From:
Teresa Knezek
Date: 2004-09-07 20:29:52 UTC
Subject: Does this sound like a blockage?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <ae202e7304090713296880f3ad@mail.gmail.com>
Sunday night: I noticed Ziya vomited a couple of times. I've seen
other of my ferrets vomit one day, and be perfectly fine the next, so
as long as she was still eating and acting otherwise normal (which she
was), I figured I'd wait and see how she was doing the next day.
Monday afternoon: Let them out for playtime, and Ziya went to the
closet and curled up in a blanket instead of coming for treats and
romping around. I got her out of the closet and offered her some food.
She turned her nose up and started grinding her teeth... I thought
maybe her ulcers had come back (she just got off medication about 6
weeks ago), and mixed up some Carafate.
The carafate made her grind her teeth even worse (the opposite of her
reaction when she had ulcers), but she did eat some
ferretvite/petroluem jelly mix on her own. I went back later to offer
her some soft food, and she refused it. When I gave her a second dose
of carafate, she vomited again.
Tuesday morning: She was very unresponsive, eyes looking squinty, and
had lost noticable weight since Sunday night. There was green liquidy
poop on the floor of the cage. I syringed some more laxative mix to
her (she refused it on the spoon), called the vet and brought her in
on my way to work.
They were planning on doing a blood workup, giving subQ fluids and
doing x-rays when I dropped her off. I haven't heard back from them
yet, but does this sound like a blockage? She isn't acting like she
did with the ulcers (she never refused her soft food, and the carafate
always calmed her down), so that's what I'm thinking at this point.
If the vet calls, and nothing showed up on the x-ray (I've heard not
all blockages show up), what should I say? Should I ask for an
exploratory surgery?
--
Teresa -- and the
Three Polar Packrats
(Zoe, Ziya & Blitzie)