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Post by Heather on May 7, 2009 22:25:03 GMT -5
I've been caught a couple of times where I had beautiful answers to a question here only to have it disappear into cyberspace Or worse had a studen who thought I was ignoring her as I figured my message had already gone. The forum is rather funky like that. I'm glad that Merry is starting to get a more normal BG...maybe it's just going to take some time. How old is he now? I really hate insulinoma...it's so....sneaky You just never know where they're at and how they're feeling. I think too that they are very tired. I know that Zena was like that. She would be up and playing but it seemed to take more out of her and she would then sleep most of the day away. I would then have to wake her up to eat. She would get wobbly if I didn't. I hope that you can get Gadget's hairballs to move. Keep with the ferretlax and pumpkin and hopefully things will start to move better. Have fun on your weekend. Enjoy sleeping in relaxing and playing with your furbabies. Good luck with both Merry and Gadget.... ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 8, 2009 22:22:12 GMT -5
Merry is not doing too well this evening. We took the boys out to the park after work. Two little girls came up to see them so I sat on the ground with Mer on my lap so the girls can pet him... and he just sat there and them. That kinda got me worried. By the time we got home he looked pretty tuckered out so we gave him his snack and his pred. Then we checked his BG and it was only 2 mmol/ L.... way too low. He wasn't just tired, he was on the verge of passing out and this is after a meal. We gave him some watered down honey (man, he hates it!) and it was up to 3.6 mmol/ L, which is more acceptable but he still looks wiped. I'm hesitant to give him more sugar, for fear of starting a vicious cycle of crashes and recovery. It will be a long night of standing vigil over the little guy until we can bring him to the vet in the morning. It's obvious now that pred had stopped working.... we need to come up with a new plan sooner than we think.
To make things worse, Gadget might have to tag along tomorrow too. He's alternating between skinny poops and mucous-y poops (probably the ferret lax). he's still eating well but we better get this hairball thing sorted soon.
Tassy is the only one running around without a worry in the world. I promised him I'll try my best to make sure his brothers get better....
Will keep you posted. Talk to you soon
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Post by Heather on May 8, 2009 23:04:35 GMT -5
Oh no....I will light healing candles for both Merry and Gadget. Poor little ones. Could having Merry out have stressed him too much and caused him to crash? Please let me know how things go at the vet's tomorrow. Please give your guys big hugs and hopefully the vet has some possible solutions for the guys. Give Tassy an extra hug and tell him he has to stay healthy so that he can help his brothers get better and keep him momma from being too sad. Good luck, take care ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 9, 2009 13:20:28 GMT -5
It'd been a long night but both Merry and Gadget are doing better by the morning. Merry's BG came back up to 3.9 mmol/L. He's still sleeping a lot but he's bright when he's a wake. We're maxing out his pred to try to stablize his BG until we can see the vet on Monday. I was also thinking that the little outdoor expedition might have stressed Merry out tand that might have caused him to crash. We're definitely staying indoor for the next little while.
Gadget gave us a really big scare this morning. We isolated him last night to monitor his poop and all he'd produced was a tiny blob the size of a dime. And all morning he was squating but still only making tiny little deposits. We thought the laxitive is not working and he's blocked for sure. So he might need surgery. And of course when emergency hits, your vet is never around and no one else in the clinic will be able to do surgery if Gadget was indeed blocked. We're calling around the city to see if other ferret knowledgeable vets will take Gadget... nope. No luck. Everyone's booked solid. The last resort is the emergency clinic, which is not ferret knowledgeable at all. So we decided to get an x-ray at our usual clinic, and cross the surgery bridge when we come to it. The good news is, there's no obvious blockage in his belly. But he's incredibly gassy and his chest wasn't looking too good. They suspect that he might have pneumonia and he swallowed a whole bunch of air as he try to breath. That explains the coughing we heard the other night, it wasn't hairball, he was actually coughing. He got a shot for antibiotics for the time being, until he can see Dr. Mike on Monday. And thank goodness, by the time we got him home, the first thing Gadget did was making a big deposit in the litter box. We're going to keep up with the lax for now to make sure he's actually cleared.
Believe it or not, there are hail storms in the city today. I guess we're just going to get some groceries and hide out with the kids. Will keep you posted on the boys. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts!
