From:
Debra Rodvelt
Date: 2003-03-28 00:23:12 UTC
Subject: experience with dislocations
To: godesslissa@earthlink.net
Cc: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com,
ferret-list@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Message-Id: <75FA6412-60B3-11D7-9B66-003065E566BA@kc.rr.com>
My most troublesome little girl managed to sneak into the kitchen and
up a wrought iron baker's rack once. I found her dangling there, paw
stuck in the metal work. It's a horrible image that is vivid in my
mind three years later.
Anyway, after getting her "unstuck," I found her entire front right arm
to be cold. She was dazed and in shock. Because of my work schedule
at the time, I found her dangling at midnight and there were no
emergency 24-hour vets in the area. I immediately heated up some of
Bob's chicken gravy and got out the Pedialyte. I started feeding her a
little bit and held her for the next several hours to keep her warm and
prevent the shock from getting worse.
Because her arm was cold, I and my vet (who I called but lives so far
away that I still had to wait until morning for an office visit)
expected her to lose the whole thing. It was twisted around at the
shoulder, completely dislocated. But during the night, I kept rubbing
her arm trying to get the blood circulating again. By the morning, her
arm had been worked back into place by my massage and was warm again.
Even her little paw pads had a little color back to them. The vet was
amazed.
I still had to watch her for a couple of weeks for signs of dead tissue
in her paws. She drug her arm around awkwardly for a while, slowly
getting some control back while she struggled to move her paw. I just
rubbed it a little here and there throughout the day. Within a couple
of weeks she was back to full mobility without any signs of permanent
damage.
She was just a few months old at the time. I'm not sure if being young
and very healthy makes a difference to their ability to recover, but my
experience was a very good one. I'm not a vet, obviously, but I would
encourage you to be optimistic about her odds at a total recovery.
Good luck!
Debi