Sandy, please check on my little Sammy (aka Samson) who went to the
bridge last Friday, 9/27 with a little help, unexpectantly.  Please make
sure that Roxie has found him as they spent a few years together.  Also,
please let him know how much I miss him and how much I love him.
 
Sammy had recently had surgery to get his adrenal glands removed.  He was
doing OK after suffering addisons crisis till we got the right drugs into
him.  We found out that the adrenal glands were cancerous, but not
thought to have spread.
 
He had been losing weight continuously for the last month and we could
not figure out why.  He was eating, but just not enough.  His hair was
coming back and he was healing.  After losing .75 lbs, we were getting
concerned.  We thought it may be the pred, and after the last
sodium/potassium ratio, it was determined that he could be weaned of the
Pred.  He was on the pred 1x/day for a week and then I had to leave to
get married.  While he was being boarded at the vet, he would be weaned
off it by a dose of 1x/2 days (starting 9/21).  I got the call on 9/26
that he had been found in the morning curled up in his litterbox, cold
and unresponsive, but alive.  They gave him some valium and did some
bloodwork and x-rays.  The only things that were found were very low
blood sugar (~42) and he was dehydrated.  Before surgery his sugar was
in the 90's.  They were able to bring his sugar back up to 70 and pumped
him full of pred, but it just plumetted again.
 
The vet took him home with him for the night and put in a nasal feeding
tube to try and get some food into him.  Overnight he had a seizure, and
in the morning he had one.  The vet told me that morning that Sammy was
blind and could barely drag himself and swallow, and had probably
suffered brain damage from an initial grand mal seizure due to
insulinoma.  There were no nodules on his pancreas during surgery so it
may have been a diffuse type of insulinoma...not sure.
 
On Friday 9/27, it was decided to put him to sleep while he was still not
in any pain and not suffering.  The decision was the right one, but it is
hard having to make that decision long distance over the phone, and not
even being there to tell him goodbye and that you love him.
 
I had the vet put Sammy in with the other 2 ferrets after he had passed,
and the ferrets did not do much except smell him a little.  I think they
may have already known the day before when he was in the litterbox.
 
We will always miss and love Sammy, he had a special place in my heart.
He was 4.5 years old and was rescued at 4 months of age from a pet store
where he had been returned for being to "playful".
 
Judi, Simba & Sassy, missing Sammy
[Posted in FML issue 3923]