It has become obvious that Hilbert is in his final days to months. The
huge insulinoma tumor that started earlier in his 7th year and that was
able to be debulked (but not completely removed due to involvement with
critical structures) is pretty rapidly worsening with corresponding
increases in his meds, and he once again is having urinary problems so
is on Baytril while more is learned from several tests, with him having
a sludge that is between amber and orange along with urine that appears
normal. We don't know YET what the cause of his problems are but the
POSSIBILITIES include:
1. infection alone (best case scenario)
2. bile in the urine (in which case his liver is also having decent
problems now)
3. prostatic woes secondary to the regrowth of adrenal tissue (his
adrenals had been badly inflamed by his kidneys rubbing on them back
when he was in his first year and had bilateral hydronephrosis due to
blockage from a combination of cystine uroliths and a bladder
diverticulum so he had bladder surgery and adrenal removal, except that
a tiny portion of adrenal wound up under an emergency vascular clip and
regrew years later, and he has been on a low protein diet for the rest
of his almost 8 years without more cystine stones till perhaps now so
the low protein diet has gotten him many, many ferret years)
4. cystine uroliths again (which would probably be the worst scenario
in his case)

He has been through 3 bouts of near kidney failure in his almost 8
years, two within the last year, as well as that first one which almost
killed him back when he was in his first year of life. So, it is pretty
amazing that he has bounced back each time from near-death. This time
he won't when he next worsens too much, because just too much is too
wrong now, but Hilbert is the perfect example of why veterinary care
makes sense. Saving him when he was young was at that point our vet's
"hardest save" and we had a lot of work at home getting enough fluids
into him and more but it worked and he even developed the habit of
always drinking a lot of fluids (which he even did when on IV or when
getting sub-cu fluids) which is probably another reason he has gone so
very long. After his first close encounter with death he took about a
year to come back to full levels of activity and about a year and half
to regain all of his lost weight, but he did it.

Hilbert is the ferret who saved my life when our furnace malfunctioned,
and before our current main cage (from which he never escaped) he was
our escape artist who used to get out almost each night and no matter
how we shored up that cage he would always find a new way to get out.

Hopefully, he still has a few good quality months in him, but if he
goes sooner, please, do not be surprised. He and Morney are in their
final illnesses (but she is doing better than he is right now, though
her situation could change suddenly without warning given its nature)

BTW, both of them are are Suprelorin implants and both had an increase
in activity -- a real boost -- after getting that med and that
continues even now.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6790]