From:
Ferritsofall@aol.com
Date: 2005-04-12 13:13:12 UTC
Subject: blood in excretions/grinding teeth/weak old ferret
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <144.435449c3.2f8d2368@aol.com>
Hello
I had two old sick ferrets. One passed 2 days ago. The other one..about 6
years old.. grew weak within 5 days, stopped eating, and had blood in poops. No
fever.Slightly enlarged spleen.
Already has heart disease and adrenal disease. Is on Lupron, Melatonin
implants, Bob church soup with Melatonin liquid. On Enalapril 1 mg/ml suspension. He
takes .5 ml every other day. We increased to every day, and added antibiotic
in case of infection. Much worse next day. Weaker, did not want to eat
anything. Glazed eyes. Blood still in excretions.
Went to emergency vet. In 24 hours... palpation causes the ferret pain now.
Not even any poops...only urine. Can barely stand. Hind leg weakness.
Sprawling legs upon standing. Still no fever. Dehydrated and in pain. Given something
to stop pain, and to hydrate at emergency animal hospital.
So we have added .4cc carafate and .03 Pepsid suspension twice a day. I give
these with added small amounts of soup one right after the other. Then I
follow up with forced syringe feedings in small amounts every two hours throughout
the night. I work 11 hours during the day. Luckily he is still alive.
Knawing chumping grinding teeth was one of the first frightening symptoms.
Ferret squirmed to get away from any food. By third day, he is dribbling down
much more..though still not much at one time. The grinding does not occur at
once, but by the 6th small syringe of soup now. Great improvement. He is now
walking to a few different rooms before tiring. No hind leg weakness I can see. No
sprawling legs upon trying to rise. He actually walked up to a plate of soup
and drank a little all on his own.
Considerable improvement after 3 days on carafate and pepsid. We thought of
insulinoma, but no hind leg weakness now. No dazing off in frozen position as
when I brought him into emergency.
What should I ask vet to do next? He is very open to suggestions from vets
concerning ferrets. The ferret was too weak to do any blood tests or x-rays 3
days ago in emergency. He was very close to death.
Thank you. The ferrets name is Sunny.