdisorder.blogspot.com. You can search on their
names or generally read posts from September, 2004 through July, 2006.
Good luck to you!
Caity and the terrific trio
(Ella, Zephyr, and Chin Soon)
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/