Good Morning everyone,
I just got done reading a concern from one of the FMLer's about the health
of ferrets in general.  They are the best pet I have ever had and I have
had birds, cats, dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs... You can see where I am
going.  Anyway, they are worth every penny.  I have noticed though, you can
take the best care, feed the best food, clean the litter box and water
everyday and still something can happen to your ferret's health.  I have
had my boy, he is young albeit, for over a year now and he is healthy as a
little horse, KNOCK ON WOOD.  I just got my little girl, Widget, in May
and she has always seemed more fragile than Oso (I have written about them
before).  She sneezed more and so forth.  Well, here is my Labor Day - Oso
and Widget were running around the apartment after each other, per usual.
They were climbing the couches and chasing the cats, completely normal
behavior.  Three hours go by of this, then everything gets quiet again
perfectly normal for them.  It's nap time.
 
This was odd though because Widget went into her cage to sleep, she doesn't
normally do this.  She usually falls asleep under the kitchen hutch but I
didn't think much of it.  I don't normally watch them sleeping in their
cage, can get kinda boring actually so I was puttering around the apartment
cleaning and so forth when my boyfriend looked at the cage saying, "what is
she doing?".  I walked over and there is my little girl lying in her litter
box with her head hanging outside and a puddle of what looked like a
mixture of blood and urine and feces on the floor of the cage.  I swept
her up and took her to the sink, washed her down and checked for external
bleeding.  Nothing.  I looked at her rectum and that looked perfectly
normal.  I held her in the blanket and she seemed almost paralyzed.  Erick
ran for the phone book which spooked her and she ran from my arms-we were
on the couch- and she ran down to the floor.  Once there it was like she
couldn't go any further.  I picked her back up and comforted her and called
my usual vet, Dr. Doolan.  I left a message on the answering machine and
called an emergency vet.  We brought her to a Dr. Halpen, I had never met
her.  Widget by this time was shivering like she just woke up but wasn't
moving otherwise.  I offered her Ferretvite and she ate it like normal, she
loves it.  Dr. Halpen took her from me, we were in the examination office,
and told me she would take her for a blood test.  She had taken her
temperature and it was 103.5, I was told that was unusually high.  Dr.
Halpen took her out of the room and when she came back I was told Widget
had very low blood sugar and she would have to operate the next day.
Widget, I was told, had a pancreatic tumor.  I asked her several questions
because this diagnosis was made just from a blood test.  I was told they
usually forgo the sonagram (sp) to save the clients money.  I was told they
would keep her there overnight and administer an IV of sugar water to get
her level back up.  After filling out the credit application, this surgery
would cost 800.00 to 1000.00, I left crying.
 
The next day I called them to see how she was doing and was told that I had
to pick her up and bring her to Dr. Doolan immediately and they were not to
do the surgery at all.  This upset me because I thought she really needed
it.  I called Dr. Doolan and asked why.  I was told she was unusually young,
6 months, to have insulinoma and that he wanted to go ahead with x-rays and
other tests.  I brought her over and after a day in his office her blood
level was down, which couldn't have happened if she had insulinoma, I was
told.  She did seizure over there and they gave her a shot of
anti-flammatory stuff and she seems fine.  I am supposed to pick her up
today, Thursday.  Last night's stay was on the house, per Dr. Doolan.  He
felt better keeping her there one more night.
 
What a week!  What does all this mean?  Well, it's up to you, it was my
experience but I have learned to trust my usual vet and maybe second
opinions, as long as it is possible, can be very good things.  I did
appreciate that Dr. Halpen was there in my little girl's time of need
though.  Has anyone heard of Inflammatory Bowl Syndrome?  I looked in Ferret
Central and couldn't find it there.  I expanded my search and found it under
Crohn's Syndrome.  Is it possible for a ferret to get Crohn's Syndrome?  It
listed all of her symptoms except for abdominal pain and she might have had
that without complaining or maybe that is why she went into her cage to
sleep.
 
I don't know but I wanted to share this with you in case you might come
across this.  It was a horrilbe thing.
 
Sorry this was so long but maybe it could help someone else.
 
Kym, Oso and my little Widget
[Posted in FML issue 2428]