First, I'd like to offer my sincerest condolences to all those who lost
beloved ferrets.  Is it my imagination, or does it seem that autumn brings
more deaths?
 
I would also like to say that I neglected to thank a very, very special
lady, Razz, who has been my "other" rock through this.  She does not have
ferrets that are ADV positive, yet has kept me from (figuratively) throwing
myself off a bridge many times.
 
Instead of continuing with when Chablis first became ill, I really need
(for my own sake) to skip to the present.  Today has been another one of
those days when I feel frustrated and depressed.  I go from feeling very
"high" when I see ADV finally getting the attention it needs, to feeling
very "down" when I am forced to realize (yet again) how little I know even
now.
 
I believe I mentioned that I found out from Dr. Williams that it takes a
special blood test to truly know if a ferret has hypergammaglobulemia.  In
all these months, no one had mentioned that.  Anyway, Dr. Stevenson also
mentioned it the last time I spoke with her.  Samson and Kodiak went in
yesterday to have blood, urine and saliva samples taken to send to Dr.
Williams.  Because they have both been losing weight, I asked my vet to
do a complete blood work up, a urinalysis (they're both also urinating
excessively, like Charlie & Russian) and to also do the special blood test.
I believe it's called an electrophoresis.  I'm still waiting for those
results, but with my luck, the vet is probably trying to call me while
I'm online.  (BTW, I just heard Kodiak cough.  He and Samson both do the
coughing/choking sound and, naturally, I forgot to ask her to take x-rays.
(Really, I *do* try very hard to remember everything, but I never seem to,
and it only creates more agony for me.) When Russian and Charlie were put
under anesthetic for tests, there was a miscommunication between me and my
vet and no urinalysis was done on either boy.  A week later, Russian began
"leaking" urine and we didn't know if he might have an infection or if his
muscle tone was going or what might be happening.  We put him on Amoxi and
it's cleared up for now, although someone told me that with early kidney
failure, antibiotics do help for a while, but the symptoms come back.
Anyway...a vet I've been talking to about homeopathic "supportive care"
called me today.  We discussed whether my ferrets truly have
hypergammaglobulemia.  It seems his clinic may be willing to work with me
on research on live animals (mine), but they really want to know for sure
that they have AD.  I told this new vet that Samson and Kodiak are having
that test run, but then he told me that there is a lab in Miami that
specializes in it.  Of course, he probably didn't know to mention that to
my vet when he talked to her, and she wouldn't have thought to ask.  Now,
I'm just praying that whatever lab does the blood work is reliable for this
type of test.  It seems I'm learning a lot, but never really in time.
I think a major problem is that I don't even know the right questions
to ask most of the time.  Now, if Samson and Kodiak do not have
hypergammaglobulemia, Dr. Stevenson said she has some of Russian and
Charlie's blood left and she will contact Dr. Bloom and ask if what she
has is enough for him to run the test and if he would be willing to do it.
This new vet also said that the clinic is not sure whether enough ferrets
have AD for them to want to help with research, since "only" about 1/2 of
my ferrets tested positive.  He did say he didn't mean that the way it
sounded and, of course, they don't "wish" that all of them had.  I told him
my others were only tested once, back in early February, and that I had
just sent saliva samples in for Dr. Stephon to test.  We're anxiously
awaiting those results, as well as Dr. Williams' results of Shania's tissue
sample testing to see if this clinic feels there is a need for them to get
involved in research.
 
Actually, this has been a fairly typical day living with AD.  It isn't at
all easy.
 
Judy
[Posted in FML issue 3190]