Message Number: YG11651 | New FHL Archives Search
From: craigkrisowen
Date: 2002-03-04 08:08:00 UTC
Subject: Re: distemper or flu ...update

Thank you all for your offer to help. I have not been able to get
online to get you an update till now. No, no other tests done. Just
his poop and ears. He was in our grass and my husband fertilized
about 2 weeks before. It is watered every day though so I don't know
if anything was still there. I am switching his food back today or
tomorrow. I caught him sneezing when he went inside the Zupreem bag
to eat some this morning. Yes, your right...It does point to
Distemper. Especially the disformed enlarged paw pads. and the red
swollen lips and eyes. That being said, I really figured I had
nothing to loose by hitting the herbal Anti/viral, antibacterial
herbs hard along with the vets antibiotics. I have been feeding him
(along with the herbal teas) Zand's Herbal Insure For Kids, to build
Immunity. It has a collection of herbs in it to fight infection. I
used Tea Tree salve on him paw pads and made a misting spray of tea
tree oil and water and doused him down, rubbing it into his skin . He
really has a bad skin problem. The Tea Tree has appeared to stop the
skin infection from spreading. It looked like it was starting to go
for the nose when I started this. I maybe wrong though. It is hard to
know. He not only eats like a horse still (about every 2 hours like
clock work) but drinks a ton. The vet said for his body weight he
needed 55 cc's but he drinks at least double that. I feed him 8 to 15
cc's at a time usually. I don't know if any of those things had an
affect but, he is doing much better. In fact he is running around the
house as I type this. He is not playing hard or anything yet and
still sleeps quite a bit but still doing really good. His skin
problem is still there but his lips and eyes don't look as swollen,
though they are still red. His paw pads are not as large and look
like they might be trying to return to normal. He is acting almost
normal. So, I don't know what to think. He is definitely not getting
worse at this time. He fever of 106 appears to be gone(judging by
actions and feel). I hope that doesn't change. I tried to stop the
benne-bac but he got(I think) a prolapsed bowel? It came out a bit
and had some blood on it. It hurt him to poop, he would whimper. So I
started it up again and it stopped it completely. No more whimpering
and firm poop still. I have an appointment for him to get a
distemper shot on Thursday and the vet is going to bring a
dermatologist in to look at his skin problem. I will keep you posted.
If I can get a hold of a digital camera I will post some pictures.
Thanks, so much.
Kristine in AZ




--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Shelley Knudsen" <ferrets@t...>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I was skimming over the FHL digest, and I noticed your post. Has
your vet done a blood test - a CBC and a chem panel or a urinalysis
to check for the possibility of any exposure to toxins? How about
the possibility of a severe allergic reaction to something? Maybe he
is allergic to something in the Zupreem, or something else that he
was exposed to? Maybe try giving him some liquid Benadryl to see if
that helps to alleviate any of the symptoms? Did you pull the
Zupreem and put him back on his original diet on the offchance that
it is the culprit? I have to agree with Dr. Williams that canine
distemper should definitely be considered, especially since only one
shot will not have provided protection. Very rarely does a disease
present with all of the "textbook" symptoms - usually the presence of
even a few of the "normal" symptoms should make one at least have to
rule out a disease by further tests, and there are almost no other
ferret diseases that will have any of the symptoms that you have
mentioned.