Hi All:

A few wks ago, I wrote about my ferret Minxie (female, age 4), who
passed away suddenly & w/ no reason our vet could see from her
necropsy. Her tissue samples were sent to the Ohio Dept of Agriculture
for analysis.

To recap her history briefly: Minxie had a severe reaction to her vacs
back in Apr. About a month ago, she received her second melatonin
implant, & had unstoppable bleeding from the injections site from 11a
to about 7:30p. She naturally became very pale & lethargic due to this.
Our vet suspected Evans Syndrome/immune mediated hemolytic anemia, &
she was put on pred & vitamin K...& later put on Pet-Tinic, all of
which seemed to help her quite a bit. About 36 hrs before she died, her
appetite started declining, & she became lethargic again. Our vet put
her on carafate. The next morning, she wouldn't eat hardly at all, she
was becoming extremely pale & more lethargic. We had a visit scheduled
w/ our vet for the following morning (he wasn't in that day), but I
made an appt to take her in for some xrays, to see if there was any
evidence of abdominal bleeding. The only thing that showed up on the
xrays was a slightly enlarged spleen, which she'd had on & off for a
few wks. I took her in for her xrays at 4p, & by 5p, she was declining
at an alarming rate. We decided to try a transfusion from one of my
other ferrets; I brought Barret in, 6cc of blood was taken, & given
to Minxie through her right rear trochanter. W/in 20 min, she had a
seizure & died. The necropsy done by our regular ferret vet the
following morning showed no evidence of any bleeding, no ulcerations
anywhere, & again, the only thing that looked not totally right was
the slightly enlarged spleen. Mystified, he sent her tissues to the
Ohio Dept of Agriculture, rather than the usual path lab he uses, to
get the most thorough analysis possible.

The result of that analysis was "high grade multicentric lymphoma". Her
liver had been virtually taken over completely by it....it was in her
spleen, her kidneys, & intestines. I was sitting in a restaurant when
our vet called, & it was a bit noisy, so I didn't get the exact
terminology, but he said the report talked about how many cells, or
colonies of cells, per visual field in a high powered microscope. Our
dr stated that it was "usual" to see reports of perhaps 6 -- 8 of these
per visual field -- Minxie had an average of *14* per visual field --
higher than our vet has ever heard of.

If it wasn't for the bleeding incident she'd had a few wks earlier, we
still would have lost her, possibly as little as 2 wks later than we
did. She was in extremely bad condition....which is so confusing for
us, as she showed *no signs* of being sick, before the implant episode
(just a few signs that the previous implant was wearing out --
excessive grooming of the other ferrets, some itching, some slight
aggression towards some of her toys).

The reaction to her vacs back in Apr could have been due to the
lymphoma; the bleeding from the melatonin implant was almost certainly
due to it; & she was probably too weak, due to the implant episode &
the lymphoma, & the stress of the transfusion is probably what caused
her death. Had she not had the transfusion, she almost certainly would
have died w/in a few hrs, anyway, judging from how quickly she declined
in just one hr before that transfusion.

How our little girl could have seemed so healthy just wks before,
playing, wrestling w/ the others, & w/ such a terrific appetite, when
she was so sick, is just a mystery to us. How strong, resilient, &
determined these little creatures must be.

When I get an actual copy of the ODA report, I will post the details
here.

The only comfort we have is that, in the end, Minxie did not suffer for
a prolonged period of time. She went very quickly. And I wonder about
the reason she spent so much time, lying there in my arms before the
transfusion, licking my hand from top to bottom.....was she saying
goodbye? Was she thanking me for taking care of her? She'd never done
anything like that before. She washed my hand so completely, taking her
time to do it.....I treasure those few minutes. I wish I knew what she
was trying to tell me. It hurts not to know what she wanted to say to
me at that moment. I kept telling her how much I loved her -- maybe she
was just telling me that she loved me, too. I want to believe that.

More details as I know them.

Lin

[Posted in FML 7251]