Hello,
I just took my ferret Winifred to the vet last Friday for weight gain concerns in her abdomen. We realized it wasn't fat, but was fluid and my vet also noticed large lymph nodes. She gave an X-ray and confirmed it was indeed fluid and believes it's lymphosarcoma. However, she refused to give me that her prognosis is indeed 100% correct without further testing. In addition, we realized for blood work we have to put her under anesthesia and she could have trouble in the long run from it. Other than that an ultrasound is $600-800 which I'm afraid I cannot afford. Also yesterday I picked up her steroid treatment in blind hope that it will reduce the size of her lymph nodes and reduce any pain/discomfort she is in.
In two months time she will be five years old, but I started noticing that she started breathing faster and I'm afraid that she may have heart problems now. I can't remember if she was like that when I took her to my vet, but the vet didn't mention anything about heart problems besides having trouble listening to it with her stethoscope and not being able to see it on the X-ray very well. My vet also looked in her mouth and didn't mention anything, so I assumed that aspect of my darling was okay. I'll be honest I was so distraught at the vet's when I found out the news that my little one will probably not make it to the next year that I had trouble digesting what she was telling me.
Winifred's symptoms:
Breathing faster
Pot bellied appearance due to fluid
hair loss on upper body
lethargic
large lymph nodes
She still eats and drinks water. Her gum's seem to be okay, they are not bluish or gray and her tongue seems to be okay as well. She's not coughing she seems to be content at the moment, but the vet is not open today and hopefully I can squeeze her in tomorrow.
Thank you all for reading this, this makes me feel so much better typing it out, but I hope somebody can give me comforting words and/or advice of what I should do. If it helps I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If there are any places I can take my darling for help that would be great.
Again thank you
Elle.
Tags: breathing, ferrets, Rate