Dear Vets,
 
I know you must be unbelievably busy, however I was wondering if you could
give me some suggestions.  We have a 7 year old female sable ferret named
Nikki.  She is my wife's and my world.  She has not been what we would
consider to be a typical ferret in that for the first 6 =BD years of her
life she has been nothing but a bundle of energy.  Recently (about 4 - 6
weeks ago) she has really slowed down.  She has shown signs that her rear
legs were getting very weak and there would be times where she would just
kind of collapse with them while walking or standing.  We assumed that it
was old age catching up with her and possibly arthritis.  She seemed to go
from someone who was 50 to someone who was 90 almost overnight.  Three or
four days ago she seemed to have caught a cold.  She had a runny nose and
began to do something she had hardly ever done....cough.  Today 5/4/02
when I came home my wife was very upset as Nikki had gone behind the couch
and laid down.  This is unusual because she never sleeps there.  She
usually sleeps in our bottom drawer in our sweatshirts until recently when
she stopped going in there and started sleeping in the sweats that my wife
keeps by the side of the bed or back in her cage.  I don't know if all of
this information is helpful or not so I thought that I should include it.
Once I got home today my wife and I decided to take her to the emergency
vets as all others had already closed by early afternoon.  Upon arrival we
were helped by a female veterinarian who has been a previous owner.  She
recommended x-rays to look for heart disease or arthritis.  Upon returning
with the x-rays she showed us the area where Nikki's lungs were supposed
to show up as a large dark spot and the windpipe was supposed to be
straight.  Instead the windpipe ran up on an angle and there was a large
white colored mass where her lungs were supposed to be.  The vet said that
the black area of her lungs up near her spinal cord looked to be only 10%
of their normal size.  The white mass that I am looking at on her x-ray
starts at her 4th rib and runs to her ninth.  The vet said that this large
mass either was an advanced case of congestive heart failure or a tumor.
These were the options that she gave us.
 
1. Try to drain this area with a needle and see if it was a fluid
back-up.  The down side was she would have to put Nikki under an
anesthetic which if it was heart disease could kill her.
 
2. Give her a shot of Lasix and than treat her with a half a tablet of
Lasix 12.5 mg #5 every 12 hours, a half of tablet of Enacard 1mg #5 every
12 hours and one half a tablet of Digoxin 0.125mg #5 every other day.
She said than take her back to our vet for another x-ray in 3-5 days to
see if the fluid went down.
 
3. Put her down.
 
She said that if it was a tumor in her chest there was nothing we could do
as surgery would probably kill her.
 
We opted for number 2 to try the medication and see if it brings the fluid
down.  The frustrating part is that she said that even if the problem was
congestive heart failure, treating her with medication might only get us
2 days to a month more time at the most.  In Michigan Ferrets only became
legal at the time we got Nikki and we often wonder if our vets are really
up to speed on all of the information about them.  So now we have a few
questions to ask you with the knowledge that there is nothing we won't do
if we can help to bring her back to near normal and extend her life as
long as it is pain free and happy.
 
1. Is this all we can do for a suspected heart disease.  Are we really
only looking at a month at most if we treat her with these medications?
Is there anything else out there that may work better.
 
2. If it is not heart disease and a tumor, would it be too hard on a
seven year old ferret to try surgery on her.  Would it be better for her
if we just put her down.
 
3. Could it be anything else.  We did not put her down now because she
does not appear to be in pain.  She has gotten very skinny especially in
her hips, she breathes very shallow and she does seem to be in discomfort,
however she does still walk through the house, eats and although shorter
stools she does appear to be going to the bathroom regularly.
 
Please let us know anything that you can.  If there is hope we would be
glad to hear it, if there is none and it would be better for her to ease
her down, we would like to know that too.
 
Thank You so much for your time for not only reading this letter but for
all you do for all ferret lovers.
 
From two heart broken parents,
 
Floyd and Karen Larson
49793 Teton Pass
Shelby Township MI 48315
(H) 586-254-2452
(W) 586-825-2742
 
I have answering machines on both phones and we will gladly call you back
at your convenience.
[Posted in FML issue 3774]