Shine on, little Sophie

When I got up and went downstairs to see Sophie yesterday morning, I knew that xrays that she was supposed to get later that afternoon were pointless. Both of her back legs and her lower stomach were covered with black poop, and her body temperature was low. She was very lethargic, and just laid in whatever place I put her.

I cleaned her up and made her as comfortable as possible, holding her in my lap in a sleep sack all morning. I left for the vet with her and the other three ferrets at noon, her in the front seat with me and the guys in the travel cage in the back. She passed on about 10 minutes into the ride. Just a few deep breaths and then she was gone. I petted her the rest of the way up anyway, telling her what a brave strong girl she was and how much I loved her. When we got to the vet's office, they put me in a private room, and I let her guys sniff her one last time.

Goodbye sweet girl, my little princess. I love you. You are so special to me, and you will be very missed.

Here are some pictures of my baby girl in healthier times.

Staring adoringly at her papa - she was such a daddy's girl


Making a funny face on mommy's shoulder


Attacking the vibrating bee


Showing off her bottlebrush


Just looking sweet



You know, I've lost half of my ferrets this year - from six down to three. I haven't had just three ferrets since 2001. I miss them all so much. The house seems empty without them here.

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ferret, ferrets

My Sweet Sophie

My poor sweet Sophie - she's not doing well. In the past couple weeks her appetite has decreased to the point where yesterday and today she ate almost no duck soup at all. She took a couple pieces of kibble out of my hand, but didn't go to the dish herself. She's drinking a lot of water as well. Her pupils are almost entirely covered with perfectly round cataracts that appear silver when the light hits them. This could be a result of the long term pred use or possibly the hypoglycemic condition itself. She's also fairly incontinent since yesterday, and seems to poop a small amount every 30 min or so. When she's done, I have to wipe her, as she can't do it herself. About 20 minutes ago, I went to check on her and found her laying in her own feces. There wasn't much, so it wasn't hard to clean up, but it was disheartening to see that when she had to go, she just went where she was laying. That's the first time she's ever done that.

I have an appointment for her for tomorrow. I'm going to have some x-rays done to see if there is anything obvious that we could successfully treat. But I think what we're going to see is tumors - lymphoma. Her insulinoma isn't causing this; her BG levels are in the normal range. It could be the adrenal disease getting worse, as her hair loss has gotten significantly worse in the past couple months.

But no matter what it is, I think I'm going to have to help my little Princess cross the bridge tomorrow. She's so tired, I can see it in her eyes. And the ferret she is now is even more heartbreaking when I compare it to the ferret she used to be - sassy, crazy, and clever with a major attitude and a gorgeous white coat. Now she can barely move, and when she tries to walk or stand in the litter box she falls over. Her hind legs have been getting progressively weaker over the past few months, even though I've upped her pred. But really the most obvious change is in her demeanor. She isn't even trying to be active anymore - she's just laying there. I don't want to prolong her life if this is the quality of life she's going to have.

Here are some pics of her taken a few months ago when we still up in PA. If you can imagine it, she looks about 10 times worse now.

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ferret, ferrets, Insulinoma, Adrenal Disease

Cheeba's Blood Glucose seems to be going down again

So the past few results:

Wed AM: 535
Wed PM: 450
Thu AM: 392

He seemed more alert this morning, and had a better appetite. I got 25 cc's of babyfood/AD into him fairly easily. I've gone back to syringe feeding him, as he seems to like licking it off the end of the syringe better than out of a dish. I still have to scruff him for the last 13 or so cc's, but he continues to lick it off the syringe.

I felt so bad this morning - I couldn't get the BG monitor to register the blood drop, and he was getting pretty anxious by the time it worked. I had to hold him against the side of my body with my left arm, hold his tail with my left hand and get the sample with my right. He wasn't a happy fuzzy afterwards.

Stool continues to be strange - full of mucous, birdseed appearance, ranging in color from yellow to brown. He's had a couple normal ones, but the majority are odd.

So hopefully the downward trend in his BG will continue. I would really like to see him improve. It's almost worse being in this limbo than it would be if he had gotten continually worse and passed on. Almost.

Keep fighting, little Cheeba!

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ferret, ferrets, Diabetes In Ferrets

Update on Cheeba

Cheeba isn't improving like I had hoped he would. I upped his dosage of insulin from 1 unit to 1.5 units, and for a few tests in a row, his BG was going down. But then last night it was 596 again. Here's how the last few days have gone.

Saturday
AM BG: 452
PM BG: 500
Ketones: Negative
Started having some really strange stool, including a pale yellow foamy liquid with mucous. All stools have had a very strong odor.

Sunday
AM BG: 540
PM BG: 506
Ketones: Negative
Upped dosage of Insulin in the evening. Had his Lupron shot and melatonin implant.

Monday
AM BG: 585
PM BG: 555
Ketones: Negative
Appetite was better in the afternoon than it has been before this point.

Tuesday
AM BG: 479
PM BG: 596
Ketones: Negative
Most stools have been liquidy, but the majority have been brown.

Wednesday
AM BG: 535
Appetite this morning hasn't been that good - had to split his morning feeding up into two sessions. He's also been very sleepy, but when he's awake he seems more alert. The open mouthed breathing he had when I first took him in is back, but only intermittantly. He has gradually started squeaking less over the last week or so as well, and mostly only squeaks when he goes to the bathroom. This also hasn't been as bad, and seems to be loudest when he's having a BM.

