From:
deena
Date: 2002-01-12 21:18:00 UTC
Subject: Should we run bloodwork?
Kiwi is my three year old MF female. Lately she has been crying out in her
sleep fairly often, I know that ferrets can have occasional bad dreams, but
due to the frequency, (3-4 times in a week) I am worried. Once this week
she actually screamed. Just one short sceam, but it was scary to me. When I
go
check on her, she is sometimes breathing a bit heavy and twitching her paws
like in a dream.
She is eating, drinking, pooping, peeing normally. When she's awake, she's
very playful.
The only other possible symptom is that she is sleeping more than the
others, and has been found sleeping off by herself (instead of with the
group) a few times.
She has been to the vet- seems to be a perfectly healthy ferret. The vet
says if it continues we can do some bloodwork. I wanted to ask the lists
opinion. Is this the next recommended step? What would we be looking for?
How dangerous is it to take blood from the jugular of a very squirmy ferret?
My vet says she is confident that she can get the blood with her awake, but
Kiwi doesn't have a lot of loose skin on her scruff, and often wiggles out
of a scruff hold. In fact, during her exam, neither the vet nor I were
completely successful holding her still for more than a few seconds. Of
course I would worry about gassing her down to get the blood too, and
don't want to subject her to more than we have to. Maybe she just dreams
more than any of my other four ferrets?
Thanks for any input here. .............deena