>From:    Elizabeth Setler <>
>But one of my babies, Mortimer, seems to be not long for this world, and
>I'm feeling incredibly helpless and far away, so I thought I'd post on
>the off chance that someone would recognize his symptoms as something
>treatable.  He started acting lethargic and wobbly a few weeks ago; his
>blood tests were normal, but his behavior was so off that the vet did
>exploratory surgery.  He had a large pancreatic tumor, which was removed,
>and they also removed his spleen "just in case."  Since then, he's gone
>from wobbly to basically quadriplegic; he can't get up at all, and he's
>having seizures.  They've x-rayed for spinal damage and found nothing;
>the vet suspects a brain tumor.  If anyone has any other ideas that I
>could pass along, I'd really appreciate it.  From his new mom's
>description of his condition, I think chances are pretty slim.
 
One, more common cause of brain damage is to have cardiomyopathy present
(the hypertrophic kind, which is less common in ferrets, often is not
found until after death, I am afraid, and some vets miss the
hyperplastic/dilative kind) and as a result throw a clot which happens
to lodge there.  (Have also encountered thrown clots to a limb and to a
kidney with this disease.)
 
Kidney disease can also cause such thrown clots and it also more
common; we've encountered thrown clots to brains with both diseases.
 
I can pass along two thing that might be useful:
 
1. Two ferrets which we had pass such clots to their brains survived it.
One later passed another and didn't make it then.  One of the ones who
survived was in such a bad way that he was hospitalized for days with
round-the-clock monitoring (so was actually transported between hospitals
at the start and end of normal business hours because the level of
monitoring he needed was well beyond the norm).  He wound up with only a
bit of motor and sensory loss affect part of one limb and learned to work
around that and play again within a few weeks.
 
2. There is a health list which has multiple vets present which might be
useful for you: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list .
If there is kidney disease there are a pile of back-posts that will help
you there.  If there is cardiomyopathy then you will want to go to
http://www.miamiferret.com .
 
3.  http://www.doggon.com can make wheelchairs for ferrets, and anyone can
make a pantyhose sling.  This idea actually originated years ago with the
Doggon folks and I modified it to make it more human-back friendly; since
then many versions have appeared in many places.  Choose the pantyhose
size according to human size; this also lets you color-code if the humans
are of very different heights.  Place one foot of the pantyhose atop the
other and sew these to form a hammock for the ferret's belly.  Roll the
top of the pantyhose and sew it, forming a handle.  Put the hammock under
the ferret's belly, hold the handle and lift a bit so that the ferret is
partly suspended.  Suddenly the ferret can walk and often even run again!
The ferret perks up and does more of the things it needs to do to heal
when that is possible.  If not possible, then it at least enjoys life
more.
[Posted in FML issue 3608]