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Post by Heather on May 9, 2009 22:42:02 GMT -5
I'm glad that both boys are doing better. I'm sorry and worried that Gadget might have pneumonia but hopefully you will see some improvement now that he's had some injectible antibiotics. I hate that this respiratory infection in ferrets is so incidious and hard for us to catch. I'm glad that he finally decided to offer you a large poopies so that part you don't have to worry as much about. I hope that you're also able to find a more satisfactory solution regarding Merry's BG. You do such a good job with your little guys. I couldn't believe the lousy weather today, most of the really severe weather (like you experienced) either went south or north of us but those were some really nasty dark clouds. We kept waiting to get hit but it didn't happen and we were quite thankful. Snuggle in, enjoy a quiet weekend (at least what's left of it), give the furbabies a big hug from me and tell the sickies to get better soon. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 10, 2009 20:28:14 GMT -5
The boys are doing okay today. Merry's BG is at a nice high 4.2 mmol/L. I really wish it was the adrenaline from the stress of his outdoor adventure that made him crash instead of the pred not working. We'll have a chat with the vet tomorrow. If his BG is still nice and high for the next few days, maybe we can slowly ease the pred dose back down. We'd been really vigilant about feeding Mer every 3-4 hours and it looks like he might be getting annoyed by being woken up all the time for snacks. We need to chase him around with a spoon most of the time... but whatever it takes to make sure there's enough food in that little tummy. Looks like Gadget's belly is cleared. His poos look much more normal today. This is probably the last day he's going to get lax and extra pumpkin. He hasn't been coughing but his breathing is still a bit laboured when he's sleeping. The antibiotics seem to be doing little. He's going to the vet tomorrow too. Hopefully we can figure out what the problem is. I found these organinc chicken jerkies treats for dogs at Loblaws. Are they okay for the fuzzbutts? Would they be too dry and get caught in their guts? (Yes, I'm a GI blockage paranoid these days ) Hopefully thedr will help clean their toofies I can't tell you how relieved I am seeing the boys running around and wrestling with each other. We all need more days like that. Will let you know how things go at the vet's tomorrow!
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Post by Heather on May 10, 2009 23:57:13 GMT -5
I know that some people on list feed jerky treats to their ferrets. Why not....give it a try, if your guys will eat them, it's something else that they will eat. It's so great that everyone's starting to feel better. I hope that you've found that Gadget's respiratory problems are on the mend. Good luck at the vet's tomorrow. I will check in with you tomorrow night and see how everyone's doing. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 13, 2009 12:38:44 GMT -5
Vet visit was both good and bad. We're not declaring pred useless for Merry just yet. But we'll have to closely monitor his BG to make sure he doesn't crash. The little guy has been doing well. He's actually got more energy and running around more, even his BG is on the low side.... he's a medical mystery And speaking of medical mystery, we're still trying to figure out what's going on with Gadget. We noticed his neck lymph nodes are feeling big. As it turns out, all of his lymph nodes are a bit swollen (I didn't know what I was feeling until the vet showed me). My biggest fear is lymphoma, but he's not losing weight or being lethargic. We had a full blood workup on him on Monday (Poor Gadgy, he was fighting so hard we finally have to give him some gas to knock him out for a few minutes to get enough blood for the tests). The results all came back normal, which means there's nothing wrong with him systematically, but it doesn't tell us why his lymph nodes are big. So this morning, we dropped him off for a fine needle biopsy of his lymph nodes. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this... will keep you posted! Talk to you soon!
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Post by Alliemegan on May 13, 2009 21:48:01 GMT -5
Gadget's lymph node biopsy was a wash. All the lymph nodes are very fatty and we couldn't get a representative sample. We re-did the chest x-ray and it still doesn't look good. There's a huge mass in his left lung and it's pushing his heart down towards his belly. The best case scenario is pneumonia, but it's not likely as his blood work looks perfect. Our vet thinks we're looking at the big C here. He's definitely against surgery so our only other option is chemo. And to choose the right chemo we need to biopsy this mass and see what kind of cancer we're dealing with here. Or we can just treat it blindly with pred... with all your furbabies over the years, have any of your guys gone through chemo? How did they do? Is it worth the trouble? Or we just stick with pred?
Gadget is the last one we think would get sick. We brought him to the vet suspecting a GI obstruction. Turns out his guts are okay but his chest doesn't look so hot.... he just doesn't look sick. It's not fair... he hasn't even been with us for a year. We adopted Poley, Gadget and Tassy together from Randy last July and I'm afraid more than one of them won't make it to our first anniversary. I can't help but think that by the time we move to our new house in 6 weeks, we might not have 3 ferrets with us anymore. Merry is our very first ferret. He's probably 4 years old now... for the first 2 years he'd been in the family, we didn't know better and he was eating crappy Marshall's food. But some how he made it the longest. Now with his insulinoma acting up again....
