From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2010-08-14 21:09:28 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Hilbert: just letting you know
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>, Ferret Mailing List <ferret-l@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG>
It has become obvious that Hilbert is in his final days to months.
The huge insulinoma tumor that started earlier in his 7th year and
that was able to be debulked (but not completely removed due to
involvement with critical structures) is pretty rapidly worsening with
corresponding increases in his meds, and he once again is having
urinary problems so is on Baytril while more is learned from several
tests, with him having a sludge that is between amber and orange along
with urine that appears normal. We don't know YET what the cause of
his problems are but the POSSIBILITIES include:
1. infection alone (best case scenario)
2. bile in the urine (in which case his liver is also having decent
problems now)
3. prostatic woes secondary to the regrowth of adrenal tissue (his
adrenals had been badly inflamed by his kidneys rubbing on them back
when he was in his first year and had bilateral hydronephrosis due to
blockage from a combination of cystine uroliths and a bladder
diverticulum so he had bladder surgery and adrenal removal, except
that a tiny portion of adrenal wound up under an emergency vascular
clip and regrew years later, and he has been on a low protein diet for
the rest of his almost 8 years without more cystine stones till
perhaps now so the low protein diet has gotten him many, many ferret
years)
4. cystine uroliths again (which would probably be the worst scenario
in his case)
He has been through 3 bouts of near kidney failure in his almost 8
years, two within the last year, as well as that first one which
almost killed him back when he was in his first year of life. So, it
is pretty amazing that he has bounced back each time from near-death.
This time he won't when he next worsens too much, because just too
much is too wrong now, but Hilbert is the perfect example of why
veterinary care makes sense. Saving him when he was young was at that
point our vet's "hardest save" and we had a lot of work at home
getting enough fluids into him and more but it worked and he even
developed the habit of always drinking a lot of fluids (which he even
did when on IV or when getting sub-cu fluids) which is probably
another reason he has gone so very long. After his first close
encounter with death he took about a year to come back to full levels
of activity and about a year and half to regain all of his lost
weight, but he did it.
Hilbert is the ferret who saved my life when our furnace
malfunctioned, and before our current main cage (from which he never
escaped) he was our escape artist who used to get out almost each
night and no matter how we shored up that cage he would always find a
new way to get out.
Hopefully, he still has a few good quality months in him, but if he
goes sooner, please, do not be surprised. He and Morney are in their
final illnesses (but she is doing better than he is right now, though
her situation could change suddenly without warning given its nature)
BTW, both of them are are Suprelorin implants and both had an increase
in activity -- a real boost -- after getting that med and that
continues even now.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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