From:
Alicia
Date: 2001-05-07 04:12:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Need help with Snowflake
Hi Kristine-
I AM NOT A Vet-- but here are my thoughts on Snowflake.....
I would see if you can get blood enough to profile liver , it sounds like
you may have a liver dysfunction there-- ?
The great appetite now does pretty much rule out typical liver deficiency--
as they are nauseous and do not want to eat. If the food is primarily soft
you will see softer stools until you wean her back onto hard kibble.
The only other suggestions as a layman I would have are insulinoma which
does cause weight loss or ulcers ( which may cause irregular & soft stools) .
The quandry is that you have 2 initiators of the weight loss -- distemper
vaccine ( and I am assuming due to her age 2nd or 3rd yearly) and stress
from your being away.... This can confuse the issue as to whether the
cause is medical , or stress and emotional.
Sending good thoughts.
alicia
re:
>Snowflake-Young gal that is not quite 3 years old.
>
>Over the past month she has been steadily dropping wieght.
>She had her anual distemper shots about that long ago and
>wieghted in at 1 lb 8 ozs. She now wieghts 14 ozs.
>
>It started up when I was gone for a couple days. I had someone
>here watching the fur kids here for me. She does not like
>change and never has. Apparently this was enough to get her
>worked up. She refused to eat on her own till I got home. She
>had lost a couple ozs then. Once I was back she was eating
>duck soup on her own. Right now it's a mix of a/d, chicken baby
>food, dyne, pet tinic and little pau d' arco. She is eating 3-4 large
>bowls a day. Approx 90 cc's each bowl. She's finishing each
>one almost completely and then her cage mate is licking up any
>left overs. Left overs are not more than 10 cc's and her cage
>mate is getting down right fat on it. Yet, even though Snowflake
>is eating all this food since a month back she is continueing to
>lose weight.
>
>Doing blood work was awful. Hardly got any blood from her. My
>Vet is usually a pro at this and just barely got enough do lab
>work with. Well..as things work out the darn machine broke half
>way through the test. All that did come out was totally
>normal...but we got no wbc and several other important things
>from it before it conked out. We looked at some of the blood
>under the microscope and could see there looked to be a high
>number of wbc's. No lymphcytes.
>
>Her coat is beautiful. Full, thick, and soft. Giving the impression
>if you only look at her that she is the picture of health, that is until
>you pick her up and realize that is all she is. Up till the last week
>her poop looked pretty good..formed and only slightly softer than
>should be. Now they are getting weirder. Still formed, but kinda
>jello like in consistancy. (did fecal-nothing there either)
>
>For the last 12 days she has been on clavamox, in case of
>infection. And also on pred (.25 mg twice daily)..in case of the
>dreaded lymphoma..which we are kinda wondering if it is.
>
>Saturday morning we woke to her having a yellowish crust on
>her eyes. I put terramyacin on her eyes after cleaning them. I've
>continued putting it on her eyes twice a day. Now just one eye
>has some gunk in the corners in it that needs to cleaned just
>once daily.
>
>Today her nose looks gunky too. It's greenish/yellowish inside.
>It's not dripping out..but way in there where I can see it and get
>out a bit if I use a warm wash clothe.
>
>She's still eating. hates the pred and will sometimes gag and
>vomit it back up.
>
>We are going back in this afternoon to see the vet. Hopefully we
>can actually get blood work done right this time too.
>
>What are we missing? Any ideas? Anything else we should do
>when there? I thought even distemper? But we've had no new
>shelters here in the last month. And her symptoms don't quite
>seem right there, do they? I know she is up to date on her shots
>and has been in the last year.
>
>biopsy would seem right if we think lymphoma..but first the blood
>work done right. But with what looks like lots of infections and
>such low wieght is that even a good plan at all?
>
>she has no hind leg weakness. She is not dehydrated. she is
>actually still active even. Not exactly jumping for joy. But she
>does wander around a lot and even will run for the playroom
>door. She wakes up as soon as I go to the room in hopes for
>some more duck soup. I'm definately not ready to give up here.
>She's too young and I KNOW she wants to live.
>
>I'm feeling super useless here. My vet I love dearly, but what
>steps do we take here?
>
>thank you for listening to my long post.
>Kristine
>
>
>
>
>
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