From:
Steph
Date: 2001-12-29 05:54:00 UTC
Subject: re: Z/D
Hi,
I have not posted for a while. I have posted in the past
about my ferret, Mikey, who is now 10 months old. He has a
slow heart rate and seemed to exhaust easily, and had a very
poor appetite most of the time. We ran bloods, did x-rays,
ultrasounds, ekg's, fecals, etc. and nothing was found. He
was switched to a home cooked diet, which he did better on,
but still did not seem quite right. About 2 months ago I
obtained a baby ferret, who is deaf, and Mikey absolutely
loves him, and for the most part did really well. One thing
the baby ferret, Frodo, did was to emphasize how unnormal
Mikey was. At times I worried that I was not remembering my
past ferrets well in babyhood. We tried Mikey on prednisone
and he seemed to respond well. His activity level increased
and so did his appetite. Finally getting him to eat enough
was not a chore. But, a couple of weeks later I had to rush
Mikey in as he was playing with Frodo and ended up with his
sides heaving. He had lost almost 1/2 pounds and a small lump
was felt in his abdomen. More x-rays were taken, and a
decision was made for an exploratory.
His lymph node and left adrenal gland were huge. I was in
surgery with Mikey, so my vet discussed whether to remove the
adrenal or just biopsy it. He felt that it was large because
of the fact that he was sick rather than adrenal gland
disease, but was worried if the biosy came back as a tumor
that we would have to go back in on an already unhealthy
ferret, so it was removed. The lymph node was biopsied, and
so was his liver as some values had been slightly abnormal in
the past. His bowels looked great, but were biopsied just the
same as they had been suspected of causing problems in the
past, because of his lack of appetite.
The lab. results came back as Eosinophilic Enteritis, based on
the biopsies of his lymph node and small intestines. His
adrenal gland was unremarkable, and the liver exhibited "a
mild degree of vacuolation of the feathery type, consistent
with mild glycogen accumulation" (? ).
Even though his fecals had come back negative in the past, he
was given panacur just in case. He is back on a long -term
course of pred. and has been switched to Z/D. The protein
level seems appropriate, but the fat level low. I have
noticed that others on this list have their ferrets on it, do
you supplement? I especially worry about Frodo, as he is on
it by default. Frodo is 4 1/2 months old.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Steph, Mikey and Frodo