Been a while...
I think the last time I made a post on LiveJournal was around the time that Lu showed off his amazing leaping talents. That's been over a month and a lot has happened since. Some good, some bad.
The good first. There have been a bunch of birthdays. Calypso, Echo, Argo, Lu and Aegir have all turned one year old. Actually they all turned one year old prior to my last post, I just forgot to mention it. Styx turned three in late September and Nym, who in the spring we feared might not see the end of summer at worst and end of the year at best, has turned seven. She is also looking stronger and more active, the medication is doing wonders. :)
Now the bad news. :(
Not sure of the date or the community, but I'm pretty sure I cross-posted about Hallie's tail. Some in the ferret communities suggested it looked like a condition called rat tail. Well, a few weeks after taking her to the vet (she came along for the ride when Scylla went in for her jill jab) we noticed that her fur was thinning. She pretty much looks like she is missing most of her undercoat. We took her back to the vet and she was given the same implant for adrenal disease. Her tail is now looking almost normal and I'm hoping that the undercoat will grow in soon on her body as well. The implant happened a little over two weeks ago. Things have gotten worse. Last Tuesday we felt a lump under right 'armpit'. The ferrets get palpated by my wife on a regular basis and this lump definitely wasn't there a few days before. We set up another appointment and were back at the vet this past Saturday. I don't recall the whole conversation with the vet, but he gave a couple possibilities of what it could be ... unfortunately as he was saying this he was also examining her and found three or four more nodules which pretty much lead to only one conclusion, lymphoma. Estimating six months to a year. While chemotherapy is an option, he didn't feel it would really add much time to her life. So, Hallie is now on the same medication as Nym. Hopefully she will react to it as well as Nym has and maybe the cancer will go into remission. Hallie will be three years old on December 1.
A small aside. Hallie is a Marshall's ferret. We got her and Sabrina at the same time (and still believe that Sabrina was probably a two weeks younger than Hallie). We later adopted Winchell who is the same age as Hallie (from the paperwork we have, they're from the same shipment). Sabrina is adrenal, ditto on Hallie. Winchell has lymphoma, ditto on Hallie. Winchell was diagnosed with lymphoma about a year ago now and it looks like it's gone into remission as he is as active as ever. Kind of makes me wonder how many of the other ferrets from that shipment have these medical issues.
The good first. There have been a bunch of birthdays. Calypso, Echo, Argo, Lu and Aegir have all turned one year old. Actually they all turned one year old prior to my last post, I just forgot to mention it. Styx turned three in late September and Nym, who in the spring we feared might not see the end of summer at worst and end of the year at best, has turned seven. She is also looking stronger and more active, the medication is doing wonders. :)
Now the bad news. :(
Not sure of the date or the community, but I'm pretty sure I cross-posted about Hallie's tail. Some in the ferret communities suggested it looked like a condition called rat tail. Well, a few weeks after taking her to the vet (she came along for the ride when Scylla went in for her jill jab) we noticed that her fur was thinning. She pretty much looks like she is missing most of her undercoat. We took her back to the vet and she was given the same implant for adrenal disease. Her tail is now looking almost normal and I'm hoping that the undercoat will grow in soon on her body as well. The implant happened a little over two weeks ago. Things have gotten worse. Last Tuesday we felt a lump under right 'armpit'. The ferrets get palpated by my wife on a regular basis and this lump definitely wasn't there a few days before. We set up another appointment and were back at the vet this past Saturday. I don't recall the whole conversation with the vet, but he gave a couple possibilities of what it could be ... unfortunately as he was saying this he was also examining her and found three or four more nodules which pretty much lead to only one conclusion, lymphoma. Estimating six months to a year. While chemotherapy is an option, he didn't feel it would really add much time to her life. So, Hallie is now on the same medication as Nym. Hopefully she will react to it as well as Nym has and maybe the cancer will go into remission. Hallie will be three years old on December 1.
A small aside. Hallie is a Marshall's ferret. We got her and Sabrina at the same time (and still believe that Sabrina was probably a two weeks younger than Hallie). We later adopted Winchell who is the same age as Hallie (from the paperwork we have, they're from the same shipment). Sabrina is adrenal, ditto on Hallie. Winchell has lymphoma, ditto on Hallie. Winchell was diagnosed with lymphoma about a year ago now and it looks like it's gone into remission as he is as active as ever. Kind of makes me wonder how many of the other ferrets from that shipment have these medical issues.