Hi Everyone:
 
One week ago I lost my beloved Jake, and I don't know what happened.  He
was 5 1/2.  I went away for Christmas and boarded my 2 babies with an
experienced ferret person.  Jake developed diarrhea after being there for
about 6 days and was given Pepto.  I picked him up 2 days later and he
improved for a few days and then started again with the diarrhea again.
We all thought it was stress-related, and he was put on Flagyl for 5
days.  The Flagyl didn't seem to help, and he was losing weight and some
hair.  (All this time, he was eating, drinking and playing.) I started
with duck soup and had a blood sugar test done at the shelter where I
adopted him from when he began to show hind-end weakness.  The test
results were consistent with insulinoma, so we immediately started him
on Prednisone and Carafate.  I took him to a ferret vet 2 days later to
confirm the diagnosis and because I was worried because he was getting
dehydrated.  The vet gave him fluids and told me to continue with the
prednisone.  He thought the diarrhea may be ECE related, and we both
thought he was having a recurrence of adrenal disease because of his
losing hair.  He palpated Jake and the only thing noted was what the vet
thought was a swollen lymph gland in the abdomen.  He said that would be
expected with having diarrhea for 3 weeks.  He had a temp of 103.  The
fecal exam showed the presence of some minimal bacteria (colustridium or
something like that).  The vet decided not to repeat the Flagyl since it
didn't help much and Jake hated it.  We went home, and 36 hours later, he
was dead.  I found him in the morning, he had died in his sleep.  I was
shocked and devastated beyond belief.  No one, including the vet, thought
he was that sick.  I got the results of the bloodwork from the vet that
same day.  His blood sugar was ok, probably because of the prednisone,
but his liver enzymes were elevated.  The vet said that could be
consistent with ECE.  I asked him if what he felt in Jake's abdomen could
have been lymphoma and he didn't think so, said it was too small.  He
didn't have any explanation for me.  I am so heartbroken and depressed
about this.  He was my first ferret.  His cagemate has showed no symptoms
of any kind.  I have been racking my brains trying to figure out what
happened, and torturing myself thinking about what ifs.  I don't know
what else I could have done, but blame myself anyway.  Has this happened
to anyone else?  Does anyone have any ideas?  He was fine until about
12/26 and died on 1/17, it was so fast.  I weighed him at the vets and he
had gone from 2.8 lbs (Aug 2002) to 1.6 lbs.  He had a left adrenal tumor
removed in August.  Any help/comments would be welcomed.  Thank you.
 
Leanne - Heartbroken and Missing My Baby Jake
[Posted in FML issue 4037]