From:
Michelle Campbell
Date: 2011-02-01 17:06:26 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Gizzie
To: Ferret Health <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I write this email. Yesterday afternoon I had to give my little 7 year old Gizzie the final gift and let him go....
Gizzie fought helicobacter in December and was scheduled for a follow up appointment with the vet yesterday afternoon. When I got him up to feed him yesterday morning, I was alarmed because his gums and the pads of his paws were extremely pale. I rushed him to my vet. His hematocrit was 12% and a sonogram showed he had free fluid in his abdomen. The sonogram also showed numerous nodules in Gizzie's liver that were not there in a previous sonogram. The vet took a sample of the fluid and found that it was entirely blood. His best guess is that one of the nodules in Gizzie's liver ruptured and was bleeding into his abdomen. At that point, the vet felt there was nothing we could do. I was stunned and heartbroken at the same time. Even though I know it was the right thing to do, letting Gizzie go was the hardest thing I've done. He and I have been through so much together both medically and just in life. He was truly the best little boy ferret a
mom could ever ask for. God Bless you Gizzie.
My question is really just about whether or not anyone else has had this experience. Honestly, I thought adrenal disease would get Giz in the end, so this has taken me completely by surprise - I'm still floored and still can't believe he is gone. How could he have had problems with his liver and me not know it?
Michelle and my "angel" Gizzie
[We have had one with cystic liver. In fact, there
was surgery in case removing affected lobe might
buy her time and it did but she wound up with cysts
in the remaining liver months later. Cysts can happen quite
rapidly in the liver, I'm afraid. In her case it contributed
to her death but she had multiple terminal conditions.
(This was a dear one who had deformities, extreme
intellectual limitations to the point of not even understanding
much of her own species' body language and sounds
though she had good eyes and ears, achondroplastic
dwarfism with associated arthritis, asthma and some
other things, who in her final year developed those liver cysts,
a heart tumor, dilative cardiomyopathy, insulinoma, and
multiple other problems.)
Adrenal disease can be fatal but often is not, BTW.
Liver cysts are bad news, I'm afraid, and i am sorry that you
have first hand experience and sorry for your loss.
Reminder to posters:
If you are sending health info you can also express your sympathies
in the post, but anyone who is sending just a sympathy note needs
to send it directly to Michelle per the rules in the FHL Files
section, please. We like to keep the FHL strongly on target with
health related posts because vets have little time to sift through
posts to find the ones where they can help. Like most of the FHL
rules this one is designed to give posters the best chance of getting
knowledgable help and to be kind to our time-strapped vet members.
-- Moderator (SDC)]
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