I'm not only worried about the sickies, I'm also worried about Tassy... do we try to find him new buddies now in case his brothers pass? Or I should stop hurting myself and let him be the last ferret in my life? The emotional toll is wearing me down. But I know I won't be able to watch Tassy being lonely and sad.... we had lost 4 out of our 7 furkids in the last 3 years. We try to give them the best diet and vet care and yet they're still dropping like leaves... it's almost like we're the kiss of death.
Sorry to unload on you like that. I'm just so heart broken in a way that only another ferrent would understand. I'm going to give Gadget the big fur ball a long long snuggle... will let you know how his biopsy goes.
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Post by Heather on May 14, 2009 0:47:41 GMT -5
I'm soooo sorry....sending {{{{cyberhugs}}}} I wish I could offer you something to base your hopes on. There is a reason why we call these little ones the heartbreak kids . You sound like me last year at this time. I buried 5 in 6 months....my youngest being my little troublemaker Porthos who never got to see his 3rd birthday and Athos who died on the surgery table at a little past his 4th birthday. I got so I couldn't even tell the list that I'd lost another one...I felt like I was murdering them It's going to go like that again...I can see it. I've got 5 over the age of 7...Babushka who is 10. I just took Napoleon in as he had a bad molar and discovered at the age of 4 has such a bad heart that he can't have surgery....My choice is to try antibiotics, a mild sedation and get the tooth cleaned up...if that doesn't work my choices are sedation and probably death on the table or allow him to go septic. It's heartbreaking, I truly know and understand where you're coming from. You make an awesome ferrant, the ferret community would truly loose a very loving and caring person if you choose to walk away, but I do understand. I hope you don't walk away from it but I understand if you do. Chemo....out of all the ones that I've heard who have made this leap....I've heard of one surviving the process and he was so sick that I'm not sure it was worth it and he died shortly after the costly process. Did it make his life longer....I can't answer that. I understand that there is a newer chemo....but I haven't heard any feedback or of any successes . I know that with dogs the success rate is almost zero. Personally, I would go with the pred, but I would certainly talk with my vet about the options. I have a very fatelistic point of view about cancers and chemo....years ago I worked in a special care home (hospice), I watched people fight the good fight, I saw what we did to them, making them live long after they wanted to leave. I have a tendency to do what I need to for my furbabies but I won't go to extremes. It becomes a matter of quality not quantity, but I can't really help you. It's only my opinion. I will light healing candles for Gadget and Merry. I know that you will do what you feel is right for them. Please know that I will be here for support no matter which way you choose the play the game. There is no judgement, only what is right for your furbabies and you. Love your furbabies, they live only for the now, they're not like us. I know you will do whatever you need to do for Tassy and if you choose to return to Randy and see about getting another companion the I will be here too Please know that my thoughts are with you. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 14, 2009 13:46:10 GMT -5
No luck with fine needle biopsy of the mass in Gadget's chest. The weirdest thing is, they took another x-ray today and it looks different from the one they took yesterday. (I think Gadge might start glowing in the dark...) We're consulting with a radiologist to see if he can make heads and tails of all the radiographs. We're holding off on all treatments.
We're still weighing all the options but my gut is NOT to go ahead with chemo. Initially, our vet told us that surgery is out of the question and there's really nothing we could do for Gadge. That's not an easy thing to accept, to just stand by and do nothing in a bad situation. We reacted when we got the bad news - we'd do anything to help Gadget. We'd pay for chemo. But we stopped and thought about it, Gadge's been to the vet 4 times already this week and we're no closer to an answer. He's otherwise happy. I don't think it's fair to put him through any more. If pred can keep him comfortable and give him more time with us, that's not too bad. So what if chemo can shrink the tumor? If he feels like crap the entire time, it's not worth it for him.
We're going to wait for the report from the radiologist and go from there. I'm not sure if we even want to get an ultrasound guided biopsy anymore... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Tassy and Merry are doing well. Mer is sleeping a lot so Tassy is just running around by himself, picking on the cats. We seriously need to spend more time with all the other kids so they don't feel neglected. Will check in with you later.
