Laraine, the lympho itself may be in either his adrenal, his pancreas or
both, so he might actually have just one disease in multiple organs (so
the symptoms would be of multiple diseases), or may have all three common
medical problems simultaneously.
 
How was the lympho diagnosed?  Lymphoma can not be diagnosed by blood
tests.  That is something which was once long ago thought to be possible
(and sadly got too much popular press as if it were proven before testing
showed that it didn't work even though the hypothesis had looked
promising) but actually infections also throw off the white count badly
(in fact, one disease actually results in higher white counts than are
seen with lympho; see the write-ups in http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
on mystery disease/DIM which has some attached divergent hypotheses and
work advancing on two different approaches).  Diagnosing lympho is based
upon biopsies of a removed node, or sometimes on aspirates (which have a
greater error risk in either direction), and at times the presentation
is such that lymphoma/lymphosarcoma or carcinoma become very reliable
postulated diagnoses even without biopsy confirmation.
 
For a long time there were only a few ferrets doing very well with chemo
approaches, but the number was small, and usually the best approach was
to give Prednisolone, especially if the ferret was not in the prime of
life.  At six years of age your ferret is early-old so is past the prime
of life years of 3 and 4.  (Pediapred is a Prednisolone, BTW.)  The
reason Prednisolone makes more sense than Prednisone is because it
skips the liver processing step where the body converts Prednisone into
Prednisolone.  If the liver is at all compromised (and with lympho it
often is) the Predisone may be poorly utilized, but the Prednisolone will
still work to improve quantity and quality of life.  Alternative steroids
are used for some ferrets or preferred in some locations.  Ferrets are
NOT prone to steroid side-effects so large amounts can be used usually,
but it does make sense to give Pred with food and to use Carafate at a
different time.  Pred is usually given twice a day, sometimes three times
a day.  We personally have found that also using tiny amounts of opiate
pain control also helps greatly with quality of life for some who have
lympho.  Usually we use Torb.
 
Recently, there have been advances in chemo approaches for ferrets which
people should know about.  Yesterday a dear friend who goes to a highly
reputable vet mentioned that he is using one of the new protocols (not
the Tufts one) and is very pleased with it, plus is not seeing adverse
reactions.  I will copy this letter to my friend in case she has a chance
to find out where your vet can get information on this new approach.
Another of the new chemo approaches is one from Tufts which is all
NON-IV.  I have heard multiple very favorable reports from vets on this
approach.  Remember that these are new approaches so success rates are
not known yet, but that early reports are certainly good.  Your vet can
contact Dr. Joerg Mayer at Tufts: < [log in to unmask]> to learn
about the new Tufts protocol.
 
Personally, with Prednisolone we have gotten as much as 14 months or as
little as 6 months for lymphoma.
 
If there is not a medication conflict your vet may want to use Lupron,
Suprelorin, Melatonin implant, or a combo of one of the first two with
the third to also help reduce the problems associated with the adrenal
growth.
 
To better understand lympho itself I suggest the Ferrets Magazine
articles by Dr. Bruce Williams in
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
 
Some of the vets mentioned in this post will speak at the upcoming IFC
Symposium in St. Louis, MO
http://www.ferretcongress.org
and some in Autumn's AFA conference
http://www.ferret.org/
 
Sukie (not a vet)
Co-moderator  http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
Advisor IFC
participant in several ferret health projects
ferrets in the family for 24 years
[Posted in FML issue 4832]