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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 0:19:51 GMT -5
Hello all!
I'm new to this forum, but have been part of Ferret.com forum for quite some time now. They have been very helpful, but tonight I am looking for more help...
My 7 month old baby was diagnosed with Juvenile Lymphoma today. 5 days ago she got exploration surgery as we thought she may have a blockage because she'd been throwing up...
Now still with stitches for 5-8 days, I try to let her play as much as she can in the most gentle way possible to avoid ripping the stitches out...
A friend told me a few of you have gone through this too.... what can you suggest I do to help my baby Meeko last a healthy longer bit of life?
The vet said she may have a matter of weeks to even maybe months.... we'll know when she starts to go downhill.... until then we love her and snuggle with her...
Any ideas would be great... Thank you very much!
PS: Meeko also has an older sister, Lyla (3.5 years old) who is looking really sad to see Meeko caged up and not allowed to play much. Tonight we let them snuggle a bit and Lyla seemed on to something... I think she knows more than we think she does... She licked and gently played but never played as hard as she usually does...
Thanks for any help!
Sandra, Lyla & Meeko
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Post by Heather on Oct 12, 2011 2:00:29 GMT -5
Hi and welcome to you and your little ones
I'm so sorry about the diagnosis of your wee one. Juvenile lymphomas is such a horrible disease, robbing life from the very young. There have been a number of people on board who have dealt with surgeries and the recuperation involved, I'm sure that they will come on thread to help you with your wee ones after surgery convalescence . As for the lymphomas, your vet is correct, the time you have is limited but as to when only time will tell. Live day to day, love him, watch for pain and be prepared to help him through that and when your wee one finally says it's time....just be prepared (if anyone can really be ready). The one that is really going to have difficulties is Lyla, she's going to need a lot of love and support too. Please keep us updated as to your wee one's status, we care about all the little ones who "live" here. There are some posts that are specifically directed to the little ones who are "left behind" and the special care that they need to help them get through the loss of their friend. Good luck. I'm sure you will get others who will help you with post surgery care
ciao
ciao
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 6:13:02 GMT -5
This is exactly what happened to Rob. He died yesterday from this STUPID disease and he was only a year and a half. Juvenile lymphoma has no treatment and is often VERY agressive.Rob was fine on thursday. he started getting really sick on friday. we took him to the vet on monday and he had a tumor the size of a golf ball in his intestine. We thought it was a blockage from him eating peices of flip flops. So they did the surgery to get the blockage out and it was a tumor. if they had taken it out, sewed him back up, and given him to us until he passed, it would have been torture. it kills me to say this, he died in four days. PLEASE spend as much time with your girl as you can! i did not get to see him because he was at the vet. it is better to pass at home. Rob had agressive juvenile lymphoma. it happened in a week. less then a week. you are lucky you have weeks.  good luck with her. 7 months is not enough time. If you want to read aboutRob, his post is RIP Rob |
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Post by Sherry on Oct 12, 2011 9:12:30 GMT -5
I am so very sorry to hear about your little one. That is so very unfair While I've not, thankfully, had to deal with this horrible disease, I have had to help cage mates cope with the loss of their bonded friend. Here's an article Heather wrote up for us on helping them to get through it. Give it a read. It does work to help prevent the cage mate from following their friend to the bridge: holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=support&action=display&thread=1064&page=1 |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 10:01:36 GMT -5
Thank you all three of you very much! (I forgot to mention... Meeko is a baby girl.... she's a female...) Sorry, this message again is quite long I feel the saddest part is that Meeko has so much energy! She just wants to play play play!!! Unfortunately I'm not allowed to do that as of yet. I feel mortified at the thought of her possibly passing before she gets to sleep with her sister one last time... As for her play time to keep her happy right now I've been letting her play alone for about 30 minutes on the bed twice a day. The bed has blanket where she can tunnel and pillows she loves digging in. It also has relatively large teddy bears to wrestle (opposed to her tiny toys that she moves much more with...). Last night, after hearing about the news, I let Lyla on the bed with her for some supervised play... Lyla was very gentle (much more than I'd expected) and