A week ago last Friday (July 27), I drove to Maryland again from New Mexico
to take Lucky Charm to Dr. Weiss for her third partial pancreatectomy.
While I was in the waiting room talking with other ferret owners, I had
the unexpected pleasure of meeting Dr. Bruce Williams in person, who had
brought one of his ferrets to see Dr. Weiss as well.  Dr. Williams is even
more wonderful in person than on-line, if you can imagine such a thing.
It s an amazing experience to actually meet him face to face after reading
so many of his written discussions of ferret-related medical issues on the
Internet for years.  I guess I shouldn t be surprised good vets are always
wonderful, kind, caring people; it seems to go with the profession.
 
I haven t posted previously about this trip because I m not sure if Lucky
Charm is going to recover this time and it s hard to write about.  The
surgery was successful Dr. Weiss was able to remove a tumor that was close
to a blood vessel using laser surgery as well as a previously unnoticed
tumor on her liver.  She still has about 40 percent of her pancreas.  Two
days after we got home, Lucky Charm had a seizure, apparently because she
wasn t eating enough on her own.  I had been hand- feeding her once or
twice a day and because she was also eating on her own at least some of
the time, I didn t realize she wasn t eating enough.
 
I d never seen a seizure before and it took a little while before I
realized what was happening based on all the information I ve read here on
the Ferret Mailing List.  I could see she was dying if I didn t get help.
Believe it or not, one of my other ferrets, Zipper, woke me up at about 5
a.m. to the sound of his choking.  I thought he was having an allergy
attack.  A few minutes later, I heard another ferret choking, and it was
Lucky Charm.  I honestly believe that Zipper knew she was in trouble and
woke me up so I would tend to her.
 
I took her to the VCA emergency hospital where a recently graduated vet
who is basically a good guy but hasn't treated a lot of ferrets proceeded
to do X-rays and an EKG in addition to a blood glucose test and dextrose
injections because he was far more familiar with cats and dogs and was
looking for things like epilepsy.  Apparently, her temperature had dropped
precipitously and her blood glucose was off the scale (below 20).  I was
able to get Dr. Weiss on the phone in Bethesda (where it was a little bit
later in the morning), and between Dr. Weiss and my regular vet, Shirley
Russman, who arrived at work a little while later, we were able to persuade
this guy not to subject Lucky Charm to any more stress other than giving
her dextrose.  They let me hand-feed her myself a couple of times during
the next few hours while she was recovering in an incubator.
 
Since then, I have been following Dr. Weiss instructions to make sure she
gets 15-20 cc s of food (either duck soup or chicken baby food) 4 times a
day.  She seems to enjoy the personal attention and she is definitely
feeling better.  Her coat is so soft and luxurious as a result of her last
surgery when Dr. Weiss removed some ectopic adrenal tissue.  Most of her
fur has already returned following the surgery.  But she doesn t stay on
her feet for very long and her hind legs are still weak when she walks.
So while I m trying to think positive thoughts, I also realize that she
may not recover completely this time.  I m sad but I know this stage of
the disease must happen sooner or later in every case of insulinoma.
Right now I m watching her pretty closely I hate to be gone from the
house for more than a few hours and I'm hoping for the best.
 
Please keep Lucky Charm, Chocolate Moose, Zipper, and me in your prayers.
Thank you, Bill Gruber, and everyone else for all your help and for the
excellent medical information that in my opinion is the very heart of the
FML.
 
         Linda, Lucky Charm, Chocolate Moose, & Zipper
[Posted in FML issue 3504]