From:
kestrelinden@gmail.com
Date: 2006-06-29 22:28:23 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Long overdue - Paxie & Bear Updates 6/29/06
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Hello to the forum that provides such wonderful reading and education about fert health. I just about dropped off the face of the forum in April 2004 but have been reading off and on since.
For those who remember, I had written in about my Paxie, then 2 months shy of her fourth birthday, a silver Marshall's farm female that we had rescued in September 2001 (We named her Pax after acquiring her on September 10). My last post on the subject was SG8583.
Turns out it was, indeed, a massive hairball. I finally did find it in with the bedding she had with her at the second vet's (the one who kept her all day to give her sub-q fluids throughout). It was in two flat sections that were connected to each other, all together about five inches long, the first section about three inches long and a half inch at its widest, the second section about two inches long and slightly narrower than the first. Hard, compacted, partially digested fur. When I found it, I flushed it down the toilet and told it to be gone, I was so glad to get it out of the house and our lives.
Since then, we've been keeping up with laxatone and brushings and only the vet cleans her ears. Our two ferrets are on a mixed diet of Totally Ferret, Marshall's, and Wellness (Cat).
Later that summer, about June 2004, Bear, our male Sable, then four and a half years, rescued May 2002, started showing adrenal symptoms. He started losing hair on his feet, would dribble after urinating, and most noticeably became very aggressive almost overnight. We scheduled him for surgery and he had his left adrenal out. He came through fine but did not start growing the hair on his stomach that had been shaved until the next spring. He then started losing most of the hair on his back. Since then, we have been really good about getting him outside for at least a few minutes of sunlight every day, usually around dusk, and he is now quite a fuzzy little bear, running, jumping, stealing shoes at three months before his sixth birthday. Watching his hair come back was just amazing, and all that was changed in his life was getting some sunlight every day.
Little Paxie is going through some tough times again, which is actually what prompts me to peer out from the woodwork. I was out of town this past weekend. Monday when I return, I notice a swolen area near her left haunch. Tuesday morning when the vet office is open, I take her in. By this time, it's the size of a large grape and I actually realize is near her perianal area. I get to the vet's office and she is on vacation and the other (non-exotic) vet is out for the day. I take her home and notice that the swelling now has a small, less than dime-sized reddish discoloration. I call my vet's cell phone. She calls back in less than fifteen minutes, agreeing with me that the emergency vet clinic (the only other option I know) wouldn't really know what to do and recommends another vet nearby to take her to.
I take Paxie to the other vet, by this time the discoloration is black and blue, who schedules her for surgery. Going in the area that was already trying to rupture, they remove the anal gland lining which is filled with the fluid they normally extrude from dog or cat anal glands that need to be expressed. She described this as like a lima bean. There still remains a pea-sized and shaped hard lump that she did a punch biopsy on and we are awaiting those results plus the geriatric bloodwork panel.
Paxie is now on Meloxicam for pain (I wish we had had this for Bear's adrenal, my vet only had steroid-based pain meds that she could dose for a ferret at the time and she didn't want him to have any steroids that would inhibit healing. I agree and he healed wonderfully but he looked to be in bad pain for a few days.) I understand from the forum that Meloxicam is an NSAID, which is good to know. She's also on Clavamox antibiotics, .25 mg twice a day, 7 am and 7 pm. Usually around noon I let her have some plain yogurt to help keep her digestive track calmed down. She loves her yogurt. But her poor bum, she has a hole right next to her anus plus the lump. She's keeping it cleaner than I could myself and takes her meds very well. She sucks the pain meds right down and we dip the tip of the clavamox in ferretone about three times to get it all down, as she hates that stuff and knows it by smell.
Any and all good thoughts appreciated. I will let you all know when I can what else is up.
Maureen, Paxie, Bear,
Adobe, & TaDa (the last two being a DSH and Bengal, felines)
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