Hi.  I want to first thank everyone who had written with their thoughts,
advice, stories etc.  There are one or two people I tried to reply to
personally but whose email comes back to me.  If you didn't get a personal
thanks, this is why...thank you though.
 
I haven't decided what I will do with Walter just yet.  I have called
around to as many vets as I know of who see a lot of ferrets and not one
believes chemo really does much good.  There are a few stories here and
there but there are also many ferrets who go on up to 2 years after a
diagnosis with NO therapy.  It's a strange disease.
 
One question I have for those of you who have or have had ferrets with
Adult lymphoma and have not done chemo (only pred, herbs, nothing or both):
were your ferrets acting ...what we call in the vet world "ADR" (Ain't
Doing Right) - very nonspecific.  Walter just seems soooooo uncomfortable,
or just 'not good'.  He just lays around, sleeps or just flops.  I don't
sense he's actually lethargic but he's definately not feeling well.  This
all happened so suddenly it's just hard to make sense of.  He doesn't play
or even want to.  He is still eating small frequent meals on his own but
he is slightly nauseaus (grinds teeth and sometimes hovers/stares at his
food) and has a mild mild diarrhea.  This 'laying around'/flopping/almost
pouting - it's killing me to watch him.  Do these episodes come and go?
How long after starting any meds did your guys respond (if they did - eg:
how long after starting pred - he's been on a few days now and I don't
think it's doing anything).  I guess what I'm asking for is what your guys
were like clinically and if they did pass through a phase like this.  I
don't want Walter to suffer and If this goes on much longer or gets worse,
I'm afraid that's what will happen.
 
Thanks again for listening and to all who have emailed me.
 
Michaela Maurice, Bugsy, Walter, Mighty Mouse. .dearly missing Whitey and
Spikey..we love you.
College of Veterinary Medicine
Ohio State University
Class of 2002
[Posted in FML issue 2947]