From:
Desear
Date: 2006-07-14 13:13:24 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Violent aversion to food. Vets seem puzzled. Please advise.
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
This is really long, but I wanted to provide as much info as possible.
You guys are the most knowledgeable folks I know. So here are the
facts, as shortly summarized as possible:
>>Symptoms...
> Violent aversion to normal diet (Totally Ferret kibble for > 2
yrs). Whenever her face comes close to the kibble (Totally Ferret
Active) she gets panicky, gags, shakes her head, and runs away. (I can
try to make a video to put up if it would help, although the rx is
nowhere near as bad as it was before)
> Odd desire to want to hide her face. I thought it might be an
obstruction at first, but found nothing.
> Increased speed bumping.
> Sometimes when she's looking up at me, her head twitches.
> The only kibble she'll eat is Totally Ferret Treats. We've got
her on a mixture of gerber chicken and Bob C's Gravy (which thanks to
my lack of cooking ability, came out like ground chicken but I'm
paying my little brother to make me up a fresh batch today). We are
trying to wean her off the baby food and on the gravy gradually (I
read the fml bob c post on babyfood yesterday, and it scared me).
> Very minor hind leg weakness that I'd previously been told was
most likely old age seems to vary with her other symptoms (when she
feels worse it seems to get worse). It's just enough for her to fall
down a bit when she's jumping around.
> Stopped playing all together the first couple of days, but
still up and alert. Playing started again recently.
> She runs around to all the litter boxes, smelling each one,
look like she's about to do her stuff, but instead runs to another
one. The more frantic version of this only occurs in the early
morning. (Weird as there is no blockage as stuff comes out the back
end)
>>What the vets said=85
The first vet we visited was as puzzled by the food aversion as
we were. He thought it might be esophagitis. She went on Sucralfate*
(1/4 gm 3 times a day) and Pepcid AC (1/4 pill once a day). Vet #1 had
given us the name of a second ferret vet in the area (he was going on
vacation for 2 weeks).
Since she was still refusing to eat normally after several days
of this treatment, we went to Vet #2. I was starting to think
insulinoma at this point. They requested I fast her. I did so, but
very carefully. Vet #2 saw her and was hesitant to do the glucose, as
he didn't suspect insulinoma (she'd been fasted for several hours at
that point and was still alert and running around), but I kind of
insisted, just to quell my fears.
> Fast started at 5:30am and glucose, taken at ~11:15am,
was 65mg/dl.
Even though it's literally baseline, he ruled out insulinoma, saying
that a ferret with insulinoma after that long of a fast would "act
like a brick." He mentioned it might be helicobacter, but wanted to do
a blood work-up (I uploaded the results to the group section, hope
that's okay Dax_CBCSMA_072006.pdf). He said there probably wasn't any
point in continuing the esophagitis treatment. He, too, seem quite
puzzled by the rx to the kibble, although it wasn't nearly as bad as
before, perhaps because she'd not eaten for so long.
Overall he really didn't seem too concerned about her, as she is
eating something. He said to give it a little while, and if it gets
worse, to come in for an ultrasound. He seems to be leaning toward old
age as the cause, but I am hard-pressed to believe that "graceful
aging" would cause such sudden changes in her behavior. Then again,
maybe they're right, and I'm just over-reacting.
So no ulcerations, no blockage, no esophagitis, no insulinmoa (?), and
no clue...
Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? Has anyone experienced this
sudden, violent aversion to normal diet? Can anyone help make sense of
all of this? Suggestions? :(
Sincerely,
Desear
(*Note: We were later informed by vet #2 that this should be given 2
hrs before or 1 hr after food, so we'd been improperly administering
the Sucralfate. I should have looked it up instead of blindly
following original directions, I know now.)
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D<<<
Orange Broadband click below:
http://ads.smartgroups.com/adclick/CID=3D000000b7c79a99a500000000
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D>>>
--
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%3D17865