Dr. Gary, it sounds like we could learn a lot from you. We brought our ferret
to the doctor about a week after she seemed to become anti-social (eating not
much and not playing). The doctor immediately diagnosed cancer (increased lymph
ocyte count and tumor). We were given "a month to live" verbage and told (we
thought) the pros and cons of chemotherapy versus supportive care. After,
talking with ferret groups & others we decided to forgo chemotherapy and give
her love and support until her time came. Our doctor recommended prednisone
as a pain killer and as an antiinflammatory and amoxicillin to fight off any
potential infections due to decreased immune functions. We started treatment
the day after her diagnosis. She went from a very very tired ferret to
an unable to move or control her bowels ferret in hours. Wondering whether
we were doing the right thing, we contacted Dr. Susan via AOL she recommended
additional tests as she didn't think the diagnosis was definitely in but she
also recommended pau dArco (a vry strong natural antibiotic i understand) and
strong dosages of Vitamin C too. She also told us that the predisone treatment
actually was chemo - something our vet did not even allude to. We also came
across a "tea" which we prepared and gave. The tea was called "Flor
Essence" imported from Canada by Flora Inc. (Ingredients: Burdock root, sheep
sorrel herb, slippery elm bark, watercress herb, turkish rhubarb root, kelp,
blessed thistle herb, & red clover blossom). It was expensive and took a lot
of preparation (boiling for so many minutes and not boiling for so many minutes
adding this, adding that, letting sit, re-boiling, diluting. We told Dr Susan
about it w/no negative feedback. We tried this treatment along w/force feeding
for her remaining days. Finally we visited another doctor who was
recommended as "the" ferret doctor - he was an hour drive away. We brought
Nina in to him about 4 days after her initial diagnosis - by this time she was
nearly comatose. This doctor was sure that she did not have cancer - they did
a blood test and it said NO white cells, zero. He worked on getting a hold of
a drug used to treat humans apparently when they are going thru chemo and
are unable to regenerate white blood cells. This took many hours and during
this entire time we sat with her and told her to hang on, just hang on baby,
we're working on getting something new to work for you, hang on. They finally
found the drug at a hospital that was willing to sell less than an entire
package (which cost $1200) - a ferret dosage (I wish i could remember the name
of it). Dr. Susan was consulted again by our dr. (for a fee) & she didn't think
it would work and she did think it was cancer - these doctors being the
experts - we decided that since she had been in a coma for a whole day that it
was time to say good-bye. For the past day we had just sat by her side
telling her to hang on, hang in there. The Doctor came in and gave her the
lethal dosage and told us she would only last a minute or two. By this time she
was but a skeleton. But, she refused to go. Her heart kept beating. The doctor
came in to check to see if she had gone a couple times, but she was still "hang
ing in there". The moment we told her that it was okay, she could go
now, she slipped away. It was so very obvious, at that moment, that she was
listening and understanding our every word.
 
Well, anyways, I don't know where I was going with that. But, any comments
on the Flor Essence? What about prednisone? What are your feelings on
maintenance or preventative detoxification in ferrets? Do you practice it with
your healthy ferrets or with Timmy only?
[Posted in FML issue 1129]