Hello all,
 
I just wanted to take the opportunity to express my sincere thanks to both
Dr. Weiss and Dr. Williams for their gratious help with my sick ferret.
 
Now the story,
 
JJ a 5 year old neutered male ferret began losing weight at an alarming rate
and started to get lethargic.  I did some feeling around on him and observed
that he had a really big spleen.  He also seemed to show some weakness in his
hind legs as well.  I contacted the Dr's and explained the symptoms as well
as the fact that we don't have a great deal of money as my wife is about to
have a baby (at any instant!).  After talking to the Dr's I went ahead and
scheduled JJ for exploratory surgery with my vet.  Currently, my vet doesn't
have a lot of experience with ferrets other than neutering and spaying, but I
feel that he is extremely competent and basically, you gotta start somehwere.
He opened JJ up and found that his spleen was about the size of a large
thumb.  Since he was also experiencing weight loss and hind quarter trouble,
Insulinoma was suspect as well.  As it turns out, JJ had SEVERAL islet cell
tumors all over his pancreas with the largest being approximately 2.5 cm
around.  The doctor called me while JJ was on the table and explained that
basically, he was a very unhealthy little guy and it might be best to just
let him go.  He also discovered small tumors on both of his adrenals, and one
of his lymph nodes was swollen as well.  (at this point you're all probably
thinking I'm a horrible parent for not doing something sooner)  The bottom
line is, he really didn't show any clinical symptoms of having any problems
until the weight loss started.  He had always had problems with his hind
quarters (he was a resucue ferret, and at the time we suspected disk
problems).  My message here is READ THE DISEASE FAQS AND KNOW YOUR
FERRETS!!!!  If I had caught on to the subtle signs earlier, JJ would
probably still be with us today!  The good news of all of this is; I printed
up all of the disease FAQS for my vet and he got to get some good experience
with a sick ferret.  Both Dr's offered to talk to my Vet if he had any
questions, and that was a great relief for me as well.  At least my other two
fuzzies will get a greater level of care because of JJ and the gift of
knowledge he gave my Vet.  The decision to let him go was one of the most
difficult that I have ever made, but he really was a sick little guy and it
would have been selfish of me to let him suffer.
 
One more time READ THE FAQS, give them to your Vet, and just because a Vet
doesn't know a great deal about ferrets, most are interested in learning and
they have to start somewhere...
 
Thanks again to all,
 
Douglas
[Posted in FML issue 1135]