Hi all...
 
Well, this has been a hideous weekend.
 
I had to take squid to the vet on Friday because he was falling over, was
sick, not eating and not pooping.
 
Soooo, like a good mommy, I call my vet.
 
No luck.  On vacation (in the Bahamas, no less) till October 9.  I call
other vets.  No one else around here takes ferts.  Hmmm.  On to the nearest
emergency service.
 
What a COINCIDENCE!  The vet there who treats ferts on an emergency basis
(and whom I have been to before) is also on vacation.
 
With no idea where to turn, I call my dad, who refers me to his vet, who has
already done surgery on one of my dad's ferts, and is getting ready to do
the same thing on the other.  I make an appointment.  I show up the next
day, early.  He couldn't find anything wrong on the outside, so he did blood
work.  They had a hard time getting him to sit still, so he is a little sore.
 
He came up with 3 things.  Actually, one definate, and 2 he couldn't decide
between.  Squid has some type of virus.  He wasn't sure what, but his white
count was way low.  Then, with reference to the rest of it, he said it was
betweem cancer on the pancreas (which causes the symptoms he was having) or
aleutian mink disease (sp?) which just deteriorates them.  Needless to say,
I was not thrilled.  But, he said there was 2 things to do.  Send the blood
out for the test for the mink thing, or...wait till he gets the same way and
give him something high in sugar.  If he gets better, it's more than likely
the pancreatic thing.
 
Well, 5 frosted Cheerio's later, I think he has cancer.
 
The vet (who by all reccomendations is wonderful) told me I hav 2 options.
I could put him through surgery, or try to treat it with meds.  Right now, I
am going to stick with cheerio's.  I just don't know what to do.  He did
tell me that the surgery was no guarantee (something about pockets...) but
that he had had some luck with it.  I have no idea what to do.  They put him
on amoxi-drops to help fight whatever is dropping his white count.
 
If anyone out there has had this surgery don, PLEASE let me know.  I am
pretty confused about what to do.  On the good side, he is in no pain, and
is much better after a few days of medicine.
 
Thanks for listening.
 
Jess
Lady (where was my brother all weekend????? How come I didn't get to go????)
Squid (What in the world did those people do to me? I felt like crap after
       they poked me everywhere!)
 and
Nikita (Hmmmm.... A new cage.....FunFunFun!!DookDook!)
[Posted in FML issue 2079]