Was wondering if anyone has had this experience with their ferret.  My
Scooter has had a swollen foot for a couple months now.  The vet thought
it was a virus that would respond to Clavamox, but that wasn't it, and
now she thinks it is possibly a cancer and has now put him on prednisone,
and she wants to talk to me in 2 weeks and see Scootie in 4 weeks.  She
says there is a type of cancer that can respond to pred, and that is what
she is hoping for.  If not, then she said she'd have to amputate a toe to
send it for testing, and he may have to lose the whole foot.  It is his
right front foot and I don't know how he'd do without it.  His foot is
very swollen, red, peeling toe pads, his nails have stopped growing on
the worst 2 toes, his nails on all toes have turned yellowish-brown and
are starting to get a bit deformed and they seem to be rough in texture.
He has no ability to "grab" your finger or anything with the foot.  When
he steps on it on carpet, it seems to be fine, !  but on a hard surface,
he steps down and his foot kind of slides out from under him a bit
appearing to limp but he isn't limping.  It does not seem to hurt him...
possible dead nerves at this point, but his foot is still warm so it is
getting circulation.
 
Just wondering if anyone out there has had a similar problem and what
the solution was or if it did in fact respond to pred??  Scootie is a
bit over 5 so surgery is concerning for me as any surgery is risky for an
older ferret, and I have already lost a ferret to exploratory surgery...
it excelerated her passing, so the whole surgery thing makes me nervous.
Plus, being his front foot, would he be able to pull himself around ok
with only 1 front foot left??
 
Kelly White
or..."very nervous ferret mom"
[Posted in FML issue 4954]