Hi.  I'm really upset and need to get things off my chest.  Maybe some of
you remember me writing awhile ago about my friends ferret Rocky.  He was
losing alot of hairand I was upset that he had adrenal cancer.  We took him
to noe vet and he said because of the time of year, that he suspected
allergy to fleas(he did have many)  So my friend took care of the fleas.
Rocky still lost hair.  Went to another vet and she confirmed that he had
adrenal cancer but also said that she felt something else during the
examination.  She did blood tests(removing one-third of his blood supply) on
tuesday.  Said he was anemic, yet still schedualed surgery for thursday even
though he was very listless.  The blood work showed anemia, low blood sugar,
low white blood cell count and low red blood cell count all of which
indicated numerous problems.  Still surgery was performed.  The vet removed
parts of the right adrenal, pancreas, liver, spleen, kidney intestinal
growths and a lymph node.  Needless to say this poor ferret was really weak.
The vet said this was normal.  The next day she went in to see him and the
vet said he could go home but since he hadn't ate a thing in 2 days she
would have to wait for that and also a glucose test.  The office started to
get very busy and an assistant came out and said to take rocky home
eventhough he didn't eat or have the test done.  Well my friend was up all
night forcefeeding this poor ferret and trying to get water into him.  He
had excessive diarreh(sp?) She called the office and they said just to
continue with what she was doing stating that this was normal and that she
had never worked on a ferret this sick before.  The next day Rocky was still
the same so she rushed him back to the vet.  She was given papers on adrenal,
and pancreas cancer and also lymphoma and they kept Rocky overnite for
observation.  When my friend got home she read all the papers and was
shocked.  First of all she was never given any choice about the surgery.
She was told he had to have it right away eventhough he was so weak.  In the
papers it stated that since the tumor was on the right side there should
have been discussion about surgery or not because of the risk.  There was no
discussion.  Because of the insulinoma disease it is a terminal disease and
that even early aggressive surgical intervention will not cure a ferret with
this and that there is no medical treatment at present to stop the disease
progression.  All this was given to her after the surgery was performed.
Well the next morning she got the phone call.  Rocky had died.  To me this
was all unnecessary and all it did was put my friend and poor Rocky through
alot of pain and sorrow.  Now my friend is feeling so guilty that she gave
the ok for surgery but as I told her, she just listened to everyone and
didn't read all the information until after the surgery.  Rocky only had
hairloss and no other symptoms when she first brought him there.  Since he
had soooo many things wrong with him she could have just kept him home and
made his last days confortable for him instead of putting him through all
that pain and stress.
 
Thank you all for bearing with me with this long story, but I wanted people
with their loving fuzzies to beware and get as much information before going
right to surgery.  It might be better to keep them home and give as much
love as possible and that would be the medication that your ferret needs the
most.  I know I am.  My little pookie was just diagnosed with adrenal cancer
and insulima disease and with the support of my vet we're going the
medication route instead of surgery.  Her last days will be filled with love
and joy instead of heartache and pain.  Thank you for listening.
 
Joanie, coco, krispie, bubba and most of all pookie
[Posted in FML issue 1827]