From:
salome1331@yahoo.com
Date: 2005-06-01 00:53:53 UTC
Subject: persistent high fever and labored breathing?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2610185.1117587233290.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Hi,
Could anyone provide any insight to this?
I have a three year old ferret that I picked up at a local (well, sort of local) humane society on May 13th. The first few days she was here she seemed fine, although somewhat disturbed by those two other small fuzzy things (ferrets) in the house. She was kept mostly separated at first.
Last Monday (the 23rd), she seemed very lethargic (she'd seemed a litle down, maybe, over the weekend as well) and I initially took it to be depression as she'd been under so much stress. She did play a very little that day. Tuesday when I got home from work she was not well at all her breathing was frighteningly shallow and rapid. We went off to the vet, who listened to her lungs and heart and did a basic exam, and discovered that her temp was 104.4. She sent us off with an injecction of ketofen (sp?), and some Clavamox for a presumed upper respiratory infection, based on the temp and the little raspiness she could hear around the throat.
We had no improvement at all over the next few days and went back Saturday. This time she had an x-ray (normal), and a full blood panel. The bloodwork came back today, with everything in normal ranges. Her temperature was still 104 on Saturday and I suspect that it's still up there. Her breathing varies from doubletime (at best) to something that looks more like watching her heart beat. It's pretty scary. She does eat and drink on her own now, and mostly has been. Litterbox is normal. She seems to be weak and tired (who wouldn't be?), but will occasionally poke around for a few minutes before laying back down. She does have enough energy to have just picked a fight with another ferret who tried to sleep in her bed while she was already in it (she retreated briefly, then went back in, puffing away as she did - I separated them as soon as I could).
The vet mentioned the possiblility of something she referred to as "febrile syndrome" whenwe discussed the bloodwork this afternoon. I'm taking this to be the same thing as DIM/mystery disease. The vet said she's jumpy about that as she's apparently seen several cases recently. I didn't get to look this up until I was off the phone so I can't be sure she did mean the same thing, but she mentioned our little girl's age and bloodwork as maybe pointing to something else.
Does anyone have any idea what else we can do? Or whether this does sound like DIM? It looked to me like some elements or symptoms didn't match the descriptions I've seen at http://www.miamiferret.com and http://www.ferret.org. but this is pretty scary anyway.
Thanks in advance,
Michelle