From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-05-25 16:58:08 UTC
Subject: RE: update on Jaedee
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <4314260.1117040288370.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> Vet said she looked good, no coughing and such at his office, lungs clear, etc. I have now caught on to the fact that she does it when she first wakes up, and after several minutes then clears herself and goes on with play, so drainage or whatever is building up when she is sleeping. Ideas? Will ask for chest xray when vet calls back.
That is possible, especially if she is dealing with a respiratory allergy, smoke in the household, or an upper respiratory infection such as a bacterial sinus infection which may drip down in her sleep.
The reason for chest x-rays is because ferrets are very good at appearing to have lungs that are fine when they are not.
Years ago we had a little girl who was among those who illustrate that. One day she had a very slight cough. Meeteetse normally never coughed. Then she took my big toe in her mouth and gently held it. Well, we knew from long experience that she did that only when she felt quite ill so we called for an emergency vet appointment. Our usual vet was busy with another patient so we saw a different vet who said that she sounded fine and that she could find nothing wrong with her. Still, we knew how ferret lungs can be so we held out for the chest x-ray our usual vet would normally have done in such a situation. The next thing we knew we heard our usual vet being called away from the patient he was seeing to go to the back. They had called him to see her x-rays because Meeteetse had bad cases of both pneumonia and plurisy. (The next day she also had an emergency chest ultrasound, but an extreme antibiotic combo was begun that very night and it worked to save her life.
I hope for the best of all worlds: that your little one does not have any lung illness. It is better to spend the money on the x-ray and have it show nothing, obviously. Still, imaging the chest of such a ferret can catch an illness before it has a chance to be beyond control so it is essential for the survival of ferrets like Meeteetse.
End of ferrethealth Digest
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