Message Number: FHL9595 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "Mary Jo"
Date: 2009-07-31 22:00:50 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Fossa Grinding Teeth til mouth bleeds not ulcers Any Ideas? Euthanization Lurks
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

Fossa is a 6yr old MF female. DEW & deaf, had adrenalectomy at age 2. Normal weight 600 grams.
@ 9 Weeks ago she quite eating kibble (N. Gold & Evo mix) dropped to 520. I put her on Carnivore Care and carafate. She gained 40 grams. After 6 weeks she started grinding her teeth.I started her on Pepcid. I immediately took her to vets within 72 hours. They did complete bloodwork and ultrasound and found no cause. Put her on Carafate only, told to stop the Pepcid. 5 days later I find her with a bloody tail. I thought she had been stepped on or something. She was covered in blood. Afterwards come to find out her tail was fine. The fresh blood was from her mouth. She was grinding her teeth so much that the blood had leaked all over her tail (from being curled up).

Vet then put her on regime for Helicobacter ( amoxi .23 2xday, Pepcid .12 1xday, carafate 2-3 X day, metronidazole .34 2X day, tramadol .15 2xday/pain at my insistance)

[To know how much med is given it is necessary to
know the weight of the medication itself which will
usually be in mg or another aspect of grams. Knowing
just the volume (usually in ml for ferrets which can also
be called cc) does not tell how much medication is
given unless the concentration is also given and that is
usually in mg/ml . The only exception is when there is
only one concentration of a med.
So, please, say which units you mean and tell how many
mg per ml which should be on the label.
--Moderator
P.S. Tip: if you add a zero before the decimal point then
people will not accidently think that the dose is higher.
For example ".5" might look like "5" but 0.5 does not.

Thanks for the opportunity to remind members about
these things.]

On the 2nd day of treatment I went out of town and her caretaker forgot the Pepcid. I returned on day 6 to her having a bloody mouth after being off of the Pepcid for 3 days. We are at day 18 of treatment. No more bloody mouth but she is refusing food. On day 11 I ran out of CC and the replacement batch wasn't any good so I had to switch to Gerber Chicken baby food which she normally prefers.

I feel slight lumps behind her mandible below ears (lymph nodes?) about the size of a small pea. They are not enlarging. No other nodes are enlarged. There is a lot of activity in her stomach. I can hear it. She burps when I feed her and really grinds her teeth between slurps. She is refusing to eat. I am starting to syringe feed as of today. Her abdomen is feeling kind of full and her weight is at 650 grams, above normal. It is pink, not purple. Her stools are normal, not even close to dark except when she was drinking her own blood. Gums, nose pink. Active and alert. Can anyone suggest what might be wrong with her? The vet wants me to euthanize her on Tuesday at the 21 day end of her helicobacter treatment if she is still grinding her teeth. I need an alternative if possible! I don't really want to euthanize an active alert ferret. I just want her out of pain!

Below are her bloodwork from 2009 and 2008 for comparison.

Test 02Jul09 17Feb08
--CHEMISTRY--
BICARBONATE 30
CALCIUM 10.7 8.2
PHOSPHORUS 7.5 7.0
CREATININE 0.6 0.6
UREA NITROGEN 42 92
GLUCOSE 114 169
TOTAL PROTEIN 7.5 6.3
ALBUMIN 3.4 3.4
GLOBULIN 4.1 2.9
ALT 165 291
AST 16 121
ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE 28 47
BILIRUBIN TOTAL 0.2 0.3
CHOLESTEROL 299 157
CREATINE KINASE 794
GAMMA GT 44 14
GLUTAMATE DEHYDROGENASE 1
HEMOLYSIS INDEX 82 94
LIPEMIC INDEX 64 15
ICTERIC INDEX 0 0
--HEMATOLOGY--
Rbc 9.84 12.70
Hb 15.6 20.5
Hb COMMENT CORR
Hct 49.0 64.7
Mcv 49.8 50.9
Mch 15.9 16.1
Mchc 31.8 31.7
Anisocytosis SLIGHT SLIGHT
Wbc 5350 15420
Wbc Corr 5350 15420
%bands 12
%neut 55.2 70
%lymph 35.7 9
%mono 3.6 9
%eosin 4.9 0
%baso 0.6 0
Blast 0 0
Pros 0 0
Myelo 0 0
Meta 0 0
Bands 0 1850
Neut 2953 10794
Lymph 1910 1388
Mono 193 1388
Eosin 262 0
Baso 32 0
Unclass 0 0
Plt 443000 635000
Protein 8.5 7.7
Fibrin 400
Fibrin COMMENT QNS
Pp:Pf 20 0
Icterus COMMENT SL HEMOL,SL LIP MOD HEMOL





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