From:
Jen Phillips
Date: 2007-11-02 04:14:02 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Re: Flu Like Symptoms & Bruising (Update)
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
At the beginning of September I posted about my ferret Vivi (Message
#3847), when she suddenly became ill. She's 7 years old, and was
showing symptoms that seemed like the flu in some ways. She had a runny
nose (clear discharge), watery eyes, sneezing, lethargy, diarrhea (brown
& slightly mucousy), teeth grinding, a bit of gagging and showing little
interest in food. Her nail wouldn't stop bleeding after a snip for a
glucose test (glucose was 52), and she also had a large bruise on her back.
Vivi spent 3 days at an emergency hospital, where large amounts of blood
were found in her urine, her glucose was very low, her blood was not
clotting properly and her temp was low (98). They weren't even sure
that she was going to pull through, but she did. She was put on Vitamin
K (1x/day for 5 days), Clavamox (2x/day for 14 days) for whatever caused
blood in the urine, Carafate for her tummy (3x/day indefinitely) and
Pred (2x/day indefinitely) to help control the insulinoma. 2 days
later, a CBC and Chem were normal, and her blood was clotting again.
The bruise slowly went away also.
For awhile after she came home, it seemed like things were getting back
to normal for Vivi. But it wasn't long before she had another bout of
illness. Since then it's been an ongoing battle. She'll do fine for a
little while, gaining weight, grinding less and eating well. The vet
has increased her Pred several times, and each time she seems better for
a little while, but as soon as I think she's getting better, it all
starts again. She just had another episode this past Sunday where she
wouldn't eat, so I syringe fed her. This lasted about 24 hours, and
then she started eating again and has been eating pretty well since then.
I'm doing my best for her, including feedings of A/D mixed with Gerber
2nd Stage Chicken baby food every 6 hours, and since Sunday, she has
actually been eating great. She doesn't seem to be putting weight back
on this time around though.
I was wondering if Hartz Milk Replacement for Kittens might be useful
for adding to her A/D mix to help her gain weight. It has a protein of
40% and fat is 27%, but I'm not sure how good it would be for a ferret.
Thanks for any help,
Jen
--
Happy Dookin',
The Hidey Hole Gang - http://www.hideyhole.org/
Jen, Mike & The Ferret - Vivi
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