From:
motorcityferrets@hotmail.com
Date: 2002-11-04 07:35:17 UTC
Subject: cause of serious panting?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <19237180.1036395317841.JavaMail.root@scandium>
amanda is about 5 with a mostly unknown history. i can say, unfortunately, that she spent her last year before being surrendered to us in a cage with no excercise. when she arrived she was VERY obese with a thick coat of blubber all over and extreme fat pads on either side of neck, etc. her coat said adrenal disease, so in she went. she was eating WELL at the time, of course, but not too active overall. she "checked out" before surgery during an exam...heart good, no signs of insulinoma (glucose nice and normal), etc.
doc found the left adrenal diseased and removed it. she had a huge tumor on the right side which wrapped all around the vena cava and other important items, so complete removal was not possible. she didn't have any "trouble" if you will during surgery, other than the obvious hideous tumor.
amanda recovered from surgery well (surgery done 09.05.02). she had no trouble eating kibble the evening of and continued eating well until recently. for the last few weeks she's had "the sniffles." she has been best buds with wilbur, a far along adrenal case who also has "the sniffles." amoxi had no effect, baytril the same...and it's been over a month of overall "sniffles" for both. serious wheezing for wilbur with lots and lots of wet sneezes. he's at the end of adrenal disease (surrendered in this state)...??? no one else in the shelter has shown any symptoms of respitory trouble and we've had about 40-50 critters through during the time of the pair's "sniffles."
for the last two weeks, amanda has been panting like a dog and breathing rapidly and heavily at all times. she's never been active, from her surrender date in august until now. she has lost quite a bit of weight, but it's been the loss of all the excess fat - she is not dehydrated and continues to eat very well. i'm at a loss to pin down her emotional state. she's very blase about life, but i've always equated that with her activity level...she just seems pooped all the time. of course right now it seems so hard to draw breath i'm not suprised. she's very interested in what we hooman beans do and always wants to be snuggled. in other words, i just can't get a feeling for how depressed she might or might not be.
at her second exam, doc found her heart to still sound pretty good. her lungs sound clear and he didn't hear anything that would tell him what's really going on. right now she's on everything in a last ditch effort to do something positive: encard, lasix, florinef and pred. today marks one week on the coctail with no appreciable effect. she's started to eat less regularly, but i really think it's because she just doesn't feel like getting out of bed. when i bring her food she munches happily and loves nutrical, so she is getting a good daily amount of nutrition. she's just SO pooped and her panting is driving us both nuts.
so...??? any ideas? what can we look for or try for this dear gal? thx!!!
nanci, amanda and the gang of motor city ferrets