From:
katharine
Date: 2001-04-14 20:00:00 UTC
Subject: RE: FW: [Ferret-Health-list] Anemia/UPDATE PLEASE HELP!/NEW
PROBLEM,
<My problem is this, Oliver as of last night seemed to be
having a hard time going to the bathroom
i.e., would attempt to go several times before actually
being able to. <
This happened to Champ just a couple of days after his
adrenal surgery. He would go to the litter box and nothing
would come out. He did this several times and finally
dribbled a little. I called the emergency vet and she was
nice enough to talk me through all of it on the phone. She
felt it was a urinary tract infection, not a blockage, since
something did finally come out. We went through all the
animal drugs I had in the house and settled on metranidazole
(I think) to start him on and she said to take him to his
vet the next morning. It turned out to definitely be a UTI
and we just kept him on the flagyl. It was only 2-3 weeks
later that he was diagnosed with renal failure. So.....if
Oliver is successfully urinating, it probably isn't an
emergency situation, but I would definitely take him in
first thing Monday a.m.
Speaking of Champ....
He is still eating well nearly 3 weeks after his B-12 shot.
Of course, he's still entirely on soup and only in my lap.
He has regained about 200g in the last 3 weeks (and my gram
scale is within 10g of the vets' scale...Yay!). He has been
on his potassium supplement for two weeks now. I took him
yesterday for bloodwork (along with my 30g opossum baby who
has a very messed up front leg; she has a tiny cast and is
absolutely adorable) and his potassium now looks good. We
will continue the supplement for a while. His BUN and
creatinin continue to improve. Now, he is becoming anemic.
Champ now has cimetadine (Tagamet), Tumil-K (potassium) and
Lixotinic (anemia) all dumped in his soup. He is going to
get wise about all of this soon, I fear. I will start
giving him Epogen injections (3 times a week) next week when
Doc gets it back in stock. I have also increased his
Lactated Ringers to 40ml twice a day, sub-q.
This disease certainly progresses rapidly! It seems that
when we get one thing under control, something else pops
up. I wish I knew what to expect next and his prognosis.
My vet is always completely honest with me, and doesn't keep
things from me, so I think he just doesn't know.
Katharine