From:
"M. and M. FitzPatrick"
Date: 2006-05-15 14:59:45 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Teddy is SUPPOSED to be dead, but....
To: "ferrethealth@smartgroups.com" <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Recently we awoke to a frightening sight: We went to
take our Teddy from his cage for a morning romp and
his back end was covered in blood. We quickly ran him
to the bathroom and washed his backside, expecting to
find a puncture or something. Nothing.
He was also pretty lethargic (though somewhat alert),
so we quickly rushed him to a nearby vet (that doesn't
know ferrets but our ferret vet is 25 miles away).
After a quick exam she took his temperature. Withing a
few moments of inserting the thermometer in his rectum
a huge mass of bloody feces spilled out.
The vet indicated the blood seemed not to be
coagulating, which was clearly a very bad thing. She
called my ferret vet for consultation then returned,
saying it appeared Teddy would not survive without an
expensive transfusion, IF we had a ferret large enough
to donate blood, and then it would only be "buying
time" for him. (Maybe two weeks.)
She offered to euthanize Teddy, but also said since he
was already pretty far gone, and seemed to be in no
pain, it might be more comfortable for him to go home
with us and die quietly there.
With tears streaming down our cheeks, we took Teddy
home to die.
Because of his lethargy, she advised against trying to
force feed him, due to aspiration.
That night, however, Teddy started showing a little
energy, so we CAREFULLY syringe-fed him a little food.
He had a bowel movement that night that still was dark
and showed blood streaks.
The next morning he had another bowel movement - this
time lighter and with only a few streaks of blood
AND, he was not fighting the syringe feeding
actually lapping it up himself a little.
As the day prpgressed, his stools became lighter. By
the next morning he had normal-looking feces!
Withing three days he was getting around just fine,
eating on his own and GIVING KISSES! (If you know
ferrets, you understand how sick, normally-kissy,
ferrets stop giving kisses when they don't feel well.)
Now a almost two weeks later he is running,
romping and playing like nothing ever happened! While
this is a great success story, we are still baffled
(and so is the vet). Has anyone ever heard of such a
thing? What could that have possibly been? I look
forward to all your guesses.
Michael
Ferret Shelter Northwest
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
====================================================================<<<
Whatever you Wanadoo, click below:
http://ads.smartgroups.com/adclick/CID=000000b7c79a99a500000000
====================================================================>>>
--
If you want to share pictures, use the calendar, or start a vote
visit http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
To leave the group, email: ferrethealth-unsubscribe@smartgroups.com
Report abuse http://www.smartgroups.com/text/abusereport.cfm?gid%3D1423922&mid%3D17380