Greetings all,

My big beautiful male Rocky was unable to use his right hind leg last
night. It just hung there, useless. Today, his left hind leg is also
losing function. He still has control of his bodily functions, and
drags himself to the litter pan. He does not appear to be in great
pain, though his appetite may be a bit down and his stomach a bit upset
(a little nausea and teeth grinding, so yes, probably a bit of pain).

I ran him to the vet ASAP today, and the vet took a spinal x-ray and
determined there were tumors in the 4th and 5th vertebra. Our vet is
a wonderful vet and I feel he is very competent, BUT we are his only
ferret clients. Based on his experience with dogs, he says he sees this
4-5 times a year (in dogs) and that the prognosis is very bad -- he
felt this is a fast moving tumor (based on the progression in the last
24 hours from no problem to almost complete loss of use in both back
legs).

Based on our vets diagnosis of spinal cancer/tumors, he felt that,
though Rocky seems to not be in much pain now, something could rupture
and cause great pain within the next 24 hours. He said that we could
try steriods and that he might last a week, but he was really sort of
saying he thought euthanasia this afternoon or in the next 24 hours
was advisable.

I know that things move FAST in ferrets (this isn't my first time of
fine-one-minute-gone-the-next), but I sure have a hard time putting
Rocky down when he seems alert and was fine literally yesterday. Given
my vet's inexperience with ferrets, I guess I'm just looking for a
little feedback from anyone who may have more experience. Is the
prognosis that bad?

At the moment, he's home and resting with his cagemate, Lavendar. I
fear for Lavender, this is the second cagemate she's lost, she was a
wreak when we lost Nigel, and we brought Rocky home to comfort her.
She's now very attached to Rocky, who we've had for about 2 years.

Jillian -- stonearch2001 at yahoo.com

Jillian Steffes

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love...
   we will love only what we understand...
   we will understand only what we are taught."
            - Lao-Tsu 490 B.C.

[Posted in FML 7109]