From:
jennandannika
Date: 2002-04-18 21:03:00 UTC
Subject: First Post
Hello,
My name is Jenn and I am the proud mother of three year old Annika. I recently joined another yahoo group asked a question and one kind
person recommended that I try this group. I aske that you please excuse my spelling ahead of time.
Annika was the runt of her litter, nine were born seven survived. Her mother's milk dried up at about 6 weeks, Annika continued to try to
nurse, she was not ready to be weaned. She has always been smaller then other ferrets when she was a young ferret I had to feed her a
baby/weaning diet to keep her weight up. Last year she finally achieved a healthy weight (940 grams). I found out that she has not been
eating a couple of days ago. I found she had stashed food in her bedding and under her litter box. We took her to the vet as soon as we
realised something was wrong. Annika was badly dehydrated and had dropped down to 476 grams. Her stomach and intestines were
palipitated and nothing could be felt. She was given and anesthetic so blood could be taken and she was given sub-q fluids. I put her onto
a wet mixture of food which she has begun to eat. Her stools are still very tarry/ mucusy but are arriving in the litter box regularly.
Her urine has gone from bright yellow to almost clear. Her bloodwork came back today. Everything is pointing towards a problem with
her liver. The vet is suspecting that it is bacterial and Annika has been placed on two antibiotics (Clavamox and Famotidine/Metronidazo)
for 14 days, they are not ruling out the possibility of a tumor on her liver but want to go the antibiotic route first. ADV was thrown
around as a possible cause but her protiens were normals as were her globulin levels (I remembered to ask), so the vet is suspecting that
this is not the case. My vet has never seen a case of ADV (I live on Vancouver Island in Canada) so she won't rule it out. Should Ani be
having the test done, or would it really matter? Annika is a single ferret who has not spent anytime with other ferrets, her litter mate
is treated by the same vet and she is showing no signs of any illness. Annika is eating well right now, but is sleeping anytime she is not
eating, because of her weight loss I am not surprised at this. What I am wondering is if anyone has any experience with this kind of
illness? Any suggestions? Anything? Annika is my baby and has been treated as such for the last three years, I will do anything for her.
Thank you in advance for help and support.
Jenn