Message Number: YG11990 | New FHL Archives Search
From: mrs_catseye
Date: 2002-03-21 19:44:00 UTC
Subject: recovered from Back Trauma

We have a four-year-old spayed female among our rescue-ees named
Katie O'Cato (long story) who had suffered being bitten almost in
half by the rottweiler of the family who turned her over to us after
she'd been so badly mauled. (since they're keeping this same dog,
they agreed they're never getting this ferret back). Katie had a
nearly broken spine and fifteen stitches and a special splint and
wrap applied by our vet and was extensively bruised after her mauling
and then surgical repairs. She was one Sore Baby! So I had her on my
around-the-clock-care list to feed and change and clean, every three
hours for her first week, then, with her prescribed medicine used up,
and able to stand and move around a Little, she went back on her
usual feed with me giving her supplementary "duck-soup" feedings
every five hours and only kept the wrap and splint so as not to have
her stitches torn out. She was getting five cc's per day of 30 ppm
Colloidal Silver to help her bones knit. As a supplemental mineral,
that's what (else) colloidal silver does...assists traumatized bones
to heal faster and stronger, besides having the stitch-areas swabbed
with colloidal silver to keep down any bacterial infections. So
three weeks later, she had her stitches all removed, the swellings
were all down, and there was no signs nor traces of any infections,
and Katie was moving well.
It's six months since that terrible occurrence and Katie had re-grown
all her fur, regained her fully-furred weight and walks and runs, but
simply does not care to "bounce"...she keeps her back "straight" and
doesn't arch it, but she has no problems moving in any other wise.
However, when she comes up on either one of the cats or our shar-pei
dog (who is extremely gentle and is best-friends with our rabbit)
she "freezes" and lies down on the spot until one of us comes
to "rescue" her.

This is especially for "Angela", who asked (quote)"
I would like to know, especially from the vets on this list what the
prognosis is for a ferret that has suffered trauma to it's spine.
Our ferret seems to have slipped a disk last night. He seemed to
recover somewhat and was walking around, but this morning is was in a
state of collapse and severe trauma. We've taken him to our vets who
have said that it is a slipped disk over the thoracix region with
trauma to the surrounding areas. He also said that it looked like
the vertebrae on either side were closer than they should be. Merlin
is in severe pain and cannot stand at the moment.
Can a ferret get better or is it kinder to put him sleep?" (end-quote)