Chris and Pat, Please, accept our condolences on your loss. We
know how hard it can be.
Chris, Robert Hilsenroth who is a vet with the Morris Animal
Foundation made an interesting suggestion which may be good for
ferrets, the ferret net, and vets. He suggests contacting the
American Veterinary Association (Chicago) at 1-800-248-2862 to
publicize the net with veterinarians. Perhaps some will find
ways to access it and more information can be shared. Would you
like to do this? If not, would you want us to call, and if so,
what do you want said?
[It must just be my poor imagination, but I'm not sure what
I'd want to say to the AVA considering that direct contact
with them is a little awkward (you get hooked on e-mail).
One possibility (my imagination is starting to work, finally),
is that many of the AVA's members would be at veterinary
universities/colleges that haven't gotten heavily into
electronic communications. I could see advantages several ways:
- Contact amongst vets working with ferrets (and some of
the more expert ferret owners)
- Broadcast of general interest items to the readership
- Q&A on medical issues.
I think it best that you call and see what happens. If you
want to forward items to them, go ahead. Did you keep an archive
of the issues back to day one? I'd like to do more, but I'm really
busy at the moment. Keep me informed, and don't hesitate to
bring me into the discussion if it seems appropriate.]
So far we have heard back from 2 places about Aleutian Disease.
Basically, what we have heard is this: that it is a very rare
problem in domestic ferrets and though it is not as serious for
ferrets as for mink it is a chronic wasting disease. We have
also been told that there is very little chance that it has
anything to do with Frit's cancer or Hjamlar's large spleen,
partially because his spleen has stayed at this size for about 3
years so may just be normal for him. It seems that a large
spleen is a very general symptom of many possible problems or of
no problem at all. Now you know how rusty my physio is since I
should has remembered that off the bat.
Frit's progress continues to amaze vets and is being followed by
several animal medical centers and vet schools now. You will
never BELIEVE what one expert (who will remain unnamed)
requested: that we bring Frit there and have her destroyed so
that her tissues would be in optimal condition for study. Yes,
it may well be an approach which could help other ferrets, but
Frit still enjoys most of life and we sure are not about to
destroy a member of our family who wants to live, cuddle, make
cute, steal toy mousies, etc. That vet will be informed that
tissues will be available for study from our vet after Fritter
dies. We plan on an autopsy and on her tissues going to major
centers for study, but it simply is not at all time for that.
A lot is being learned by many vets from Frit. In two days it
will be Sept 16th, her 21st week since symptoms began and 19
weeks since the original vets thought she should be put down.
Unfortunately, her condition is deteriorating. She now needs her
Elspar chemotherapy weekly (and the spleen stays down) but her
nodes are up again in 4 days and sugar maintenance get worse
then. Despite her having such a rough time with the Pred in
doses above .15 cc/day we have had to increase it to .25 cc most
days and a hair under .5 cc on the days when the nodes go up.
She now gets aspirin to help with the muscle soreness (in
combination with her warm bath PT), and we are hoping that this
time she will not lose muscle so rapidly. Her food has changed,
too. She was having extreme intestinal pain from cream (possible
colitis) so all of that except the Ben and Jerry's that she gets
when she is having her twice daily subcutaneous 20 cc of dextrose
solution has been removed from her diet and we are trying many
new treats to see if we can find one which will work during those
times. (All suggestions of other net ferrets' favorite
foods/treats will be appreciated). Her standard cat food plus
rice plus Nutrical plus water plus lots of egg yolks now has a
large portion of butter added because fats slow digestion and the
looseness of her bowels is beyond what the rice can handle.n ccc
7juuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv (That is Frit's addition to this
letter; now she is rearranging a second hiding place of Melty's.)
We are also getting very used to making up small portions of
antibiotics as a just-in-case measure when her temperature goes
up (to 104.6) or down (to 100.5) after the chemo (usually the 2nd
day) since it can be hard to know what is a new infection and
what is a response to the chemo some times. Sound like a
miserable life but she is really making the most of it and loves
being so spoiled.
The others are all gaining weight because they get any Frit mush
left-overs. They are round, furry, happy, and full of pranks and
kisses. (Chip, Ruffle is jealous of mythic weasel-- she wants to
weigh 26 pounds and go ga-flump, ga-flump, smash, hee, heee,
heee.)
I followed the recent nutrition comments with interest. After
looking at the components of ferret diet in the wild (which
certainly may NOT be optimal for longevity) and those of various
foods available it looks like no one has yet developed and widely
tested a diet for providing long life, i.e. I came to the same
conclusion as Fara. Could the European correspondents print
information about nutrient proportion in foods over there? One
big difference we have read about is that the high percentage of
insulinoma in N. American ferrets may be related to the lack of
chromium in their diet (which is why ours' now get a tiny bit of
Brewer's Yeast.
Frit has pulled Fox's book out the bookcase and is asleep on top
of it. Cute photo if I had film in the camera because she looks
like she is hugging the sketch of the ferret.
Sukie
[Posted in FML 0178]
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