From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2011-08-27 05:35:10 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Hind End Weakness BB
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hi, Jeff, and everyone else,
On 8/27/11, Jeff <inner.harmony@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> You say that one vet has ruled out lymphoma, but how did he/she come to this
> conclusion? The only way to accurately diagnose it's presence or absence is
> with a biopsy.
...or a needle aspirate.
> Otherwise, it could very well lay hidden, and it might be
> the cause of his enlarged spleen, as well as the difficulty in walking. The
> enlarged spleen would be a concern for me... a big one. It is prone to
> rupturing when it gets too big, and that would kill him.
Depending on what else is going on the normal way of dealing with this
is to remove the spleen. If other medical issues make surgery simply
too risky there are options for medical management but they are not
without problems.
I had a ferret named Kodo whose spleen became grossly enlarged when he
was nine years old. It was so large you could see it through his
skin. The spleen was displacing other organs and his abdomen was so
greatly enlarged it caused mobility problems. Kodo also had
insulinoma and his health was generally deteriorating and our vet did
not feel he could survive surgery. Sukie suggested that treatment
with antibiotics had temporarily reduced the size of the spleen in one
of her ferrets. Our vet tried it and it worked. We ended up using
clavamox, two weeks on, three weeks off. We were not terribly
concerned with the consequences of long term antibiotic use because
Kodo didn't exactly have a long term at the time. We were able to
improve his quality of life until lymphoma made that impossible eight
months later.
The full, step-by-step treatment history is in the FHL archives from
October, 2003 through May, 2004. Search on "Kodo spleen" at
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/search.cgi and you'll find all the
details.
All the best,
Caity and the dynamic duo
Zephyr and Chin Soon
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