From:
"Alicia Gonzalez"
Date: 2009-03-07 01:36:44 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Extremely sick ferret - pancreatitis, non-regenerative anemia and renal failure
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
My Mateo is very, very sick. It all started 2 Fridays ago, with some mild yellowish diarrhea. Since he has had some IBD episodes in the past, I thought this was the same. I called our vet and he prescribed Libertrim, which we have used in the past. Usually the stools improve greatly after the first dose. It wasn't the case now and the diarrhea got gradually worse. After 3 days and no response to the Libertim, the vet added a caolin/pectin suspension and ordered some blood tests. I don't have the actual blood test results, but the vet told me that Mateo had pancreatitis, non-regenerative anemia and renal failure. To the 2 tummy meds he added iron drops for the anemia and prednisolone, 0.8 ml. every 12 hrs. Also, by now, Mateo's spleen was very swollen. It could be felt side to side on his tummy, and very hard. The vet mentioned he'd need to take a biopsy of it, but given the anemia, he would rather wait for Mateo to improve a bit or the risk of it bleeding too much was high.
Well, Mateo has been getting worse every day, losing weight and becoming more and more limp. He still does go to his litter box, but the effort is too great for him and he colapses all over his stools and pee. His breathing is more and more elaborate. My heart is breaking for him. The spleen has improved with the prednisolone, since it doesn't feel as big nor as hard.
I'm very worried about the pancreatitis. What causes pancreatitis? Can it be cured?
We have an appointment tomorrow morning but Mateo looks so tired and sad... he barely moves. I help him go potty, drink water and eat soup. My poor baby. I am also concerned because all of this happened so suddenly. He was perfectly ok, running all over the house, and all of a sudden he started to go downhill non-stop. Seems like a rather acute condition.
If anyone has experienced anything like this, I'd like to hear about it.
Many thanks in advance,
Alicia and The Precious - Matilda, Mateo & Lucas
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