From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-02-19 12:59:00 UTC
Subject: changing over time
--
Just in case anyone who hasn't had ferrets in the family for a while
now misunderstood: it's not a simple thing to keep ferrets as happy
as possible during serious illness(es). There is fine tuning that
goes on all the while, meds may be altered, or changed in proportion,
or added, or given in different form, or... so that the process is
one that changes over time throughout a ferret's illness. After
having a few ferrets who go on to have months (sometimes over a year
depending on the illness and the individual) more of quality life
than expected a person begins to realize that this just is the way
things work.
Not all will be as active as elderly Warp is for their own reasons:
disease type, personality, level of illness, etc. Warp's a nervous
little soul, always has been.
Warp, though, has appeared to be close to giving out several times,
only to bounce back with a lot of attention and changes in medical
approaches or doses, and that is NOT unusual. She is fine example of
why it pays to picks the brains of others, and why a ferret
knowledgeable vet who is willing to experiment around the individual
needs of given ferret is such a treasure, not only for quantity of
life, but for quality.
Here are a few tips to providing quality of life: learn about meds
and options, make sure that the vet and you both know everything the
ferret is getting. Realize that the approaches used will change
over the course of the illness so both appointments and phone
discussions will increase. Make sure that the vet knows about the
individual's personality (nervous and prone to food strikes, docile
and eager to please, annoyed easily, etc.). Keep notes of future
things to try as per your discussions with the treating vet. Keep
medication charts to avoid missing or doubling meds and to know how
long each has been used. These are as simple a lined sheet of paper
on which you draw columns for each individual's medications while the
rows are the dates.
Hope this helps.