From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-11-19 15:32:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Help for Yoyo, please!
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., 227peck@b... wrote:
> The vet and I had narrowed down Yoyo's problem to an injury to
> his spine. After one week of treatment on antibiotics of Baytril,
> Amoxicillin in addition to Prednisone, Yoyo seemed to be greatly
> improving each day and by this past Friday, Yoyo was up walking
> (on all fours) no longer dragging his hind legs, and used the
> litter box with no problems.
>
> Saturday, I noticed that he was sleepier and it took some
> encouragement and tempting with a toy to get him up and
> moving around. This morning I came in to let my buddies out to
> play and Yoyo stayed sound asleep. When I picked him up I
> noticed that he was salivating and had not used the litter box all
> night. When I set him down in the litter box he was straining and
> whimpering and managed to only pass urine. This afternoon I
> had given him the last of his antibiotics and his Prednisone. He
> seemed very shaky and his head was bobbing.
>
> When I came in to check on them this evening I noticed that the
> litter box was still clean. I know that the one sure way I could
get
> him to go would be to put him in the tub with some nice warm
> water -- this always worked before whether I wanted it to or not.
> Sure enough he was in there for no more than a minute when he
> started to go and again he was having difficulty and whimpering
> but managed to pass both urine and stool. The stool looked very
> grainy and there was not much of it.
>
> While being dried off, he seemed to keep grabing at the towel
> and whimpering like it was painful for him to try to groom
> himself. These symptoms have come on so suddenly it's like a
> reaction to the medication he's been on. He didn't have these
> (the salivating and head-bobbing) before until he had been on
> the Prednisone for a week.
Dear Barb - Whenever I hear of a male ferret having trouble voiding
the first thing that I hve to think of is adrenal-related cystic
prostatic disease. (There's lots of info on this in the FHL
archive.) In this condition, a ferret can't voluntarily urinate due
to compression of the urethra by the swollen prostate. This can
become a life=threatening situation, so I would discuss this with
your vet immediately.
I would also recommend some more blood telsts to rule out insulinoma
and electrolyte disturbances that may result from an inability to
urinate.
Spinal injuries are very uncommon in ferrets, and diagnoses of such
are often based on weak evidence. It would not likely result in the
lesions tht you are now seeing, so I think it is time to step back
and re-evaluate.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM