From:
Lynne Troy
Date: 2001-11-30 13:26:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Giggles' Again (still)
I'm not a vet, but have had experience in this area. My foster baby
has the same symptoms. She weighed only a little over a pound when I
brought her home in mid-October (with the intention of fattening her
up before surgery). She was almost completely bald. She was on .3 ml
of pediapred 2 x a day to stimulate her appetite (IBD suspected).
I originally thought she would have surgery sometime in January so I
took her to my vet for a lupron shot to alleviate some of the adrenal
symptoms. She did have the shot, but my vet said she prefers to
operate, as long as their general health is good, when the ferret is a
little on the thinner side. Not as much fat in the abdominal area,
which makes it hard to find what you are looking for. Anyway, the
shot was about 4 weeks ago and she is now completely covered in short
hair. No bald spots at all.
Her surgery is scheduled for next Friday and it's a right adrenal.
Also doing an intestinal biopsy to see if her eating problems are due
to IBD. I think that lupron is great. No problems mixing the shot
with her daily pred. In fact, she is now down to .1ml pred every
other day and her last dose will be 2 days before her surgery. In my
opinion, lupron is certainly worth a shot in this case.
Lynne
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., ncferretmom@y... wrote:
> A snip of where we WERE follows. Here is an update and I AM looking
> for some input from you Lupron-savvy fert-lovers.
>
> Giggles was improving and eating more on the antibiotics/pred/
> potassium combo. She is off all but the pred at the moment. She
> continues to be lethargic and is still at about 1 pound. Now,
> however, she is really starting to show some thinning of the coat in
> the area between her shoulder blades. There are some patchy bald
> spots (tiny ones) that appear elsewhere as well.
>
> The vet does not feel she is a good surgical candidate at the moment
> and would like her weight up a little more first.
> So, the questions:
> 1. Do we go ahead with a Lupron injection to see if the symptoms
> improve?
> 2. Also, she is on .16 cc Pediapred bid (2x/daily) and if this is
> adrenal disease, how long can we go before it complicates the
adrenal
> disease?
> 3. And, is there a problem using the Lupron and Pediapred together?
> 4. And, if there is some IB or EGE stuff going on, is this the best
> combo?
>
> Like I said, the vets are very good and rapidly becoming immersed in
> ferret medicine! If you are a vet who would like to discuss this
with
> them, please let me know and I will give you the contact info. Thank
> you in advance for whatever input you have.
>
> renee :)
>
> --- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., ncferretmom@y... wrote:
> > great ferret vets to contact and he talked to a vet I greatly
> respect
> > in North Carolina, Dr. Lauren Powers. That and some e-mail contact
> > led us to try the tx for irritable bowel which appears to be
> working.
> > So far it seems to working as she has stopped sliding and is
> slightly
> > improved.