From:
julie_fossa@yahoo.com
Date: 2004-06-07 19:42:26 UTC
Subject: RE: Our Anton is sick
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <4426331.1086637346169.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Jane, I'm sending a message I received from Troy Lynn. She gave me permission to share it here, some time ago.
Several severely ill ferrets have been kept alive and recovered using this treatment. You may want to discuss trying it with your vet.
Good luck,
Julie
___
Epogen and vitamin B/K injections helped Luva's ferret Prince as well
as feeding him recipe every 4 hours. With whatever this is, it
appears that the supportive care is what is going to help them
through it, as well as the antibiotics.
Tara recently sent someone to me who had a youngster with similar
symptoms go through this and he is 100% recovered even though the
vets had lost hope for this little one. Fortunately they agreed with
supplying the medicines while Sheryl did the home nursing. It took
weeks to get him through it but the every 2 hour feedings initially
and then the every 4 hour feedings helped him to be able to heal. I
can't express how important these feedings are for these critical
little ones. Some aren't feeding enough and then the
ferrets system has no strength to fight off whatever is going on.
I recommend vit c - 50 mg daily, CoQ10-10mg daily, Pet tinic - 3
drops twice daily, and recipe feedings as often as needed to get
their intake up to 90cc/lb per 24 hour period. It may be a slow
start at only 3-5 cc's an hour or two but persistence will pay off.
Carafate and Pepto have been beneficial because when they stop eating
the stomach acid can cause ulcers which are painful so hence they
want to eat less. Both have been used safely in my own group at
doses of 1/2 cc pepto every 2-4 hours around the clock and 1 cc
carafate every 4 hours around the clock.
I give carafate 20 minutes before feeding, pepto 10 minutes before
feeding, peach syrup 5 minutes before feeding. Carafate will bind to
whatever is given with it though I have good results when I give
carafate and amoxi at the same time. I mix the pepto with 1/2 cc of
heavy whipping cream, run the syringe under warm tap water and rub
syringe vigorously between my palms to mix it before serving.
Peach syrup from a can of peaches in heavy syrup, 1 cc, helps with
nausea. Once they start eating better the peach syrup can be
dropped.
The simplest recipe to help is:
1 jar meat baby food (lamb, chicken or turkey)
1/2 jar heavy whipping cream
1 jar water
1/4 jar ferretone or linatone
3 inches ferretvite
1/2 jar Pedialyte
Add supplements after warming recipe servings.
Watch for excessive diarrhea and if it occurs cut the heavy whipping
cream in half.
Think supportive care as well as antibiotics. My choice would be
injectable baytril and amoxi. This combo seems to work well.
Author wrote:
We noticed that he was sleeping a lot around the middle of the week and then on Thursday... looks and feels normal except for a temp of 103.7 and being lethargic.
> (He even cked Anton's BG and it was good) He is eating and pooping
> normally also. ...Sunday) his temp is 105 and there is no change. He still eats, drinks and poops
> normally but spends all the rest of the time sleeping. He doesn't want
> to move around at all. ..we both questioned this b/c Anton is over 2 yrs old and so far only young ferrets have had this illness. Everything is normal with the exception of a slightly
> elevated white cell count! Plus his temp is now 106.1. He commented again that this looks just like the
> "mystery illness" but he has never heard of a ferret as old as Anton
> getting it.
> Jane