Our Rascal is a neutered male ferret who was diagnosed with Wilson's
disease in April. 2000.  He was five years old and had a partial
pancreatotomy to remove one insulinoma nodule.  A liver biopsy at that
time showed excess copper causing chronic lymphocytic hepatitis.  Treatment
began with prednisone for three months, and penicillamine starting in early
July.  This is the first ferret in North America to be diagnosed with this
recessive genetic disease, and we understand that there are others that
have been diagnosed in this area more recently.  Rascal was neutered at 2.5
years of age after he was surrendered to our local ferret shelter, and we
know of only one blood relative, a younger full sister who shows no signs
of this disease yet.
 
Our concerns are these:
(1) Rascal used to have a lovely thick coat but now it is thinning around
his tail and back.  He looks as if he has an adrenal tumor, but both glands
were checked during his surgery in April.  He used to itch furiously,
tearing out of a sound sleep to scratch, but this seems to be less frequent
lately.  Is it possible that the prednisone was building up in his body due
to the liver disease?  Or is the coat and skin problem also due to the
excess copper in his system?  We do not want to subject him to further
surgery until his body has adjusted to the medication, if at all, and blood
tests are very traumatic for this animal.  His spleen is enlarged but not a
problem at present.
 
(2) We believe that he had some neurological injury from the excess copper
because he used to stand in an odd position while urinating and defecating,
and sometimes fell onto his side in the litter box.  Also, we have been
unable to clean his ears except under a general anesthetic because he
fights and screams.  He used to cry or grunt when he was picked up, and
sometimes moaned in his sleep.  A recent veterinary exam indicates that
he has full use of his limbs and knows where his feet are now, and he is
becoming more relaxed.  Is there anything more we can do to help his body
and his nervous system recover from this damage?
 
(3) Rascal eats a mixture of kitten food and ferret food, and he gets an
eggcup full of Ensure Plus to wash down his penicillamine.  All of our
ferrets get distilled water only.  We give Rascal and our adrenal female
(inoperable) one feed per day of duck soup containing two cans of Ensure
Plus, three small cans of chicken cat food, a banana, extra zinc, calcium,
chromium, Vitamins B and C, desiccated liver, brewer's yeast, flax seed
oil, garlic oil, lactobacillus, milk thistle, pau d'arco, hawthorn, kava
kava, all greens and spirulina.  We use about one human's daily dose of the
supplements in each batch of soup (about 2 liters) but have increased the
zinc to about 600 - 800 mg lately.  We mix this in a blender and freeze it
in ice cube trays: it makes about 50 cubes, and the two ferrets eat about
three cubes per day.  Milk thistle helps the liver; chromium helps regulate
insulin, pau d'arco boosts the immune system and fights tumors, and
hawthorn strengthens the heart.  Kava kava seems to help the nerves - it
helps aggressive ferrets stop biting too.  We had one old ferret eat only
this duck soup for over a year, fed three times by hand each day, even
though he had severe liver failure (portal-caval shunt), inoperable
insulinoma, liver cancer for the last six months of his life, splenomegaly
and skin cancer/tendon surgeries, healing problems, infection and finally,
heart failure - this recipe works wonders.  (Please don't ask why we kept
this ferret alive with all these problems - he just wasn't ready to die
until his heart failed).  Is there anything else we can change or add to
his diet to help Rascal do better?  Any further suggestions would certainly
be appreciated.
 
Violet Sparks
[Posted in FML issue 3158]