Post by Heather on Apr 12, 2013 16:15:57 GMT -5
:'(I've been sitting here, in the dark for most of the day (freezing rain is a wonderful thing....NOT) trying to make sense of Azrael's death and wondering how we could have messed it up so badly. I realize as I hashed it up that we didn't mess up. We did everything right, it's just Azrael was a ferret.
I know that often we get threads started by people who realize that their ferrets are sick and they want help. I realize as much as anyone the cost of vetting these wee creatures and it would be nice if someone could just give the answers instead of having to deal with just one more vetting bill. I also know that often these same people get frustrated with us when we send them to the vet anyway. Ferret symptoms are more often than not, just not that simple. Take Azrael. Azrael came into my care via my vet who rescued him. He had been brought in for euthanasia because he was blocked up with crystals. According to the people who dumped him off, he was old (they said 8, he was actually about 2 or 3), he was adrenal and his prostate was so inflamed that he couldn't urinate. The vet took him back to do the deal (his people claimed they just couldn't watch) and felt that he was too healthy, too happy. She decided to check to find out just what had been done to help Azrael.....his people had gone. Deserted him...left him to die alone. That's how he came to be in my care, but my vet still claimed him as hers....so she treated him. I never had to pay for any of his care. All I did was care for him and love him. Tests were done, xrays, a weeks stay with antibiotics. Turns out his swollen prostate (xray proved this wasn't the case) wasn't that at all, but crystals possibly caused by a severe bladder infection. Treated with antibiotics and done. Once Azrael settled in he started displaying "hobbish" type behaviours....marking, singing his hob song, some sexual aggression. He was promptly placed on DES which took this away. A couple of weeks ago, he started displaying some staggering, misteps. Not all the time, but enough to be noticed. He was sleeping more, eating less. He seemed tired. Back in to the vet's. BG read 1.2...insulinoma. Poor sod. Pull out the sulcrate and the pred. The pred wasn't working, his gait was getting worse instead of better. Up the pred...then it happened....He was in the litter box, I heard more than saw as I was dealing with another sicky....him playing in the litter box. I turned around to tell him to get out of the litter box and almost dropped the ferret I had. There was black, tarry stool everywhere....huge amounts, more than I'd ever seen before. Phoned the vet and rushed him in. Assumption, ulcers...antibiotics, we all know the drill and took him home. It wasn't to be. He was rushed back to the vet the following day. His gums white, eyes glassy....he was bleeding to death. We chose to end his misery. This was not easy, he was not ready but we had run out of medical options. He would have just died on the surgery table.
The vet had too many questions...no answers. Lymphoma was her guess. We scheduled a necropsy. It turned out we were wrong....right from the beginning, everything we did for him was wrong. The DES, the pred....it was all wrong
The symptoms were weird flyers that held no truth. His pancreas was fine, no marks or nodules. His adrenal gland (yes, I said adrenal gland) was fine. He didn't have a right one....never had a right one. His spleen though was covered in scars, where it had tumours that had moved across it. Until the very end, it was never enlarged 
A large spider type tumour at the base, leaking slowly. The ugly tumour absorbing the blood, being fed by his spleen. It was leaking into his abdominal cavity....but this wasn't the tumour that caused the blackened stools. It wasn't the biggest tumour. The ugly cancer that killed him, was at the opening of duodenum. It had ruptured and this was the blood we were seeing in his stools. This was the cancer that killed him. My vet has sent a biopsy to see what type of cancer killed him. She needs to know for herself. I don't really need to know....I just know he's gone.
So, please when we ask you to see your vet, when we tell you to have a vet "before" you get your ferret, this is why. There was no expense spared with Azrael. Please, please listen. If all the medical services available were not able to diagnose Azrael, how could anyone diagnose over the internet.
ciao
I know that often we get threads started by people who realize that their ferrets are sick and they want help. I realize as much as anyone the cost of vetting these wee creatures and it would be nice if someone could just give the answers instead of having to deal with just one more vetting bill. I also know that often these same people get frustrated with us when we send them to the vet anyway. Ferret symptoms are more often than not, just not that simple. Take Azrael. Azrael came into my care via my vet who rescued him. He had been brought in for euthanasia because he was blocked up with crystals. According to the people who dumped him off, he was old (they said 8, he was actually about 2 or 3), he was adrenal and his prostate was so inflamed that he couldn't urinate. The vet took him back to do the deal (his people claimed they just couldn't watch) and felt that he was too healthy, too happy. She decided to check to find out just what had been done to help Azrael.....his people had gone. Deserted him...left him to die alone. That's how he came to be in my care, but my vet still claimed him as hers....so she treated him. I never had to pay for any of his care. All I did was care for him and love him. Tests were done, xrays, a weeks stay with antibiotics. Turns out his swollen prostate (xray proved this wasn't the case) wasn't that at all, but crystals possibly caused by a severe bladder infection. Treated with antibiotics and done. Once Azrael settled in he started displaying "hobbish" type behaviours....marking, singing his hob song, some sexual aggression. He was promptly placed on DES which took this away. A couple of weeks ago, he started displaying some staggering, misteps. Not all the time, but enough to be noticed. He was sleeping more, eating less. He seemed tired. Back in to the vet's. BG read 1.2...insulinoma. Poor sod. Pull out the sulcrate and the pred. The pred wasn't working, his gait was getting worse instead of better. Up the pred...then it happened....He was in the litter box, I heard more than saw as I was dealing with another sicky....him playing in the litter box. I turned around to tell him to get out of the litter box and almost dropped the ferret I had. There was black, tarry stool everywhere....huge amounts, more than I'd ever seen before. Phoned the vet and rushed him in. Assumption, ulcers...antibiotics, we all know the drill and took him home. It wasn't to be. He was rushed back to the vet the following day. His gums white, eyes glassy....he was bleeding to death. We chose to end his misery. This was not easy, he was not ready but we had run out of medical options. He would have just died on the surgery table.
The vet had too many questions...no answers. Lymphoma was her guess. We scheduled a necropsy. It turned out we were wrong....right from the beginning, everything we did for him was wrong. The DES, the pred....it was all wrong
The symptoms were weird flyers that held no truth. His pancreas was fine, no marks or nodules. His adrenal gland (yes, I said adrenal gland) was fine. He didn't have a right one....never had a right one. His spleen though was covered in scars, where it had tumours that had moved across it. Until the very end, it was never enlarged A large spider type tumour at the base, leaking slowly. The ugly tumour absorbing the blood, being fed by his spleen. It was leaking into his abdominal cavity....but this wasn't the tumour that caused the blackened stools. It wasn't the biggest tumour. The ugly cancer that killed him, was at the opening of duodenum. It had ruptured and this was the blood we were seeing in his stools. This was the cancer that killed him. My vet has sent a biopsy to see what type of cancer killed him. She needs to know for herself. I don't really need to know....I just know he's gone.So, please when we ask you to see your vet, when we tell you to have a vet "before" you get your ferret, this is why. There was no expense spared with Azrael. Please, please listen. If all the medical services available were not able to diagnose Azrael, how could anyone diagnose over the internet.
ciao
There is only so much we can do. You did everything.
). I hope that others will read your story and realize how important it is to work with their vets if they have their ferrets' best interests in mind. You put it so well - " If all the medical services available were not able to diagnose Azrael, how could anyone diagnose over the internet." 
thank you for posting this though. 