hello all,
 
Last Wednesday, I noticed that Cully, my 8 year old male, was running from
litterbox to litterbox, marking them as he usually does before settling
down to actually use one.  However, this behavior continued for a good
ten minutes.  I knew that he had been urinating normally (the benefits of
having one male and one female-- you can tell who's done what in the
litterbox), but this behavior was very strange, and he looked pretty
unhappy about it, so we went off to see the vet.
 
Well, good thing we did.  The vet (Tracey Ritzman at Angell Memorial in
Boston, GREAT vet) immediately felt an enlarged spleen.  We scheduled an
ultrasound, and while his spleen is in good shape for its size, his left
adrenal is showing distinct signs of adrenal disease, and he's got
unidentified masses throughout his abdomen (probably lymph nodes :( ).
We'll take out the adrenal, and the vet will find out more about those
lumps when she's in there.  She also confirmed for me that the lump on
the side of his neck was a mast cell tumor; I'd always been sure that's
what it was, despite two vets telling me it wasn't.  I say it "was" a mast
cell tumor, because it was taken off on Friday.
 
Now, Cully hasn't shown any of the well-known symptoms of adrenal-- no hair
loss, no increased agressiveness (although he's always been an aggressive
ferret, so that could be hard to spot), no marked slowdown in energy that
you wouldn't expect from an eight-year-old.  So if I hadn't realized that
there was something strange about his behavior, we might not have found out
about his adrenal and whatever the other masses are until they were much
further developed.  The point of my post being, be sensitive to your
ferret's behavior, because if a major bodily system seems to be acting up
(identified in this case by the strange, exaggerated litterbox behavior),
there may well be an underlying medical cause.
 
As far as Cully goes, he's a tough old geezer, very healthy apart from these
problems and we know he handles anesthesia well, so I'm being as optimistic
as I can without knowing what the abdominal masses are.  I guess I have to
suspect lymphosarcoma, but we can only take things one step at a time, and
the next step will most likely be surgery for the adrenal.  I do feel very
confident that he's got great veterinary care; I expect to be hundreds of
dollars in debt as a result of all this, but he's my friend, and that's
what you do for a friend :) Cully is also the ferret who inspired the
problem biter FAQ, for those of you who have been there.  He's quite a
character, and I fervently hope he'll be with me a while longer yet.
 
Regina
 
Regina Harrison
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083 -currently quite messed up as I
rennovate and attempt to understand frames
Electra the Brujah's page:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/8096
 
Wrapped in my mongrel wings, I nearly freeze
In the howlin wind and drivin rain
All the trash blowin round 'n' round
[Posted in FML issue 2739]