Hello everyone.

I brought in my 3 year old ferret Loki (4 in October) to the vet 11
days ago for occasional hind-end weakness and urinary problems. He is
also thin in the chest and large in the belly. I should have noticed
sooner but the change was gradual and I see him every day, and his
behavior was otherwise normal. I didn't notice till it was rather
pronounced.

The vet's first thought on examining him was lymphoma. He had an
enlarged spleen and several enlarged lymph nodes and at least three
palpable abdominal masses. He went in for surgery the following day to
remove a node from his neck for testing. The results just got back this
past Friday, confirmed as immunoblastic polymorphous lymphoma. I will
be bringing him back tomorrow for a recheck and to discuss treatment
options.

The surgery appears to have been hard on Loki, he was weak for several
days with reduced appetite and lost weight. I finally found some treats
he likes that are fairly good in general make-up (35% protein, 6% fat).
I give him several of those throughout the day and they have perked
him up and stopped his weight loss, but haven't reversed it. Over the
weekend he also started trying to go potty quite often with little
result, sometimes trying once every minute or so for several goes
before squeezing out just a little pee or poop. And his energy and
weight dropped a little more. I started force feeding him Medi-cal
Recovery Formula early this morning and his energy is already better.

I wanted advice on how to proceed. I know there are a number of chemo
protocols and wanted recommendations on what people think is the best
course. I'm also concerned about how hard chemo will be on him in his
weakened state, and wondered whether some protocals would be easier
on him, and whether we should try to build up his weight and strength
first. I am concerned about waiting though as he seems to require
greater and greater measures to keep him even stable let alone make
any improvement, indicating the disease may be progressing too quickly
to wait long. A transcript of Loki's report is here:

http://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~rosloot/ferrets/loki.html

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Loki is the sweetest boy, so
loving and affectionate. Also, if people could please reply to me
directly or at least Cc me as well as sending replies to the List;
that way I will see them as quickly as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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

[Posted in FML 7524]