From:
motorcityferrets@hotmail.com
Date: 2006-03-24 07:45:58 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Misshapen sternum = serious woe
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
A recent surrender has terrible woe. =
Snuffleupagus (couldn't resist choosing this name - I'm so mean HA) is a ye=
ar old now. His owner first e-mailed me in November. She said she bought =
him to keep her 5 year old ferret company when she became pregnant (and app=
arently planned in advance to ignore the ferrets). She bought him as a bab=
y, so he was probably 8-12 weeks old. The owner says he was "fine" when sh=
e bought him, but about a month after she brought him home he started havin=
g his current trouble. =
The owner reported he was very stuffy and had trouble breathing. She also =
said he would stop eating from time to time. She had taken him to a local =
vet with little ferret experience. The owner says the vet took several xra=
ys to see if she could see anything wrong with the heart, as she suspected =
heart disease. The vet said there was nothing amiss on the xrays and put h=
im on Pred and Albuturol for asmatha (?!?). Over the last few months he ha=
s been on the meds repeatedly and the vet would also add Carafate when he w=
ould stop eating. The owner fed him mush kibble and a/d and said he only n=
eeded a bit of nursing. The medication seemed to have no impact on his bre=
athing difficulties. =
The purpose of 4 months of e-mails from the owner was clearly to get over h=
er own guilt of choosing to abandon her pets once she had a baby...but I di=
gress. At the end of each e-mail my reply was of course "Bring them over!"=
but it obviously took some time. Gus is now here and sure enough, he has =
terrible breathing difficulty. =
When he's motoring, he holds his mouth open and breathes as if it's agony t=
o draw each breath. His spirit is strong; he's just a bit fraidy of everyt=
hing (of course we know he wasn't handled much at all). He tries to have s=
tamina...after all, he's only a year old so he wants to have much fun, but =
he can't get really riled up without running away to a quiet space to breat=
he heavily. He also doesn't like to sleep outside the cage. He haunts us =
until we pop him back in...eyes heavy like an infant, but persistant in his=
desire to get back in that cage! Once inside, he immediately assumes his =
favorite sleeping position, which you can see in these photos:
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/ferretsetc/photos/Snuffleupagus_3.19.06_4.JPG
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/ferretsetc/photos/Snuffleupagus_3.19.06_2.JPG
In the first photo, he was not quite comfy. He readjusted to get back to t=
he posture in the second photo, which is his preferred position. When his =
mouth is open that wide and he's sleeping, he's finally comfy. :(
Today we visited our well experienced ferret vet. I was thinking perhaps G=
us has the same problem I do with my nose: it just doesn't work very well!=
However, Doc immediately thought the problem was in the chest due to his =
manner of labored breathing. He wondered if perhaps he has a hernia in his=
diaphram (for pete's sake I don't know how to spell diaphram). Sure enoug=
h, the xray showed a problem either with or near the diaphram. I wish I co=
uld post a copy of the the xray...working on that. I'll try to explain: b=
asically, his sternum curves in at the bottom, so as to press up against th=
e diaphram. Doc could not see whether or not there might also be a hernia =
due to the position of the curvature. Gus is going to have exploratory sur=
gery this coming Tuesday to a) get a better look and b) possibly repair a h=
ernia. Doc isn't sure if this would be a congenital problem or perhaps fro=
m an injury. I'm going to call the vet office Gus visited before to see if=
indeed there are any older xrays we can get ahold of. =
Has anyone out there dealt with anything like this? I'm afraid Doc will ge=
t in there and find nothing wrong with the diaphram, other than the fact th=
e sternum is poking in and there's no solution. :( Gus's spirit is strong=
but I can't help but think he's miserable, so we sure would like to try to=
fix this problem - if possible! =
Nanci
Motor City Ferrets
www.motorcityferrets.org
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