From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-04-05 15:15:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Partial paralysis -- incontinence
We recently had a an old lady with a spinal growth which caused
urinary and fecal incontinence, poor to later almost-nonexistent hind
leg control, and pain near the end.
For the pain we found that Prednisone was a huge help and she later
also had opiates (and as a result was able to make the most of her
time, with pleasure and much spoiling).
Nothing could be done about the incontinence, except to get her clean
multiple times a day. so we stopped out planning for new flooring at
that time.
There were two things found to help with mobility:
1. Several places make wheelchairs for critters. The one we used
was Doggon' Wheels (P.O. Box 1991, Waldport, OR 97394,
1-888-736-4466, fax 1-888-236-4329, http://www.doggon.com/home.html).
2. It is easy to make a sling for a ferret with mobility problems.
Choose a pair of panty hose suited to YOUR height. (If there are
multiple human members in you family with widely differing heights
you can get different color panty hose in the appropriate height for
each one so that no one has a sore back; then your slings will be
color-coded.) Place one pantyhose foot on top of the other and sew
them together to form a hammock for the ferret's belly. Then roll the
top down and sew together to make a handle. You can place the
hammock part under the ferret's belly and lift slightly on the handle
so that the ferret does not have to bear to much (or any -- depending
on ferret) of the weight of the rear and walk the ferret that way.
*****IMPORTANT: DO make sure that this is okay with your vet first,
esp. post-surgically!*****