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Post by Heather on May 14, 2009 14:42:33 GMT -5
Is Gadget still on antibiotics? Is it a possibility that it's pneumonia? If it was me (and it's not) I would go with the pred and see what happens. As much as I hate the stuff, it bought Aremis a year that he wouldn't have had otherwise. He was a poor surgical canditate and chemo just wan't an option. Good luck, healing candles are still burning. Give the guys a big hug from me and enjoy them. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 16, 2009 10:51:06 GMT -5
The radiologist in the States finally got back to us and his opinion is that Gadget might just have pneumonia. We're putting him on Baytril for 14 days and we'll repeat his x-ray in 2 weeks. It's the best case scenario we can hope for. Merry had a hypoglycemic episode again yesterday morning. We gave him honey water but he just didn't seem to be responding so we took him to the vet. But the little bugger perked up in the car and by the time we got to the vet, he's running around in the cage like it's nobody's business. He was a bit dehydrated so we got him some sub-q fluids while we're there and the tech showed us how to do that at home to keep him hydrated. His pred is maxed out so we got him a prescription for diazoxide. Hopefully he'll be one of the lucky ferrets who responds to this drug. To top off all this "excitement" with the kids, my nasty cold had come back for a round 2 I'm not allowed to touch the kids but knowing that they're all home, safe and sound for the time being feels good. Will check in with you later! Have a great long weekend!
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Post by Heather on May 17, 2009 1:41:19 GMT -5
As difficult as pneumonia is, the alternative is worse...so I hope you see an improvement with the baytril. Good luck little Gadget, special hugs and tickles to you . Oh, Merry you have to stop giving your momma these heart attacks. I found with Zena that with her second attack, she didn't respond as quickly to the honey water as she had the first time. It may have just been me. Like you, by the time I got her to the vet, she was looking down right perky , so I basically went home again. I hope that you find the right combination for Merry soon and that his BS levels off. Snuggles and hug to you Merry....behave yourself and stop scaring your momma . Great big hugs and scritches to Tassy....you stay healthy now . That brings us to you Now you get rid of that cold and get better....Rest...sleep and watch your little ones sleep and play. Enjoy your long weekend. I will talk to you later. ciao
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Post by Alliemegan on May 19, 2009 21:04:25 GMT -5
Oh I had rotten long weekend. This bug I got is seriously nasty. I had a fever since Friday and refused to break for 2 days. I thought I was going to die! I was staying away from the kids, worried that they're going to catch it.... well the kids are okay but hubby wasn't so lucky. He caught my cooties by Sunday so we're having chills, fever and throwing up together That's when we broke out the surgical masks whenever we handle the kids. I don't care what they say about ferrets having poor eyesight, the boys are all weird out by the masks and were backing away from us!! Apparently diazoxide is not a very commonly used drug. Our vet called the pharmacy on Friday for us but it turns out they don't carry it. They have to special order it in and then compound it up for Merry. We're watching the little boy like hawks all weekend, keep worrying that he's going to crash again. The compounded pred keeps congealing in the bottle. I don't think the dosage is reliable any more. Since Mer is on such high dose of pred, our vet suggested that we just crush up half a pred pill between 2 spoons, mix it fresh with some ferretone and give that to him. Mer doesn't seem to know the difference. It works out to way cheaper than compounding, we know the dosage exactly and Merry gets more treat... it's a win-win. His BG is still on the low side for the last few days but for some reason he seems to have more energy. I don't know what to make of that. The last 2 times he crashed, he was actually playing and running around minutes before. It's like.... play play play play... uh-oh, I'm out of gas.... pass out. Pred is barely keeping his BG on the borderline. I have to constantly wake Mer up to drink (He seems to forget to drink and the last 2 times he crash, both times he was dehydrated). But more just to reassure myself that he's just sleeping. Poor little guy... having a neurotic, OCD momma Gadget's pneumonia seems to be on the mends. We heard him coughing last night but his breathing seems to be less laboured. And he's definitely playing more in the last couple of days. I really hope that means he really only has pneumonia and not something more sinister... and the baytril is actuallly helping. It's been 4 days since I last left the house. I was actually getting cabin fever. I went to work for a couple of hours today and promptly got kicked out by my boss and colleagues Hubby and I take turn to drag our butts out of bed to feed Mer every 4-5 hours and let the boys run around the house. It's really amusing to see them all freaked out by the masks Hopefully we won't need them formuch longer. Will check in with you soon. Later!
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