Message Number: SG5362 | New FHL Archives Search
From: drew7967@aol.com
Date: 2003-07-17 00:35:45 UTC
Subject: RE: Neurological???
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <804385.1058402145035.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>

I have a six month old female (Marie) who has similar symptoms. She has trouble walking in a straight line and falls down and flips around constantly. She looks like a camel when she walks!

At her worst, she became paralyzed. Her paws were curled up and she would shake almost as if she had Parkinson's disease. After several weeks of antibiotic and pred she improved greatly. She never lost her appetite, although for a while she had to be hand fed. She just started eating small amounts of dry food again. She is still on Hill's a/d mixed with water. I've noticed she gets worse when she doesn't get enough fluids. She does grind her teeth occasionally-I can't figure out why.

She still has a spunky little personality and loves to play. She goes after our other ferret- she never catches him...but she keeps trying! We have to keep them separate unless we are supervising them. He is a little too rough for her sometimes.

We never have figured out what is wrong with her. It seems as if some of her symptoms fit some diseases and some fit others. But nothing can be exactly pinpointed. We are just happy she is able to get around and play!

Author wrote:
> Has anyone ever had a ferret with neurological problems? Can they even test for something like this? I have a ferret with a problem that you would think was insulinoma but after many, many, many glucose tests and even a surgery...there are NO signs of insulinoma. The next step we thought was a GI infection and we gave her metronidizole for 10 days...still nothing. Her main symptoms are she will stop in her track and her head will start bobbing (shaking up and down) and then she will fall on her back legs onto her butt. She also gets these little hiccups with it. STRANGE and we are so stumped. She is sleeping a lot more but that could be because of her age (we think she is 6 - we rescued her about 2.5 years ago). She has a history of GI problems and has had adrenal surgery (had them both removed). Does anyone have even a slight clue of what this could be??
> Thanks!
> Megan

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