From:
"merylfaulkner"
Date: 2010-02-09 17:13:14 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Watery eyes, trouble opening right eye, abdominal tenderness, diarrhea
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi, Caiti,
Your question reminded me of my vet's comment on Sandy - whose head tilt is to the right and his right eye is half closed and not as responsive as his right.
We assume he probably has lymphoma, his belly has been large for a while. My veterinarian mentioned that in cases of lymphoma that blood clots can occur because of the tumors, causing events like a head tilt. If my memory serves me, I think if blood flow slows, that can cause clotting - since sitting in test tubes causes blood to clot unless heparin is added. I did a Google search, and found a site called Health Tree which looked pretty reliable (if anything online can really be called reliable!)and it said (for humans)
"In certain cases, the swollen lymph nodes may cause compression of the blood vessels, where the expanding lymphoma may trigger edema (swollen tissue) or thrombosis (blood clots)."
Wikipedia says there are 500-600 lymph nodes in humans and some are in the head and neck. So I assume ferrets also have a similar setup - maybe somewhat fewer since they are smaller?
I guess in the ferrets if the intestinal lymphoma has spread to some of the peripheral lymph nodes,ie up in the neck, that may cause blood flow to slow, then you get a small clot in a vessel that goes to the eye/ear/brain. In Sandy's case, the vet remarked that the if it's a clot, it may dissolve or break up and his symptoms resolve (I'm guessing that would be temporarily). Maybe one of the moderators can comment if this sounds like the correct scenario.
Meryl
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