I have a little 3 year old female MFF named Nancy.  She has been with me
since she was 8 weeks old and I have always given her the best I could.
Unfortunately, she is not a healthy little girl.  About 1.5 years ago she
got an awful viral or bacterial infection that nearly killed her.  To this
day her vet doesn't know what happened to her.  She never really got over
that.  She has been a sad little ferret since then.  I have done all the
tests available to help her but to no avail.  I think that maybe like some
people who get very ill she just never felt the same.  Well about 5 months
ago she started with adrenal cancer symptoms (hair loss, swollen vulva).  In
December she had surgery and they removed the left gland.  The pathology
showed the tumor to be malignant.  She re-grew the hair on her tummy but
never on her back and her vulva went down very quickly.  About a month later
I noticed huge lymph nodes.  Back to the vet.  After a botched biopsy (and
difficult recovery for Nancy) it was determined that she has lymphoma.  So
she's on Prednisone.  All through this she is not a happy little girl.
Basically, she gets up to eat (liquid diet that she must be encouraged to
eat) and walk around a little and go back to bed.  She doesn't want to play,
ever.  The only thing that really gets her interested is exploring something
new (so I'm constantly inventing something new to explore around the house).
She eats very well and has gained a bit a weight (from the Pred.  so I'm
told).  A few days ago I noticed that she has again lost the hair on the top
of her toes and the hair on her tummy is sparse.  I checked her vulva and
sure enough it is swollen again.  I spoke to my vet and she says that there
is not much we can do.  Lysodren would probably make her feel worse and
surgery would be very difficult for her and neither option may help.  Now
comes the advice part.  For the vets: Is there anything I can do for her?
And for those who have made this choice, how do you know when to just let
them go?  How do you know if there is no fun or joy in life for them anymore
or if their suffering is just too much?  Please no flames on this, I only
want to help Nancy and I love her too much to have her suffer.
Thanks in advance,
 
     Jennifer (Mom to Nancy, Maggie, Ronnie and Gordi)
[Posted in FML issue 1520]