Post by natalieoh on Sept 24, 2015 20:16:15 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
I posted a few months ago (for some reason I can't get back into that account no matter what I try) about concerns between my two ferts' highly differing weights.
A few weeks ago, my tinier ferret, Beo, (1 and a half years old) started presenting a very wet cough and after a few days thinking it might pass, I panicked and took him to an emergency animal hospital (this was on labor day [Monday the 7th] in the US). They took a look at him, stated it might be a cold or a hairball, or allergies, etc (basically they had no idea), and sent me home with a sulfa based antibiotic to give him 0.6 ccs twice a day.
A few days later (Friday the 11th) I took him to our regular vet just to confirm, and because the cough wasn't subsiding. My husband was concerned that perhaps it was something fungal that an antibiotic couldn't help.
At our regular vet, they took an xray and declared he had a very severe case of pneumonia. Our doctor showed us the image, which she said should be black where air is, and it was very white.
She prescribed clavamox and baytril at .2 ccs each twice a day and told me to stop the sulfa antibiotic.
I had set an appointment for the following Wednesday (the 16th) because he still seemed very fatigued. His cough had subsided for several days. I ended up moving the Wednesday appointment to two days later on Friday (the 18th) so he would have been on the antibiotics for a full week, and we could see progress to a better extent on the xray.
That Friday I took him in, and the doctor took another xray revealing that there was no improvement. She told me that she would get a few more opinions, but that she was fairly sure that this was lymphoma presenting with this large tumor in his lung. She stopped another ferret doctor and got his opinion, and he agreed.
She told me the best course of action was to put him on a steroid, which would give us a few months before he began to backslide and we would have to put him down. I couldn't accept this and asked if we could finish out his run on the antibiotics (the baytril and clavamox), just in case. She stated that this would be a good idea anyway because any infection would quickly kill him once put on steroids. We made the decision to schedule an ultrasound for the following Tuesday (the 22nd) to confirm the tumor and then I brought him home, crying the whole way, of course. My poor little guy is not even 2 years old, I just couldn't believe this was happening.
Over the next few days I read through basically every page of this forum, and researched everything I possibly could about ferret juvenile lymphoma. I ordered essiac tea, etc etc, and tried to come to terms with it and determine with my husband at what point we would bring him in to put him down (the vet stated that once the backslide hits, it goes very quickly)..
His cough was still very minimal, but he had started a strange sort of panting every once in a while. His appetite was (and still is) absolutely ravenous, he was/is pooping fine, drinking fine, etc.
On the day of his ultrasound (the 22nd) he was just as perky as ever. Even though I started to accept the fact that he had this awful disease, I was very very happy that he was feeling okay for that day.
I dropped him off for the ultrasound and went to pick him up a few hours later.
The receptionist couldn't find my chart and the vet wasn't there so she sent me home with no more information than I went in with.
The next day the vet called and stated that there was no tumor (yes!!!
) but that there was definitely something going on.. she stated it could be a collapsed lung (?!?), an old infection that just wasn't clearing up, or something else. She said that it was a very strange case and that she would have to refer me to an internal specialist, at which point they would likely do a CT, a lung wash.. or any other manner of things to figure out the cause.
She also mentioned that his spleen was slightly enlarged, but she didn't feel this was due to lymphoma..?
Does anyone have any ideas, or any experience with something similar? I have no idea what this will mean for us. I am sure a ferret internal specialist will not be inexpensive, and it's not a sure thing he will survive even though it isn't likely lymphoma. Any insight would be highly appreciated.
If you are one of the hundreds of posts that I read through over the past week, thank you so much for the information with which you provided me. This is an incredible board with a wealth of knowledge. Thank you all. Also very sorry for the incredibly long post..
I posted a few months ago (for some reason I can't get back into that account no matter what I try) about concerns between my two ferts' highly differing weights.
A few weeks ago, my tinier ferret, Beo, (1 and a half years old) started presenting a very wet cough and after a few days thinking it might pass, I panicked and took him to an emergency animal hospital (this was on labor day [Monday the 7th] in the US). They took a look at him, stated it might be a cold or a hairball, or allergies, etc (basically they had no idea), and sent me home with a sulfa based antibiotic to give him 0.6 ccs twice a day.
A few days later (Friday the 11th) I took him to our regular vet just to confirm, and because the cough wasn't subsiding. My husband was concerned that perhaps it was something fungal that an antibiotic couldn't help.
At our regular vet, they took an xray and declared he had a very severe case of pneumonia. Our doctor showed us the image, which she said should be black where air is, and it was very white.
She prescribed clavamox and baytril at .2 ccs each twice a day and told me to stop the sulfa antibiotic.
I had set an appointment for the following Wednesday (the 16th) because he still seemed very fatigued. His cough had subsided for several days. I ended up moving the Wednesday appointment to two days later on Friday (the 18th) so he would have been on the antibiotics for a full week, and we could see progress to a better extent on the xray.
That Friday I took him in, and the doctor took another xray revealing that there was no improvement. She told me that she would get a few more opinions, but that she was fairly sure that this was lymphoma presenting with this large tumor in his lung. She stopped another ferret doctor and got his opinion, and he agreed.
She told me the best course of action was to put him on a steroid, which would give us a few months before he began to backslide and we would have to put him down. I couldn't accept this and asked if we could finish out his run on the antibiotics (the baytril and clavamox), just in case. She stated that this would be a good idea anyway because any infection would quickly kill him once put on steroids. We made the decision to schedule an ultrasound for the following Tuesday (the 22nd) to confirm the tumor and then I brought him home, crying the whole way, of course. My poor little guy is not even 2 years old, I just couldn't believe this was happening.
Over the next few days I read through basically every page of this forum, and researched everything I possibly could about ferret juvenile lymphoma. I ordered essiac tea, etc etc, and tried to come to terms with it and determine with my husband at what point we would bring him in to put him down (the vet stated that once the backslide hits, it goes very quickly)..
His cough was still very minimal, but he had started a strange sort of panting every once in a while. His appetite was (and still is) absolutely ravenous, he was/is pooping fine, drinking fine, etc.
On the day of his ultrasound (the 22nd) he was just as perky as ever. Even though I started to accept the fact that he had this awful disease, I was very very happy that he was feeling okay for that day.
I dropped him off for the ultrasound and went to pick him up a few hours later.
The receptionist couldn't find my chart and the vet wasn't there so she sent me home with no more information than I went in with.
The next day the vet called and stated that there was no tumor (yes!!!
) but that there was definitely something going on.. she stated it could be a collapsed lung (?!?), an old infection that just wasn't clearing up, or something else. She said that it was a very strange case and that she would have to refer me to an internal specialist, at which point they would likely do a CT, a lung wash.. or any other manner of things to figure out the cause.She also mentioned that his spleen was slightly enlarged, but she didn't feel this was due to lymphoma..?
Does anyone have any ideas, or any experience with something similar? I have no idea what this will mean for us. I am sure a ferret internal specialist will not be inexpensive, and it's not a sure thing he will survive even though it isn't likely lymphoma. Any insight would be highly appreciated.
If you are one of the hundreds of posts that I read through over the past week, thank you so much for the information with which you provided me. This is an incredible board with a wealth of knowledge. Thank you all. Also very sorry for the incredibly long post..
