From:
Val erie
Date: 2001-11-29 10:03:00 UTC
Subject: Blockage update - adrenal + heliobacter?
I posted before about our ferret who had been un-well for a few months.
He had been getting lethargic and losing weight, then I found him throwing
up, started feeding him chicken baby food. He would eat, but grinding his
teeth frequently, sometimes pawing at his mouth, and occasionally throwing
up. He didn't seem to be getting worse, but definitely wasn't getting
better.
We took him to the vet for an x-ray and every blood test there is.
Nothing showed up in the xray and nothing conclusive came from the blood
tests.
The vet gave him flagyl. We also gave him pepcid in case it was an ulcer.
From reading here, we became convinced it might be a partial blockage. He
got worse over the weekend - we had to fight to get food into him, and he
was throwing up more.
We went to the vet and bugged him into doing a barium series. When we took
woogie in, the vet palpated him again and thought he felt something. The
barium xray showed what might be 2 partial blockages, 1 in his stomach and 1
in his intestine. He said they were porous. The vet said they could be
other things too - swollen lymph nodes, etc.
Yesterday they went in for exploratory surgery. His left adrenal gland was
in the process of rupturing. There was blood clotting around it. The vet
removed the left adrenal gland. He examined the stomach and intestines for
a blockage, and didn't find any. He said where the stomach connects to the
small intestine, it looked diseased. He took a sample of that and the
liver, a lymph node, etc. to send off for biopsy.
We had noticed a little bit of hairloss on the back of his neck, but thought
he might be changing coats, then thought whatever was making him sick might
be keeping his new coat from coming in.
I thought I saw 'adrenal' at the vets office where they were ordering the
blood tests, but didn't see it anywhere on the results. The vet is checking
into that.
The vet said the diseased looking intestine could be heliobacter. The
biopsy results will take a week to come back. He is going to start him on
heliobacter treatment on friday. (flagyl/amoxy/?) We're waiting until then
because he fights the flagyl and don't want to cause more stress than
necessary.
He came home last night and was up wandering around a bit 5 minutes later,
then wandered back to bed. He has wandered to the water bowl to drink
several times and I have given him a tiny bit of very soft, watered down
food.
Another of our ferrets who seems completely healthy has a very thin tail -
we're worrying about her now.
I'm sharing this in hope it might help someone else. We appreciate the info
on this board - it may have saved his life!
Any comments, suggestions, etc. will be appreciated.
Thanks for being there for us!
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