From:
Steve Austin
Date: 2004-02-01 08:24:59 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Kodo's grinding
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <20040201.032639.3972.0.kazpat1@juno.com>
Long standing use of prednisone in a human can lower or suppress
the immune system so that you are prone to what is called
opportunistic infections. These are infections caused by organisms
that are all around us and normally our immune system just takes
care of it. Thrush in the mouth looks like thick white coating,
you can whipe it out and it looks like cottage cheese, but the underlying
surface will bleed.
You should be able to see it by just looking in a ferret's mouth, but
as I understand it, they don't seem to be affected so much by
the long term affects of prednisone, or maybe yeast is not so common
on their body as it is on a human. I do think they can get something
like mange when their immune system is run down, which is a skin
condition on the outside- although I don't think this is common either.
More likely the ferrets' with insulinoma, or other conditions warranting
the prednisone are prone to stomach ulcers, gastritis, and sometimes
other
conditions make them susceptible to mouth ulcers. These will also
cause grinding, and poor appetite, etc.
When my one ferret had a seizure it was shaking of the body, like
in humans. One had tortion of the body. I did see dazed, or stopping
and looking tired too early in play to be signs of low blood sugar.
It is nice to have a home glucose monitor to check when you are not sure.
The dazed ferret just sat real still, eyes open, and after about 1 minute
moved around again. The second time he did it, it was for 20 minutes
and he also had a little drooling. He would make a gaspy sound verses a
sigh
kind of breathing every few minutes, which at the time I didn't realize
for
a low blood sugar spell and the next morning I checked his glucose
and it was 90, about 3 days later he had the seizure and his sugar was
20 during the seizure, and he snapped out of it almost immediately with
some honey on his gums. Made me wonder though how many times it happened
that it was not witnessed since he did "snap' out of it without me giving
him sugar
up until the seizure.
He did very well with surgery within 2 days of his seizure,
and was symptom free with out meds for 2 years.
Patty
ps. Low blood sugar itself can cause nausea.
On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 04:59:30 +0000 (GMT) haleyking@hotmail.com writes:
> Hey everyone. I had to take Kodo to the vet this morning because his
> condition is not getting any better. We both decided it was time to
> see a specialist. My vet said she knew the other vet and that she
> would take good care of Kodo. I'm taking him at 7:30 Monday morning
> and leaving him there all day. I had a couple of posts about Kodo
> and they raised some very interesting questions. First, can Pred
> give a ferret a yeast infection in the mouth (thrush)? The person
> said that it can happen in humans and it is very painful to eat when
> this happens? Second, sometimes Kodo lays flat with his front legs
> behind him. Is this considered seizure activity? What sort of
> not-so-obvious symptoms are there when the ferret is having a
> seizure?
>
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