kept on sniffing Meeko's butt... I will add Lyla with Meeko a bit again this morning during her 30 minute play on the bed... It's also very sad to only let her have 30 minutes twice a day because she's use to roaming the house when we're home (at least 4-6 hours a day...). They usually end up falling asleep under the table where I have my Hedgehog (it's also their toy hide-out). When they opened her up, they didn't find a tumor. They found an extremely enlarged and inflamed duodenum, normal lymph nodes, a slightly swelled stomach and "nutmeg" pattern liver (he thought it suggested to fatty liver). They took 3 biopsies, and that's what came back.... Lymphoma.... I feel absolutely terrible inside.... I've even considered asking the vet to put her down right away, it'll save her and all of us a lot of pain and sorrow, but then again, I REALLY don't want to end her life NOW if she still may have a few months left! But those few months will be h*ll... I will wake up EVERY SINGLE morning wondering if "today is the day?", just as I did this morning.... and every night I will wonder if I will wake up and Meeko will be there asking to come out.... As for her current health, she seems to be doing ok. She eats the liquid diet quite willingly but only eats the canned a/d diet when I scruff her and put a bit on my finger at a time... Soon she can go back to her regular diet (in 3-4 days now) so I will start mixing it in with her liquid food (moistened wit warm water of course) hopping she'll eat that.... I think it's the texture of the canned she doesn't like... she makes the weirdest tongue movements while eating it.... I think she knows it's for the best and forces herself to have a bit at every meal. I currently feed her at approx every 4 hours.... waking up twice in the middle of the night. I am very much looking forward to her eating her normal food again. One thing that scares me very much is that before her operation, when her duodenum was extremely inflamed and enlarged, she never once showed any sign of pain.... and again none after being cut open and sewn back up... I'm scared she won't tell me when it starts to hurt really bad I will definitely read that link! It is open as a tab currently, just waiting for me to be done with this message...  Lyla has just been added to the bed... I will post again tonight on the updates as I should be supervising right now Thanks again for your help! And any help that can be added would be great! Love, Sandra, Lyla & Meeko |
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Post by Heather on Oct 12, 2011 10:35:23 GMT -5
If I had been in your position, I probably would have opted for the time too, so don't kick yourself...just enjoy her. Being a baby she will probably go-go right up to the time. Unfortunately, juvenile lymphomas is hugely aggressive. I do know and understand your position (I've only dealt with juvenile once) and it is hard. I don't normally deal with young/baby fuzz....I do hospice work so most of my fuzzes are elderly. Lymphomas in the elderly often takes it's time. You can usually buy 6, 9 months a year or more. Porthos was my first baby/baby...up until that point I had always dealt with seniors (Porthos was about 6 months when he came into my care as a severe abuse case) They do not appear to show pain and are very good at hiding it....sleep is one of the methods of knowing. They sleep to avoid the pain or discomfort but the disease also saps the energy.
Did they give you pred for her? Pred helps slow the disease a little bit and I believe helps with the pain though it's not a pain medication.
Truthfully, your best job is to love her....that's all. It works better than all the meds in the world. She's young her spirit will hold her through the rest, and then she will tell you when her fight is done.
ciao
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 10:58:25 GMT -5
Yes, they gave me some PediaPred (about 30 mLs), and I am to give her 0.3cc twice daily until that is done; then if all is still well, he will give me more. Her first dose was this morning, and she loved it...
Glad to know you only went through it once. Meeko is only my 2nd ferret (Lyla my first). I hope I only ever get to go through it once as well. It's unfortunate I've had to go through it so early in my ferranthood....
Thanks for all the support! I will love her the most I can and do my best to keep both the happiest they can be <3
But because Lyla really loves Meeko, I truly think that once we're doing a bit better, I should get her a sibling again. She spend 3 years of her life as a single ferret. As soon as I moved out (landlord only let me have one...) I got Meeko. I've had her for about 4 months now, and Lyla seems like a changed girl. She still loves her cuddles, but seems much more independent than before... I truly don't think she'll enjoy the alone life again... We'll see what we want to do then...
I've talked to AFS twice already... once before getting Lyla I wanted to rescue, but they never called me back after the phone questionnaire. So.... maybe I'll try again, or maybe I'll head to US breeders... I don't know yet... :S
Thanks again!
