From:
sukieferret
Date: 2002-02-23 16:04:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Dr. WILLIAMS > "stroke"
> subject that differentiates stroke from something she
> termed "cardiovascular disease", or a blood clot in the hind
>legs resulting from a disturbance in the flow of the vena cava.
Well, I am not a vet but I sure know a little about thrombsoses.
We have had two ferrets who threw clots so we learned a bit the
hard way.
The first threw clots because she had advanced cardiomyopathy
with rhythm problems that the meds were finally no longer
controlling. I do not know what aspect led to her throwing clots
(as I said, not a vet) . Her first one went to a rear leg and with
massage and a day's time it broke up safely with no lasting
damage. Poor thing was barely put down that day; we were told
to massage and we did -- to the point of sleeping in shifts.
Then we tried blood thinners on her, but she developed bleeding
problems and they had to be stopped; even aspirin was too
harsh for her. Then tried vitamin E because it's a bit antagonistic
to vitamin K -- or so the state of knowledge said at that time
because I don't know if that has altered.
Can't recall if she had any small ones between then and the last
two days.
Meltdown's next to final one was a decent while later and it went
to a kidney. that one did not dissolve though it was given a day to
hopefully do so, and the morning after (when we knew she'd
need a mercy shot) she threw a final one to her brain and wound
up nervous and twisting constantly to one side.
Her cardiomyopathy treatments gave her a lot of fine time before
then -- more than a year's worth -- but eventually the disease got
past treating.
The other one who threw a clot was Spot and he did it due to
kidney disease, and threw only one, but that one was a whopper.
We found him comatose in a favorite sleeping place, and for two
or three days took him back and forth between the regular
animal hospital for day observation and an all-night emergency
clinic where vets would be awake with him through the wee
hours. Then one day he was almost better. Over a short amount
of time (think it was weeks) it came to pass that he only had a
small part of one leg with any mobility problems and a smaller
part of the same leg with sensory problems.