From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-07-28 20:02:00 UTC
Subject: Re: NEED ADVICE QUICKLY [added info
>Hello, I'm Rhonda from *Grin and Ferret* (Yahoo! clubs)...one of my
>members has a sick ferret and needs some advice. His ferret is losing
>weight, has no appetite, will not drink, and is 'grinding' his jaws.
>He has had him to the vet, but the vet is at a loss to explain his
>illness. At first, the vet thought it was distemper (because he is an
>adoptee from a shelter only a month ago), but that has been ruled
>out. The vet wants to do exploratory surgery on him but fears that he
>is too weak to survive it. Now he is suggesting putting him to
>sleep....They made duck soup for him which he would not eat, so he
>was hydrated at the clinic and given predenzone and antibiotics. Does
>anyone have any advice to give before he goes ahead and sends him
>over the rainbow bridge? Thank you for your time.
>
>*Grin and Ferret*
>
>Rhonda Foucault
>Founder/Grin and Ferret
>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/grinandferret
Were there classic canine distemper symptoms to make a person come to
that conclusion? If so, then one of our vets, Hanan Caine, had
treated some ferrets with that in the past. (He has since moved
away.) They had been exposed to canine distemper (not in the same
year as a valid shot) and because they still had some immunity from
earlier years they got it but more mildly so that they did not die
but were left damaged, and the person was left with a CDV positive
home for an extended time.
If there were no such symptoms then perhaps the vet should be
thinking about settling the pain and nausea with an ulcer approach of
Carafate and other meds (See past vet ulcer write-ups in the FHL
using the search feature.), and building up the ferret.
With a tender tum stay away from crunchies; use baby food or a/d with
hot water and serve it at a temperature near body temp (90'F to about
105'F) because then it will smell more interesting, and use
techniques like patient hand feeding with singing (I am not joking.)
to interest the ferret.