We lost Hubble yesterday. He had multiple hidden medical problems so I
want to mention that those sometimes can happen.

We've been in this position before, including with Jumpstart who had
hidden lymphoma. With Jumpstart we knew for about 9 months that
something was wrong and he had test after test, including several
ultrasounds but until his final day when a chest tumor appeared that
was rapidly growing in real time (literally changing enough to see the
growth on sequential x-rays within hours).

Hubble had one very mild hidden thing: beginning adrenal which showed
up on ultrasound. That makes him only our second ferret in almost 30
years to have hidden adrenal disease. More common, and more serious
was that he had hidden kidney disease, also found on the ultrasound.

Unfortunately, that was not all that he had, though. We decided to not
have a necropsy because two other possible culprits are well enough
guessed from how he presented. He may have had hidden lymphoma but in
his final day it looked even more like he may have been dealing with
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. That is the rarer form of cardiomyopathy
and it often hides itself, in fact, that is the most common thing for
it too do -- being without symptoms and not possible to see on x-rays
until it is so advanced that nothing can be done or the ferret just
dies. To make it worse, the meds for that would have been bad for his
kidney disease so even medicating him for it would have killed him.

Every time one thing was gotten under control on him in his last day
another thing went wrong.

His diarrhea became so severe that last day that it was like a person
dealing with cholera; at first he could dehydrate to the point of being
a flat ferret in just 3 hours after having replacement fluids with
electrolytes, but then he even got to the point where IV could not keep
up with the fluid loss. So, a med had to be tried, but the only one
that held him at all (Kaopectate every 2 hours recommended by a ferret
GI expert consultant) while also on IV and multiple other other meds
(such as Pepcid, steroids other than Pred given the nature of his
situation, antibiotics, etc.) caused him to open an ulcer (also more
likely with the kidney disease), so there just was no way to save him
and the kindest thing was a mercy shot.

It may help people to know more about hidden medical problems so if
people could discuss those maybe some good will come of losing Hubble.

Reminder for people on the Ferret Health List (FHL): sympathy messages
without health content have to be sent directly to posters rather than
sent to the list. The FHL Rules can be found in the Files section of
that list. See my list of ferret health links below.

MOST ferret diseases are NOT hidden, and for those learning beforehand
about the diseases will allow warning signs and correct actions to
happen. That educational opportunity is one of the functions of the FHL
and its separate archives. Even some of the diseases that can be hidden
sometimes are not. Lymphoma is usually not hidden, but can be. Now and
then a sign like uncontrolled weight loss can cause a vet to do a
timely chest ultrasound and find hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in time to
treat it. Even though blood tests too often don't spot kidney disease
in a ferret an ultrasound may, and a urine specific gravity test (a
cheap test) can spot when the kidneys are not concentrating urine.

Oh, for those who know us, Steve's mom had her second hip replacement
surgery yesterday and it went well. The hip that was put in in July
never worked out but we do not know if it was one of the types that
were recalled in August. Also, my very elderly step-mom (96) survived
her recent lung and ascites problems and is home from the hospital.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump
off the cliff." (2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6878]