From:
"Ulrike"
Date: 2008-09-30 18:51:21 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Distressing last moments of ferret, what happened, please?
To: "FHL" <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
I'll try to make this as short as possible. Please remember I'm German and
I can't think straight after this afternoon so my grammar may be a bit
haphazard.
Nipper, 8 1/2, last year he was diagnosed with chronic lung disease and
cardiomyopathy. He got Fortekor (Benazepril) and a few months ago we
started Theophylline. He was already on Prednisolone because of insulinoma
and the pred was needed for the lung condition, too. And 4-5 or so months
ago we started Furosemide because he started coughing with fluid in his
lungs. He did quite well until recently.
Beginning of July he went through a phase where he had some diarrhoea and
occasional vomiting for 2 weeks. He went off his food and got one shot of
Metocloperamide which got him eating again and after 2 weeks he was okay.
Then recently, the last 2 weeks or so, he slowly went off his food again.
Some mucous diarrhoea at times. The last few days it was a real struggle to
get him to eat, he eats ground meat and didn't like the tiny pieces of bone
in it. Last night there was no way he would finish his portion, he looked
okay before food but in pain and miserable after his half portion. This
morning I didn't feed him because I didn't want to upset him. He only had
his Furosemide, no heart tablet, no pred. With the discomfort after eating
I thought of stomach ulcer so I got some Carafate from the vets. I gave
this to him and tried to feed him 3/4 hour later. He had a few mouthfulls
and then started to do something that seemed to me like a mix of coughing
and trying to vomit/ retching/ gagging. I don't know how to describe it. I
put him back to bed because this was horrible to watch and that's when he
started this weird cough, it sounded hollow, like a bark almost, he started
to wheeze and I imagine whooping cough to be like his coughing was. His
mouth was wide open, seemed rigid, it seemed he had problems breathing, it
also sounded like his lungs were full of mucous. I phoned the vets and
rushed him there to be put to sleep.
Got there and he'd stopped coughing. My vet examined him, listened to his
chest, she said his heart was racing, I mean *really really* fast, my vet
palpated his abdomen which appeared to hurt him. She then tried to take his
temperature which is when the distressing last moments started. He tried to
cough again, I think he started to suffocate, he was rigid, eyes wipe open,
mouth wide open, he tried to breath and cough but couldn't, I saw his tongue
turned blue and I just became hysterical at this sight, my vet asked me to
call a nurse for help and I didn't go back in. I don't know if Nipper just
died or whether they managed to give him gas and put him to sleep. They
said they did but it sort of looked like they just told me this to make it
easier for me. The last moments of his life, the pictures in my head, are
haunting me.
Please, if anybody knows what may have happened, please let me know so I
understand. I think suffocation must be one of the worst ways to go and I
don't know why he couldn't get air. Did the Carafate do this to him? Could
he have had a heart attack or acute heart or respiratory failure? It was
obviously the stress because he turned bad when my vet tried to take the
temperature which I don't know why she did this when we had agreed to put
him to sleep. I need to know whether he suffered as much as what it looked
like.
We did a necropsy and sent tissue samples off, the heart was so soft and
floppy, I've seen hearts of cardiomyopathy ferrets before but nothing like
this. No muscle tone to it at all. Yet he didn't look this ill, I mean he
had a lack of appetite and had been quiet but still had a walk around the
garden and enjoyed rolling in the grass. He didn't look or act as ill as
his heart looked. Also, I don't know if this is right, the vet nurse did
the necropsy because my vet didn't have time and to me it looked like all
organs were very vascular, lots of little blood vessels everywhere and I'm
sure from what I remember, the organs from the other ferrets weren't covered
with blood vessels like this. We think we found an enlarged right adrenal
gland, it looked quite knobbly. Spleen and liver looked abnormal. Lungs
were bad, especially the right side. Tissue samples were sent off.
Ulrike
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