From:
"blaugesen"
Date: 2007-02-11 23:05:45 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Comatose Ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
In all my years with ferrets, I have never had an experience like one
this morning. Blake, age close to eight was diagnosed with insulinoma
about one month ago. He has been managed up to this point very well
with one 1mg of prednisone twice daily, 0.1 ml of diazoxide twice a
day, and .25 mg of DMG once a day. I had just given him his morning
meds of prednisone, diazoxide and DMG, set him on the floor and
noticed he was off balance. This progressively worsened. He was
posturing and going in one-sided circles. I immediately gave him
Nutra-cal, which he took without problems. I couldn't bring him out
of the state he was in. Called my vet to get further info on what to
do. I made up a sugar water mixture which I used as an enema,
managing to approx 4 cc's into him in that manner. Still no change.
All of this was in a two hour period. Met my vet at her clinic. He
was given an injection of dextrose, a liquid prednisone shot and
another enema of dextrose. None of this was bringing him out. When
examined it was determined that Blake was blind at this point.
Because nothing was working the decision to help him across the
bridge was made. As the vet was getting ready to give him a bit of
gas prior to euthanizing him, and as I was holding him, noticed he
was trying to cover himself with his blanket. The vet and I saw that
he still couldn't see, but that he was starting to come around. He
was in a panicy state because of his vision, but definitely was
coming out of coma-like state. Made the decision to not euthanize at
this time, but give him time to see how things went. I now have him
here at home. He has continued to improve through the day. He is
eating duck soup with no problem, and drinking quite a bit of water
(from all the sugar in his system). Eyesight seems to have improved
as well. My vet and I were both overwhelmed by his coming out of
this coma-like state after having been in it for so long, 3+ hours.
We both thought he had had a possible stroke. My vet has called
several times to check on him. I am just dumb-founded as to what has
happened to him and what I need to do next. I noticed while drinking
water he seemed to choke on it a bit towards the end of drinking it.
Which made the stoke theory even stronger to me. I am sorry for the
length of this. But wanted to give background on everything that
happened today. Can anyone give me any advice or has anyone had a
similar experience? I had already said my goodbyes to this baby when
all of a sudden things took such a drastic change in the other
direction. Any and all insight and advice will be greatly
appreciated.
Barbara Laugesen
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