From:
ferret_mommie@yahoo.com
Date: 2005-01-06 18:41:59 UTC
Subject: Lymphatic ferret, acting strange...
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5745446.1105036919715.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Well, Griselda is still hasn't started eating and drinking on her own, regularly. She will drink pedialyte from the eye-dropper quite enthusiastically, and she'll sometimes drink water from the bottle in her cage, but she won't drink from the bowl in the play room anymore.
She acts like she wants to... she claws madly at the rim, and this morning she cried out in frustration, but it looks for all the world like she has forgotten how to drink from the bowl. It's very odd. I tried to show her, by wetting my fingers and bringing the water up to her mouth, but she wouldn't take it. Needless to say, the water is fresh and comes from the same source as the water in her bottle.
She seems to be doing the same thing with kibble. I have seen her eating kibble on her own a couple of times in the past week, but more often that not, she will go to the bowl and then stare blankly. It's like she knows she is supposed to be at the bowl for some reason, but can't recall exactly why.
Maybe I'm just projecting human feelings on her, but it really does seem like that. I don't know how to "teach" her to eat again. Last week, she would eat a few kibbles from my hand, but now she won't. In your experience with your own sickies, etc., have you ever heard of a sick animal forgetting how to eat?
She is still eating baby food, most of the time without assistance. When she won't take it on her own, she will dutifully lick it off my finger until it's gone.
Another question: When Griselda drinks, after several swallows she inevitably starts choking and gurgling. I'm afraid she is somehow accidentally breathing water in and getting it in her lungs but I'm being very careful to make sure the water is in her *mouth*. When she drinks from the water bottle on her own, she's on her own. Do you know if that choking/gurgling is a symptom of lymphoma?
Other than that Mrs. Lincoln... She seems alert and responsive and "OK".
My order of Essiac for her is still "on the way" -- I'm just going to go ahead and buy some at the healthfood $tore today.
Thanks,
Staci