From:
critr36
Date: 2002-01-10 11:40:00 UTC
Subject: Feeding tube help
Hello everyone,
I will not go into the whole history of how we reached this
point, but I have had trouble with my 6 year old ferret Taz since his
bilateral adrenal sugery in early July. He has had several near
death experiences to say the least. I am a veterinary technician at
a specialty practice so I have many reasources at hand, but we do not
routinely work on ferrets ( except mine!!) I do have a ferret
knowledgable vet that my babies see for their vaccines, etc.
Anyways, Taz pretty much went on a hunger strike and I was having
great difficulty getting food or medicine into him. I believe he has
ulcers as he grinds his teeth and is nauseaous quite a bit. Giving
Carafate was more stress on top of it all so we finially put in an
esophagostomy tube. I'm not sure how much food he should be getting
in a day or how often. I started out slowly as he couldn't handle
much food at one time...about 5-6ml, every 3-4 hours. Yesterday we
were up to 18-20 ml, but at the end of the day he seemed more
nauseaous again. I am using a mixture of Eukanuba Maximim Calorie
and Bob Church's chicken gravy. ( the whole chicken, nutrical,
totally ferret kibble, ferritone, egg shells, honey, oatmeal and
olive oil....it is baby food consistancy) I also switched from
Pediapred to Prednisone tablet (1/4 of a 5mg tablet) dissolved into
water and put into his tube. Seems every time I tried to get him on
a good Pediapred regimen after surgery, he didn't do well, so am
trying a new avenue. This is his last hope of feeling well. He is
down from 2.6 pounds to 2.1 pounds in a matter of a week before the
feeding tube.
Sorry to ramble, but you know how it goes when you are emotional
over your own animal. Sometimes easier to help someone else than
yourself! :-) Thanks, Susan