Friday was a day like any other, or so I thought.  Nancy and I went to my
home at lunch time to feed Sonny.  Sonny happily lapped up 2 jars of baby
food recipe and licked the saucer clean as Nancy held him.
 
Sonny is my little one that had a chronic diarrhea, lethargy, nausea,
wasting ailment.  In February he started with diarrhea and nausea.  After
several vet visits and numerous tests including blood and xrays, and
finally after feeling a lump in his upper intestinal area, we scheduled
surgery.  In the beginning of March an intestinal blockage was removed.  A
1 1/2 inch hairball in the duodenum.  The symptoms continued after surgery
and we felt lumps so back into surgery he went a month later.  This time 2
large lymph nodes in the intestinal area were removed and tentative
diagnosis was intestinal lympho.  Sonny was put on another round of
different meds (dexamethasone, Centrine, Cyproheptadine, Kaopectate) and
two days later there was no difference.  In trying to figure out what was
wrong I thought of food allergies and switched Sonny to lamb baby food
feeding every 4-5 hours around the clock, and dosing him with Kaopectate.
He tolerated the lamb and started gaining weight.  At the next vet appt a
week later Sonny had gained almost 200grams.  In two more weeks he had
gained another 150 grams (and we stopped the Centrine and Cypro at this
point) and in another 2 weeks another 100grams.  During this entire time
Sonny continued with diarrhea ranging from profuse and watery to almost
normal diarrhea and at a couple times he had almost normal stools.  But the
lethargy, nausea and diarrhea continued.  We continued running fecals and
blood work but to no avail.
 
Friday evening Sonny did not want to eat.  This happened every few days so
I let him be and tried to feed him a couple hours later.  Again he refused.
I administered his medications and let him be for 2 more hours.  At 10 when
he refused I gently tried to force a few cc's.  He refused and let the
recipe drip out of his mouth.  He was not dehydrated and had eaten very
well earlier in the day so I chose to let him be.  At 11 he walked down the
hall and climbed into his favorite hammock in the back bedroom.  I checked
on him several times and he'd look up with those bright beautiful eyes.  At
1am Sonny got out of the hammock to go to the bathroom.  He finished then
all of a sudden he fell over.  He had no coordination at all.  I knew it
was his time.  I picked him up and wrapped him loosely in a towel.  We went
to the bed and I layed down with him on my chest.  I cuddled, hugged, and
kissed him throughout our remaining time.  He did not appear to be in pain,
however he did seem to be a bit uncomfortable.  I gave him a light
injection of pain meds which relaxed him.  At 1:54 a.m.  Sonny ferret died.
 
Larry performed the necropsy Monday morning.  He found that Sonny's heart
muscle was thickened.  All other organs were in good condition including
his intestinal track.  Larry went from stomach to colon and if he had not
known that Sonny had chronic diarrhea he would not have been able to tell
from the intestines.  They were perfect.  Lymph nodes were normal.
Adrenals normal.  Pancreas normal.  Spleen, liver, kidneys normal.  Oh,
and Larry said he was a bit fat too.
 
The one organ we had never suspected was the cause of Sonny's ailment - his
heart.  The very sad fact is that his problem was treatable, had we known.
 
I heard today from Sukie that Choppers symptoms were the same as Sonny's
and they discovered her heart problem by accident.  Thank goodness for that
accident.
 
So let our lesson help others.  If you have a ferret with symptoms like
Sonny's and your vet has ruled out all other possibilities please consider
heart problems.  Perhaps the diagnosis won't come too late for your little
one....
 
SIGH.
 
Hugs to all. tle
[Posted in FML issue 2749]