Sorry to hear about Bree Nancy but hang in there. My first 2 ferrets both
died from cancer (Is it my imagination or are ferrets pron to cancers?).
The first signs that I noticed for either of them were swollen nodes under
the jaw line, no behavior changes or loss of hair. Soon after this I could
begin to feel enlargement of the spleen. Feeling this early on is tough,
the best way is to hold the ferret up off its feet by grasping it around
the chest and letting its back legs dangle. This drops the internal organs
downward out from under the ribcage. With your free hand, fingers toward
the belly and thumb along the spine, gently palpate the stomach area and
feel for any difference between the two sides. Sometimes its easier to
switch hands to get the "other" side. If I remember correctly, the spleen
is on the left. Don't be fooled by the kidneys which are up high just under
the ribcage on both sides. Also try to do this before the ferret gets a
chance to fill up his belly.
 
This first occured to my female ferret (who was the mother of the male
ferret that later, within a year, developed the same symptoms)
I mentioned these things to my vet but she didn't seem to be concerned.
Within several months the spleen had become very large and the ferret by
then was hardly able to stay on her feet and her tongue and nose were very
pale. We decided to remove her spleen. The vet said that the spleen, which
normally removes damaged or old blood cells from circulation, was
sequestering healthy blood cells and causing the ferret to be anemic. The
splenetomy went fine and she recovered much of her energy and put on weight.
At the time of the surgery the vet looked around inside her as much as she
was able and did not detect anything that was obviously cancerous. The only
really odd thing was that following the surgery my ferret lost alot of her
coat, most of which was beginning to grow back within several months of the
surgery. Unfortunately she also developed a cough around this time and
began to lose weight again. She continued to decline in health and there
didn't seem to be much that the vet felt could be done for her. I finally
had her put down when she became weak enough that she didn't seem to be
having much fun anymore (hard to know when this time comes but I didn't
want her to suffer needlessly). I had her autopsied. She had lung cancer
and there was evidence of other tumors in various other tissues. My guess
is that she probably had malignant lymphoma already at the time that I
first noticed her swollen glands.
 
About a year later the male (her son) also developed swollen nodes and the
beginnings of an enlarged spleen. When his spleen also enlarged so much
that he developed anemea I had it removed. His recovery after surgery was
very rapid. He continued to have swollen glands however but no other
symptoms except for some hair loss on his tail. This had occured right
after the surgery and the vet claimed that ferrets sometimes respond to
anesthesia with hair loss, I'm not sure I buy this. My ferret, his name was
Virgil, seemed to be healthy and happy for two years following the
splenectomy. The first time I noticed anything wrong was when I found him
sprawled on the floor, drooling, eyes glazed, almost completely
unresponsive. I thought he had gotten into something poisoness so I quickly
fed him some milk to help pass the toxicity through faster. He did swallow
the milk and within 10 - 15 minutes seemed to be back to normal. When I
took him to the vet however I got the bad news, tests of his blood glucose
levels indicated that he had insulinoma. The good news is that he lived for
another 6 months with the help of a drug that antagonizes the effect of too
much insulin. I also decided to go with a course of chemotherapy. Virgil
tolerated this treatment very well (none of the side effects that one so
often sees in people). Both of these treatments were expensive and I really
don't know if the chemo helped him or not. Perhaps it would have
been an effective treatment if the cancer had been discovered earlier. The
vet felt that the insulinoma was due to a metastisized lymphoma.
 
What I'm not sure of in either case is whether the swollen glands and
spleen were an indication of the initial cancer, were causitive of a
general immune suppression which led to the formation of the cancers, or
were completely unrelated.
 
I'm also concerned that since  both ferrets had similar symptoms and
their cancers were both due originally to lymphoma (most likely),
whether there is any chance that there was any form of contagion
involved.
 
If I had it to do over again, I'm not sure what I would have done
differently, maybe I would go for more aggressive testing and treatment
early on. Unfortunately the level of experience with ferret illnesses seems
to vary a great deal from vet to vet. During the course of this entire
experience I dealt with 3 different vets. The first 2 were in the same
office and were the ones that performed the 2 seperate splenectomies.
Neither of them were particularly well versed in cancer in ferrets. The
last vet, the one that diagnosed the insulinoma and did the chemo, was one
I found when I moved to the Chicago area.
 
This is a really depressing subject but one that I wish I understood better
since I am very fond of my new ferret and would like to be able to respond
better than I feel I did with the first two in the event that he should
ever become ill. Does anyone know of any research or publications on ferret
diseases?
 
Max
 
[Posted in FML issue 0434]