bad news about fergie

miss fergusson, wuza's cage-mate, lost more hair while i was in england. she and wuza both were losing hair starting in december/january. i'd taken them both to the vet, and they'd been treated for mites and fungus, without success. wuza grew her hair back before she died, but fergie kept losing it.

so i made an appointment for her at the penn vet school, where i should've taken her to begin with. it was yesterday at noon.

they were very thorough. a 4th year student took a detailed history and gave her a preliminary exam. then the vet (dr. ev*lyn iv*y) looked at her. she said this pattern of hair loss is commen in older female guinea pigs. it's usually caused by ovarian cysts, and is treatable with a hormone injection.

then came the bad news.

she said she felt several masses in fergie's abdomen. because they were hard, she thought they were tumors. probably ovarian cancer, maybe uterine cancer. they could be causing the hair loss, or fergie might have cysts as well.

she said it's possible that they're not tumors--could have been a slightly out-of-place kidney, or some other harmless something on her spleen. but probably not.

if it's cancer, fergie *might* live for a long time with it. apparently sometimes small animals do. but she didn't seem very hopeful.

the treatment is surgery. if the cancer hasn't spread, and it's ovarian (or even uterine), it's apparently fairly easily operable. however, the surgery and related stuff would cost $1200. i don't have $1200. and even if i did, i don't think i would subject my poor little girl to the trauma. she'd have to get blood taken, and an ultrasound, and then go through that big trauma. and guinea pigs apparently often get through the surgery ok, but then are never right again--they don't really start eating again, and slowly die. i don't want fergie to have to go through that.

depending on how the cancer progresses, i can expect various things. if it spreads to her lungs, she'll start to have trouble breathing. if it spreads to her liver, she'll feel crappy and lethargic. it might just sap all her energy, and she'll get thinner and thinner and waste away.

my poor little girl.

last night and this morning she didn't seem to want to jump up to the second level of her cage (where the food bowl is). i moved it down. i'm worried that this is a sign of her getting weaker. i wonder if i'm imagining that she's breathing harder. she's still eating well, and drinking. i hope it stays that way.

it's too soon after wuza. my heart is raw.

heh heh. argentina.

13 June 2002 - 11:37 am

heh heh. argentina.

k, so i know it's a little late to be writing about england's win over argentina, but hey, i'm just getting around to it.

i'm really getting into this world cup thing. karl and i got up at 2.30am on wednesday morning to watch england v. nigeria. it wasn't worth it, being a 0-0 game with barely any action, but how could we know that at the time? nigeria were already out, having lost to both argentina and sweden, but they were playing for pride. england only needed a draw to progress to the next round. i guess both teams got what they wanted. we're getting up early on friday morning to watch usa v. poland (same deal: poland's already out) and on saturday morning to watch england v. denmark in the round of 16. (check *that* out: i'm getting up at 7.25 on a *saturday* morning to watch a sporting event. *what* is the world coming to?)

i've started calling it 'football'. i check the scores every day. i've downloaded (and learned all the words to) "three lions" by the lightning seeds, the best (imho) of england's many football anthems. i've caught myself up on england's world cup history, and its rivalry with argentina (hint: it's not all about the game). i can chat knowledgeably about the "hand of god" incident and beckham's '98 world cup red card.