Love,
Sandra, Lyla & Meeko
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 11:20:49 GMT -5
Welcome Sandra! I am glad you decided to check out the forum! I agree with everything that has been said already and getting another sibling for Lyla sounds like a great idea You could always contact the Calgary based ferret rescue - FRES, they have so many ferrets, I am sure they'd be willing to adopt to you if you're willing to make the drive here I had mentioned to Sandra that there might be some holistic treatments that she can do for Meeko on top of the pred, but I wasn't totally sure which ones or if there was any at all. For those of you who have had experience with this awful disease was there any holistic supplements that proved to be useful in pain management or extending the lives a little bit? Keeping my fingers crossed that Meeko has as much time with you as possible. -Stephanie, Olivia & Sophie |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 11:32:37 GMT -5
I wish i had known that his lymphoma would be so fast. at least i could spend time with him a LOT before he passed. I miss him so much, i am so glad you have more then a few hours before she passes also. I really do hope she was not like rob with a golf ball sized tumor in her intestine. it really seemed to pain him to eat. he only had a few hours:( you are so lucky, spend as much time as you can with her. I keep on forgetting that he was gone and then remembering just makes me cry and cry all day and i can't help it. good luck with her! she loves you and you know it so don't kick yourself in the butt because you contemplated putting her to sleep. we did the same thing but we thought it was a blockage. it was huge, we didn't know what else to do. they found the tumor when trying to get out the "blockage". Good luck! i hope she is not in pain now!
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Post by Heather on Oct 12, 2011 13:48:42 GMT -5
There are some remedies that can be used....CoQ10 is one that is often used in these instances, as is Essiac tea. I don't know if the Reishi mushrooms would work in this instance but it probably wouldn't hurt. Those are the most solid of the natural remedies. There is also something called Timmy's tincture or formula....that one has a fair bit of controversy with it and has some that swear by it and other that say nothing happened. Like all these remedies that tout to assist (some even say cure) they cost a lot and for some it works and others not so much....that is for you to decide. Each one of these can be researched on line and have been used on ferrets, with care. I think that Jennifer used the Timmy's formula on one of her wee ones who came down with lymphomas...I think she was happy about it. I have used both Essiac tea and CoQ10 with moderate success. Again, I believe that the type of cancer you're dealing with will tell the success of your use of alternative therapies. Remember most of my dealing with both lymphomas and cancers are in seniors, this has a tendency to be a less aggressive type of cancer than juvenile lymphomas. I've used the Reishi for tumours but all were benign and have had relative success with that. Did the Essiac tea and Coq10 buy my lymphomas and cancer adults more time...I like to think so but who really knows. Good luck with your research. One more thing....whatever alternative therapy you use, make sure that it can function with the pred (it works with most) as many therapies use herbs that often work as blood thinners so just be careful and do your research.
ciao
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 14:01:08 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 15:02:52 GMT -5
Hello Stephanie! Glad to see you around! I did as you suggested Took me a while to find the "new site" though, but I got it in the end I will talk with Phil, and together we'll decide on either a US breeder baby, a pet store baby (because breeders don't really exist here) or a rescue... I don't think there is such a thing as a bad choice... it's just a matter of knowing what's best for us... Stiv, after hearing your story, let me tell you that i DO feel VERY fortunate to have some time left with her, even though I don't know how much. I think your story is worse than mine I even told the vet, and he felt really bad for your fuzzy and said he was really relieved that wasn't the case with Meeko... Heather, Thank you very much! There is a lot of info in there! Thank you very much! I will certainly look into all those, and we'll take each day at a time... I am seeing a tech tonight real quick to pick up some food and for them to let me know if the stitches are healing right or not, and to have a listen to her heart and lungs to know if all should still be going well.... Ferretchaos, I completely understand how you feel. A week ago I could never have read this story coming from someone else without feeling just terrible and breaking out into tears at every word... But now that I'm living it - I don't know how to explain.... you find ways to cope. I mean, it's not necessarily good, like this morning I woke up with the worst feeling of sadness before even thinking about Meeko, and it truly hurts.... but the most important is to know that it's now inevitable, so I must use all the little positive things left and take the best of each of them... Then you learn to cope Thank you all for your warm words and love! We really appreciate! Sandra, Lyla & Meeko <3 |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 15:07:48 GMT -5
I know you understand how important it is that you get to spend time with her. thanks, it is just hard when it is so sudden. i keep on forgetting he is gone. it was just so sudden  i am really happy you get to spend time with her! i am so happy for you! i am also sad that she even has that darn disease! i hate it so much. it seems more common now. we need to get rid of Marshall farms!....is she marshall by the way? |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 17:59:00 GMT -5
I completely agree with you and killing Marshall farms... I don't think she is, no. Now, when they sell ferrets (In Edmonton at least) they put a tiny I tattoo inside the ear to say they're "Canadian" ferrets.... so I would assume she's not Marshall.... but then again... who really knows?...
I would really like to have breeders in Canada....
Sandra, Lyla & Meeko
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2011 18:10:58 GMT -5
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