Message Number: SG8641 | New FHL Archives Search
From: elcross
Date: 2004-05-01 00:16:41 UTC
Subject: emergancy stomach surgery....
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <19690856.1083370842476.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>

It has been a while since I have posted anything. But today I had an
experience I had never heard of as a typical ferret problem.
My little guy, Slinky, is a 2.5 year old male sable from Marshall's. Last
Saturday he threw up 4 times in a row. Almost projectile vomiting, I was
worried about and increase in his inner cranial pressure, but was unsure how
to go about proving or disproving my concerns. I stayed up with him most of
the night and he went right back to his normal self. Three days later he
vomited again, just once this time. And kept right on playing. Still being
concerned I began to wonder about the new bag of ferret food I bought. So I
stopped using that one and went back to my travel supply. This morning he
threw up again twice. And sounded like he was having very sudden and
intermittent breathing/reflux problems. So I got on line and did a little
searching. He matched every sign and symptom of a severe hairball. I drove
an hour and a half and was seen right away. They took x-rays, and sure enough
he had 3/4 of his stomach full of something (some, if not all, of which was
food of course) They did a Barium test on him, which should only take 4 hours
but for him it took almost 6 for the contents of his stomach to empty enough
to see the cause.
The cause was that he has something that has made the lining of his stomach
(the inner lining I believe) thicken, which creates a narrowed exit from the
stomach to the small intestines. So Dr XXX preformed his surgery and has
reported that all has gone well. Now I must wait and hope that he recovers
enough that he can come home tomorrow so that I don't have to wait until
Monday.
I didn't know if anyone else had experienced this or had even heard of it. (If
it has been written about before on here, I apologize. I just thought I would
share my experience.
-Elizabeth