From:
"ferretwoman"
Date: 2010-10-28 02:15:00 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] What could these symptoms mean?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
My ferret, Pepper, who is just about 7, is doing something really weird =96=
she's opening her mouth like a dog does when they growl, but she's instead=
drooling. She lifts her head and moves it around a little too. Her nose =
and paw pads also get a reddish-pink color instead of their normal lighter =
pink color when she does this. This happened once last week, and I immedi=
ately glucose tested, twice, using an Alpha Trak glucose tester, and her re=
sults were 136 and 141 so it doesn't seem to be low glucose. Happened agai=
n starting last night, and she is continuing to do it, almost 24 hours late=
r now, on and off. Her glucose test was 85 last night, 93 this morning, an=
d 107 this afternoon via Alpha Trak. She won't let me feed her when she's d=
oing this, but once she "snaps out of it" she'll eat soup out of a bowl jus=
t fine. She's also very weak and lethargic today. And her head is tilted t=
o the left and she crawls in a circle to the left if she moves at all.
A little background: a few weeks ago she had what looked like low glucose i=
ncidents where she was acting lethargic. Some nutrical and food brought her=
out of it, and her pred was increased. A few days later, same thing happe=
ned. Same protocol. Went to the vet 2 days later but he used a regular hum=
an grade glucose tester that showed her to be in the mid-40s. Since she wa=
s active and normal, I discounted that result. A few days later, she was d=
oing the lethargic thing again, and this time I couldn't get her out of it.=
She was also shaking uncontrollably and her nose and paw pads were bright =
pink/reddish so I took her to the ER vet's office, which is the same office=
where my normal vet works. He was there so he saw her. Another test with =
the non-animal glucose tester showed 49. Again, I don't trust the tester. =
He gave her a shot of depomedrol .2 ml and some dextrose fluids. The next=
day she hadn't improved, was having what I called mini-seizures where it l=
ooked like she was having muscle contractions all over her body, and they s=
topped within seconds. So I took her to another vet, who had the Alpha Tra=
k, and his test was 76. Two days later my regular vet was in the office ag=
ain and saw her. He thought about what could be causing her glucose to drop=
like that and decided an infection could do that, so looked her over and d=
ecided she may have an infection in her gums in her mouth and started her o=
n Baytril. Unfortunately, the batch went bad so we just started her on a ne=
w batch yesterday. Since then we also did a full blood work up, CBC, and a=
test to determine what type of bacterial infection we were dealing with. =
The blood results were mostly in normal range and showed no major issues go=
ing on except it did confirm infection. The bacteria test grew strep. She=
also lost her sight and the ability to walk around the time I had to take =
her to the ER vet and hasn't gotten the ability to walk back.
Since then she has been doing well, glucose readings in the 90s or low 100s=
for the past week, active as much as she could be, until last night, when =
she seems to have gone back to step 1. I did give her 15 cc of 5% dextrose=
fluids last night in case it was low glucose, with no improvement. This m=
orning I gave her a shot of depomedrol because she was still doing it, but =
no improvement. So what else could it be? Any suggestions, ideas? Have y=
ou seen this before? I'm at a loss right now and would love some advice.
Thanks!
Linda
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/