From:
Jen Phillips
Date: 2007-11-16 05:57:21 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Re: Flu Like Symptoms & Bruising (Update)
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Things actually got alot worse for Vivi after I posted about her not
feeling well after her Ivermectin injection. I'm not sure if it was a
reaction to the ivermectin, low glucose or something else altogether.
She became very lethargic (only thing that got a response from her was
ferretone), she felt chilly, her breathing seemed slightly unusual, she
was twitching almost like she had hiccups (but I don't think it was),
she wouldn't eat, was grinding alot, and she couldn't even walk. She
would drag herself a short distance and then she'd just lay there. It
was really awful.
I honestly thought she wouldn't be with us for much longer, so I did
everything I could for her here. I gave her some SubQs and syringe fed
her some of her soft food. This actually perked her up a great deal. I
adjusted her feedings to be more frequent (from every 6 hours to every
3-4), and split her Pred dose differently. I took her 0.75ml 2x/day to
0.5 3x/day so that it's effects would overlap. She responded pretty
well to these changes and was doing alot better by the following day.
I made an appointment for her to see the vet on 11-8, but had car
trouble not long into the trip and my vet is 2 hours away, so I had to
reschedule for 11/14. Thankfully, Vivi continued to eat pretty well and
seemed to at least be back to what has been normal for her lately.
As soon as the vet picked Vivi up, she was concerned because even she
could notice the weight change. She also felt a mass in Vivi's abdomen,
which she hadn't felt at her last visit. It feels pretty firm. She did
an ultrasound, and said that the mass is actually pretty large, about
the size of a plum. She couldn't even see her left kidney.
She doesn't feel that surgery would be very successful with how big the
mass is, along with Vivi's current state of health. She is willing to
try, if that's what we decide, but if things are as bad as she fears and
she can't remove it, she doesn't think we should wake Vivi from surgery,
because then she'd be trying to recover from a surgery on top of
everything else that's already going on. And even if she could
successfully remove it, I don't know that Vivi could pull through a
surgery at this point anyhow. She's so weak, skinny and she tires very
easily. Even the trip to the vet yesterday was very stressful to her.
The other option is to try to keep her comfortable with Pred to help
reduce the inflammation surrounding the mass for as long as we can.
This is such a hard decision to make. I want to do everything for her
possible, but I'm leery of surgery because the vet isn't even feeling
positive about it. But then on the other hand, without surgery, I don't
think she'll have much time. I'm afraid that either way, things aren't
going to go well, but I'm leaning towards trying to make the time she
has left as good as possible instead of putting her through a risky surgery.
Take care,
Jen
--
Happy Dookin',
The Hidey Hole Gang - http://www.hideyhole.org/
Jen, Mike & The Ferret - Vivi
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