It's with a very heavy heart that I must let you all know that Loki
passed away early this morning.

For those who hadn't heard, Loki was diagnosed with lymphoma just over
two month ago. Everything about it took time, a week to confirm the
diagnosis, another before he had surgery to remove his spleen and three
abdominal tumors, two more of healing before we wanted to start any
medication, and weeks of research and discussion before we arrived at
a treatment. We went with injections of Cytoxan every three weeks (the
first treatment just four weeks ago), plus prednisolone twice daily,
as a less harsh option than more intensive chemo, but hopefully more
effective than pred alone. Obviously in Loki's case it didn't work out
as we'd hoped.

It's been a constant roller coaster of ups and down, with Loki going
through runny nose, fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, falling over,
but also having very good days where he would run and play with the
other ferrets like he hadn't done for months.

He went downhill very rapidly yesterday. He'd been getting more and
more unsteady since his chemo shot last Thursday. The last few days he
wasn't accepting his canned food and had to be forced. At noon he took
a bacon flavored treat but would not even accept that by 5pm. I put
him apart from the others in the bathroom yesterday to monitor him. He
ate and drank very little on his own in the morning and nothing in the
afternoon. The vet saw him after work and said this chemo shot was
hitting him harder than the last one but still didn't think he was too
badly off yet. At home I got his evening feeding and meds into him with
some protest. I got a pillow and blanket and laid down on the bathroom
floor to spend the night with him. At 2am I got a little more food and
water into him, about 1/4 what he usually takes. As late as 4am he was
sleeping on my lap. I went back to sleep, but when I got up at 6am he
was gone. I can't believe how quickly this happened. Neither I nor my
vet saw this coming.

He would have been just 4 years old on Halloween. I really thought he
would at least see his birthday.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice and support during this time. I
wish it would have turned out better.

--
John, Caregiver to Loki, Kody and Abby
With loving memories of Buddy, Cassie, Sammy,
Buster, Pandora, Tommy and Jasper

[Posted in FML 7581]