So fingers are still crossed and hopes are still high. The fact that he's still here is surprising (and wonderful, of course), but I just wish his BG would go down into the 300's. If it would just go down a little, I would have more faith that we could eventually bring it down to around 200.

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ferret, ferrets, Ferret Blog, Lupron, Diabetes In ferrets, Melatonin Implant

Cheeba is holding steady, for the most part

Warning! There will be graphic discussions of poop later on in this post, so if you have a weak stomach, read at your own risk!!

Cheeba still has high BG, but I think the ketoacidosis crisis may be over. I have been testing his urine 3 times a day with Keto-Diastix, and the results have been negative for the last 4 times. It be such a blessing if that were the case. He would have a real chance without his body feeding on its own tissue. He seems to have more energy, though not enough to play. He seems to have just enough energy to fight me when I try to test his blood glucose (BG). Ferretone is only distracting him slightly, so usually I have Steve help me.

NOTE: Getting a blood sample for BG testing can be very frustrating and sometimes downright impossible. This site goes over a really good technique for getting it. I highly recommend her technique!

Cheeba's food intake continues to be good. He's eating the A/D & baby food mix out of the bowl by himself, which is good. The syringe feeding was unpleasant for both of us. His water intake has gone down, but that's to be expected with the daily sub-q fluids and how much water is already in the baby food and A/D.

He is done with his ulcer medication, something I'm sure he is very grateful for. He took it like a little trooper, but I'm sure he was thinking what I was - enough is enough! I'm keeping him on the carafate for now, since high blood sugar can cause him to feel nauseated, and I have seen and heard him grind his teeth a lot in the past few days. I don't believe it's ulcer related though, as his feces are not at all black and no other ulcer signs (other than the teeth grinding, which just indicates stomach pain) are present.

Speaking of feces... (remember my warning! Oh ye of weak stomachs, turn away now!)

Up until Wednesday evening, his stool was remarkably well formed. I was beginning to think that he might actually be slightly constipated, given his noise when he pooped and the texture of the stool. It didn't even squish apart when squeezed, it just kind of flattened. (Yes, I picked it up and poked at it. I used a kleenex!) But for the past couple days it has been alternately formed and then a very loose, mucuosy, yellow-green liquid. I will be speaking to the vet about it when I see her on Sunday. I just hope it's stress from the health situation and not some new disease I have to worry about treating at the same time as diabetes. It was hard enough treating diabetes and ulcers at the same time!

And now on to less graphic discussions (hey, you're lucky I didn't include pictures!)

His BG has been all over the place:

11/1 am 534
11/1 pm 359

11/2 am 277
11/2 pm 378

11/3 am 411

There was even a result on 10/31 around 11pm (I tested him again because I had a really hard time waking him up) that was 130! Every time it starts to go down I get all excited, and then it just goes right back up again. It may be because he's on Humulin, which is a human insulin. Some other ferret owners with extensive diabetes experience have recommended that I put him on PZI, which is a cat insulin. I'm going to pick some up from my vet on Sunday.

So there you have it - Cheeba's "progress" in a nutshell. With poop.

Please continue to pray for him and think of him! If the ketones are in fact gone from his urine and he is no longer ketoacidotic, it is a major step in the right direction, but he's not out of the woods yet.

Tags

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ferret, ferrets, Diabetes, Ferret Diabetes, Keto-Diastix, Testing A Ferret's Blood Glucose

Cheeba loves to scare his mommy

Well, Cheeba went back on ulcer medication. Improved for about 4 days, then started to go downhill really fast for no apparent reason. I rushed him to the vet last Thursday expecting to hear something like "I'm sorry, but he has advanced lymphoma and there's nothing you can do". Instead I hear "Cheeba is diabetic - he has a BG level of 492, and he's ketoacidotic. He very well may not make it". Next sound was my jaw hitting the floor.

We're unsure as to why he went from being insulinomic to being diabetic. He may just be very sensitive to the pred, or it could be a rare side effect of his adrenal disease. Diabetes is very rare in ferrets. Most ferrets that go diabetic have just had surgery for insulinoma, and most cases are temporary. We're unsure yet as to whether or not Cheeba's is permanent. I'm leaning towards yes, and I think if I can get him through this initial crisis, it's going to be a yo-yo back and forth between low BG and high BG the rest of his life.

Which brings me to the "getting him through this" part. He is getting insulin injections twice a day, sub-q fluids once a day, antibiotics twice a day to prevent secondary infections, and we're still treating the ulcers I took him in for initially! I test his BG twice a day before giving him his insulin injections, and his urine three times a day for ketones. Ketoacidosis is when the body doesn't recognize that the blood is already full of glucose, so it starts breaking down body tissue to release more, which results in ketones showing up in the urine. When a diabetic is also ketoacidotic, he or she is a very sick diabetic. When I took Cheeba in last Thursday, his ketones were at 4+. They are now at trace, but have not gone to a negative reading yet. If I can get him stabilized to the point where the ketones are no longer showing in his urine, then I can start focusing on long term care.

So if you think of it, please keep Cheeba in your thoughts and prayers. It's great that he's still with us - I didn't expect him to make it through the weekend - but he's not out of the woods yet. He really could go at any time, which in a way makes my time with him right now all the more precious.

Be strong Cheeba!

Tags

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ferret, ferrets, Diabetes, Ketoacidosis, Insulin