From:
jchprocess
Date: 2002-05-10 13:22:00 UTC
Subject: Back Injury/ care/more test ideas?
Hi all,
I have some questions on how to care for a ferret with a back injury.
When I got home from work on Wed. one of our ferrets Koda was unable
to use his back legs. Koda was fine when I left for work that day and
had not been having any problems as far as I could tell. I took him
to the vet that day and they let him try to walk a little and his
hind legs just would not seem to stay under him he kind of flopped
from side to side but got around the office. The vet then felt around
his back and hind legs. Koda did not like her touching his lower back
at all. The vet recommended taking some x-rays, so we did. She said
the good new was his back is not broken, but he did have some spinal
damage. He has two vertebrae that have almost no space between them.
She also pointed out where he had what she called a spur that came
out from one vertebra and connected to the one below it. The vet said
this can cause problems in the future pinching nerves but that is not
what she thought was causing the problems now. She gave Koda a shot
of pain killer while we were at the office and gave me some pred (.5
two times a day for 5 days then .5 one time a day for 5 days and
finally .5 every other day until gone) and (sorry don't remember the
name of the other script) something she said would work like muscle
relaxer to help keep him still (.5 one time a day until gone). The
vet recommended that we not keep him caged with the other 4 ferrets
we have and not let him get up on any furniture for two weeks (like
he could climb up anyway) and then at the end of two weeks bring him
back in. I would like to know if any one has had a similar problem
and if there is anything else we can do beside see how things look in
two weeks. I have posted about Koda before he did have some sort of
back injury when we took him in. He doesn't walk like other ferrets
he has a kind of hop skip thing he does with his hind legs, unless he
is really running then his gate looks more like our other ferrets. I
feel like I'm not being a very good mom just drugging him and waiting
to see how things look in two weeks. Any/all suggestions/ideas are
welcome and much needed!!
Thank you in advance
Jennifer