From:
"Tressie"
Date: 2008-12-13 11:20:17 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Pain management for bleeding ulcer??
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I have posted a number of times about a rescue I am fostering, Sampson,
3 =BD years old. He's had recurring UTIs, ulcers, uroliths and was
diagnosed with insulinoma a couple of months ago. Because of his
history of recurring infections, my vet opted to put him on diazoxide
rather than pred. He gets 0.2mL BID.
At 4:00 a.m. Friday morning, I was awakened by a screaming ferret. My
first thought- he was having an insulinomic seizure. However, he was
awake and alert but in a lot of pain. I dialed the Emergency Veterinary
Hospital as I got him out of the cage. I put him down to see what he
would do and he was straining to go to the bathroom several times
unsuccessfully. My next thought was another UTI. When I got to the ER
the examining vet did not have much experience with ferrets but did say
his bladder was not distended or turgid. As she was examining him he
had a bout of bloody diarreah, didn't seem to be able to control it.
There was a lot of frank blood in it. She had no idea how to treat it.
He vomited and started grinding his teeth. They gave him .12 mL
Eurofloxacin 50mg/ml (Bayrtil) SQ; .25 ml of Famotidine 10mg/ml SQ; and
.45 ml butorphanol 1mg/ml. However, that was based on an incorrect
weight. Their scale was not set correctly. She thought he weighed .6
kg. He actually weighs 1 kg. I hadn't realized the error until my
vet (who received the faxed report) later pointed it out to me.
Got him home and found tarry black stool in the kennel with frank blood
in it as well. I gave him sulcrafate. That would have been 7:30 a.m.
By 9:00 he had awakened and was clearly in distress and pain, whimpering
and constant grinding of teeth. It took a few hours for the clinic to
track down my vet, who was on a day off. When the contacted him, he
prescribed the new Helicobacter protocol Amoxi/Biaxin. However, I
re-read an earlier post Dr. Williams had written to me about treating a
bleeding ulcer with sulcrafate and bland diet for a couple of days
BEFORE giving any medications so decided to go that route.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/message/6983
My vet prescribed oral Tramadol 0.5mL BID 10mg/ml for the pain. He was
reluctant to prescribe anymore butorphanol because of its respiratory
suppression risk. Sampson promptly vomited all of the Tramadol I gave
him. My vet was not reachable after he prescribed the Tramadol. It was
already his day off.
Sampson is still in a lot of pain, constant whimpering and persistent
teeth grinding. I am giving him the sulcrafate 30-40 minutes before
feeding him the chicken baby food duck soup every 4 hours. My vet is
not available until Monday and I am not going back to the Emergency
clinic because that is the third bad experience I've had with them.
They are not experienced working with ferrets.
Is there anything else anyone can suggest for me to do? Unfortunately,
we do not have buprenorphine in Canada.
Thank you!
Tressie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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