We lost Hubble yesterday. He had multiple hidden medical problems so I want to mention that those sometimes can happen. We've been in this position before, including with Jumpstart who had hidden lymphoma. With Jumpstart we knew for about 9 months that something was wrong and he had test after test, including several ultrasounds but until his final day when a chest tumor appeared that was rapidly growing in real time (literally changing enough to see the growth on sequential x-rays within hours). Hubble had one very mild hidden thing: beginning adrenal which showed up on ultrasound. That makes him only our second ferret in almost 30 years to have hidden adrenal disease. More common, and more serious was that he had hidden kidney disease, also found on the ultrasound. Unfortunately, that was not all that he had, though. We decided to not have a necropsy because two other possible culprits are well enough guessed from how he presented. He may have had hidden lymphoma but in his final day it looked even more like he may have been dealing with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. That is the rarer form of cardiomyopathy and it often hides itself, in fact, that is the most common thing for it too do -- being without symptoms and not possible to see on x-rays until it is so advanced that nothing can be done or the ferret just dies. To make it worse, the meds for that would have been bad for his kidney disease so even medicating him for it would have killed him. Every time one thing was gotten under control on him in his last day another thing went wrong. His diarrhea became so severe that last day that it was like a person dealing with cholera; at first he could dehydrate to the point of being a flat ferret in just 3 hours after having replacement fluids with electrolytes, but then he even got to the point where IV could not keep up with the fluid loss. So, a med had to be tried, but the only one that held him at all (Kaopectate every 2 hours recommended by a ferret GI expert consultant) while also on IV and multiple other other meds (such as Pepcid, steroids other than Pred given the nature of his situation, antibiotics, etc.) caused him to open an ulcer (also more likely with the kidney disease), so there just was no way to save him and the kindest thing was a mercy shot. It may help people to know more about hidden medical problems so if people could discuss those maybe some good will come of losing Hubble. Reminder for people on the Ferret Health List (FHL): sympathy messages without health content have to be sent directly to posters rather than sent to the list. The FHL Rules can be found in the Files section of that list. See my list of ferret health links below. MOST ferret diseases are NOT hidden, and for those learning beforehand about the diseases will allow warning signs and correct actions to happen. That educational opportunity is one of the functions of the FHL and its separate archives. Even some of the diseases that can be hidden sometimes are not. Lymphoma is usually not hidden, but can be. Now and then a sign like uncontrolled weight loss can cause a vet to do a timely chest ultrasound and find hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in time to treat it. Even though blood tests too often don't spot kidney disease in a ferret an ultrasound may, and a urine specific gravity test (a cheap test) can spot when the kidneys are not concentrating urine. Oh, for those who know us, Steve's mom had her second hip replacement surgery yesterday and it went well. The hip that was put in in July never worked out but we do not know if it was one of the types that were recalled in August. Also, my very elderly step-mom (96) survived her recent lung and ascites problems and is home from the hospital. 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) On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump off the cliff." (2010, Steve Crandall) [Posted in FML 6878]