From:
Pam Sessoms
Date: 2001-03-10 10:47:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Ulcers - temp or perm?
Emily,
All together now, "I'm not a vet, but..."
On Sat, 10 Mar 2001 etopp@e... wrote:
>
> Question - how long????? Do ulcers ever heal up? Or is this a
> permanent condition?
I think they're curable but it can take a LONG time, as in a couple of
months in some cases. Certainly longer than two weeks...
In thinking back to Dr. Williams' past posts about ulcers, and in looking
at my own experiences with treaing suspected ulcers in one of mine, a real
key is the carafate (sucralfate) and exactly how it is being given. It's
a "patch" and adheres to the ulcer, covering it up to protect it and
making it more comfy for the fuzzy to eat. I've had good luck with giving
it 20 minutes before the bland-non-kibble feeding. I use chicken baby
food or an especially smooth blended batch of Bob's gravy... But the
carafate needs to be given before each and every feeding, rather than
every 8 hours or whatever is sometimes suggested. It's a lot to keep on
top of, and it WILL eat up a lot of time, but it's very much worth it to
see them finally over the blasted things...
> One more question - there is always the possibility of a gigantic
> flaming hairball in this girl's stomach since she had a double adrenal
<snip>
> AND SHE'S ABOUT 5, I'm very leery of further surgery just to go
> looking for a hairball. Comments?
You sound just like me!! I've been really paranoid about a possible big
honking hair ball in the stomach of my suspected ulcer girl (Sonic, a
blind 7 yr old with multiple problems). Sonic has finally turned around
and is nibbling kibble again, and I've finally stopped with the carafate
after two or three months... BUT Here's a question for the vets: How
much luck do you have with getting an endoscope into the stomach of
ferrets? If you've done it, what kind of scope does it take, and are
there any good tricks? And would this be a good way to look for
hairballs, to spare them a full abdominal surgery just to look for this
problem?
Be very curious to hear other takes on this...
Best wishes,
-Pam S.