From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-04-03 19:17:35 UTC
Subject: RE: Ulcers
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7547318.1112555855908.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
What we found with Scooter was that his increasingly larger, thinner walled=
and more flaccid stomach created a need for regualr operations to remove l=
arge furballs. His stomach simply could not cope otherwise. He would get =
furballs so bad that they would also irritate his pancreas and his liver an=
d throw off the tests for each till correctiion was done. Over a space of =
something like 3 years he required 4 of those surgeries. Samples were run =
each time, too, of course. Every time his stomach was worse and worse and =
in the last two times his small intestine had begun to show the same change=
s. By either his second or third op his stomach was larger than the vets w=
ould see in most adult cats. (Scooter was about a 2 1/2 pound ferret.) At=
his last surgery the walls were so thin that they told us that they would =
never hold up to a next surgery. That was true. When he next had problems=
his symptoms came on so fast that we had an emergency appointment in the n=
ight and the vet and Steve and I set up an ICU at home in case this was a b=
out Scooter could get through, but it wasn't. I sat up with him and he beg=
an to indicate that he wanted to be held, so I took him into my arms, he sn=
uggled against me and peacefully sighed, and then he just died in my arms, =
bleeding out. His stomach had shredded at the end. =
I can't recall exactly how old he was but I seem to recall that he had as m=
any surgeries as years of age, so since he also had two surgeries to correc=
t a deformed paw, I guess he was either 6 or very close to it. He wasn't t=
he one with the worst malformations whom we've taken in over the years, but=
he was the most expensive. =
He was also someone who loved to do "face washing" while being held, was a =
big kisser, and the scoop that he had remaining for that one paw after his =
surgeries let him fling potting soil about twice as far as any other ferret=
. He had a good time for the most part in the years he had.
Not an ulcer ferret -- at least not in anything approaching the norm. His =
condition was very rare. Malformations often tend to be hard.
=
=