I need to really seek some advice, support, something here.  If you all
remember, a couple of weeks ago I took Socks and Alix in for their shots
and Dr. Thompson said Socks' heart sounded muffled.  So today he went in
for all his tests.  Socks is 5 1/2 years old, and the following is what I
found out today>
 
He's slightly anemic, everything is normal, no signs of lymphoma that they
can see.  His heart sounds are normal on the left hand side the best.
HOWEVER: you can't see his lungs except just a bit near the end of them!
His whole abdomen, where his lungs should show dark in an x-ray is gray.
Dr. Thompson is totally stumped-said he's never seen anything like this
before.  He said there's tissue and fluid all the way throughout.  You can
see his esophagus, his heart, etc.  The lungs, though, you can't see them.
What he wants to do is 'flush' him tomorrow-run a bit of fluid into the
lungs that will be brought back up immediately.  He said this will show if
there's a parasite, whatever in him.  He's so totally blown away by this
that he's getting three other vets in on this.  One has been a vet in
Arizona and done a lot of work in ferrets.
 
He mentioned that he might have been exposed to something that could have
caused a fungus, a parasite, he doesn't know what.  He said that it seems
to be a chronic condition.  And the odd thing he and the 4th year student
are really stumped by is that Socks doesn't act like there's anything wrong
with him-he's alert, he's not wheezing, coughing, stumbling, zip, zero,
nada.
 
So tomorrow my grand old man goes in for this flush and we try to discover
what's wrong with him.  He even mentioned something in the blood like
perhaps an aids patient might have-mentioned that it's a long shot that he
might have been exposed a long time ago to ADV but fought it off (if that's
possible).  He asked where Socks came from and I told him from around here
I believe.  I bought him out of the newspaper, and the woman who had him I
seriously doubt went any farther than here in Lafayette.  Socks is a MF.
 
Have you ever seen or heard anything like this?  My first thought was to
panic with the thought of ADV, but I really don't believe he has that.
He's been with me 2 1/2 years.  None of the ferrets I have were ever at
shows-they're all brought from pet stores.  5 of mine fuzzies came from pet
stores, 3 from different areas all together, and 5 from people here in town
that were getting them new homes.  Any help you can give me I'd appreciate
it.  I'm going to send most of what I've written to you to the FML to see
if anybody there has heard of it, seen anything like this.
 
I can honestly say I've never seen a vet stumped before, a lot of them will
try to dazzle a person with BS, but Dr. Thompson is truly stumped.  He said
Socks doesn't fit any category anywhere.  They did anesthetize him a bit to
do the radiograph and said he was a bit slow waking up, but other than that
he's been fine.  His x-ray really freaked me out when I saw it, and I've
seen lots of xrays.
 
If anybody out here on the FML list has had anything like this happen to a
ferret please, let me know.  And please, please keep Socks in your thoughts
and prayers.  I'm really worried here about the old boy.  None of the other
ferrets is ill, and they admitted if they hadn't done the bloodwork and
seen the x-rays, they'd have said there's nothing wrong with him.
 
Rebecca & the very worried Crew of Merry Mayhem
 
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and =
 taste good with ketchup"
[Posted in FML issue 3211]