From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2003-07-10 15:08:14 UTC
Subject: Chiclet is still alive and taught us anoher lesson
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-id: <a06001801bb326b325e75@[10.0.1.29]>
After being under control for a while (and still on IV antibiotics)
Chiclet's had a fever spike a while after 8 p.m.. She was 105.5
before we used some mechanical means for cooling her. If she is
still with us tomorrow they'll try to see if there may be something
else to try but her chances of making it after doing this aren't good
ones.
End of ferrethealth Digest
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To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com, ferrethealth-owner@smartgroups.com,
co-list@yahoogroups.com, bigcu@cunyvm.cuny.edu
From: Sukie Crandall <sukiec@optonline.net>
Message-id: <a06001802bb327d499bd4@[10.0.1.29]>
Okay, we just learned something that is different from when I was
young. When Chiclet went up to 105.5' all that I could remember was
something we had to do on an emergency basis for a young neighbor at
one time with a neighborhood nurse so we got her into room temp
water. It turns out that cools too fast, and that is what we did.
She is 97.1 but looking and acting very good. This temp's is even
more dangerous, though, so on our vet's helpful orders we pulled out
a microwavable heating pad that reaches 103'F on it's surface (Steve
has a surface thermometer.), upped her IV to 4, and got sugar into
her, and Clavamox into her. So, we'll be up all night, reheating the
pad every half hour unless her temp soars again in which case we are
to use alcohol on her pads and lots of sleep for her. No torb during
this, but she isn't showing any indication of pain. When she was up
very high she had some jerking at times so she might have had mild
seizures from the sudden fever and she was having trouble breathing
then but is okay on that score now. So, anyway, now the rest of you
know what to do if there is high fever and you can avoid the
technique mistake I remembered from the dark ages when I was young.
Live and learn. I'm glad she is doing okay despite our mistake. Can
you say "Panic!"? Another person -- I think Danee -- had told me
about the alcohol on paws trick, but I didn't know the water one
which used to be used was bad; I guess it stuck with me because it
saved that child I knew during a bad storm when emergency response
wasn't possible.
We're on sheer adrenaline now. I had 5 hours of sleep last night and
Steve didn't do much better. At least I make more sense on
adrenaline than without.
She'd been doing somewhat better, too, till this took off again...
Well, she is back to 103.9. The last 2 hours and thirty minutes
feels like maybe 30 minutes total. So, now we have to do the foot
alcohol thing with plenty of rest for her (not for us), her meds, and
lots of monitoring, her increased IV, etc. but mostly it is up to her
little body if she can make it through tonight.
To: ferrethealth-owner@smartgroups.com, ferrethealth@smartgroups.com,
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From: Sukie Crandall <sukiec@optonline.net>
Message-id: <a06001800bb332b5148a4@[10.0.1.32]>
Well, Bill Gruber very sweetly helped me stay up through much of the
night bu sending me e-mails to keep my brain going. Steve manages
about 4 hours of sleep while I could handle her needs alone. I guess
I went to bed close to 6 and Steve left around 7 with her to the
vet's hospital and she is there now for observation and the trying of
different meds. I'll get more sleep later but right now my body
insists on bieng awake so I got about 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep.
She had her fever roller coaster and had more spikes.
Here is what she taught us: a pulled out IV on maintenance level for
a ferret casn remain hidden. We were required to turn up her IV to
double the maintenance rate when her body temp dropped ad the result
was that at 3:30 in the morning I noticved that her bandaging tape
over it was wet and had to wake Steved since getting it apart is not
a one person job and he needed to manage her head while I removed the
tape. So, we think that her spiking was because her IV meds were just
going into her bandaging because she'd apparently removed her IV. At
3:30 in the morning we were removing the tape, and yep, it was
completeely out and not even bleeding. Her IV meds weren't getting
to her; no wonder hse fevered.
So, today we get some rest whenever our bodies let us crash and she
gets observed at the hospital.