From:
"Becky"
Date: 2011-01-04 16:52:40 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Has Anyone Else Had A Problem With The Melatonin Implant?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
My name is Becky. We have used the melatonin implant for several ferrets. In April 2010 our ferret Snowball receieved another implant. (not her first) About 2 hours later she was pawing at her mouth, gagging and not acting right. Luckily we hadn't made the 62 mile trip home yet. They told us to bring her in. This was the only thing she had had done so they took her in and removed it. We left when we knew she was alright. I emailed Melatek and told them what happened. I received an email back saying they had never heard of this in a ferret but would have the vets there research it. Almost a month later they emailed saying they found nothing. I talked to my vet the next month and she informed me they had had another ferret do the same thing only it happened almost immediately. She also contacted them and got the same answer I did.
I have another ferret, Tucker, who has been on the implant over a year so he has had at least 3. About a month ago I noticed I could feel an implant under his skin. He had one 2 months before. I thought it was still working and didn't think much about it. My vet said if it was still there when I brought another ferret in for her lupron she would remove it. She had other ferrets who still had up to 6 still there that had to be removed. The other day I was checking to see if I could still feel it and not only was there 1 but 2. I took him in and while he was under for the removal they found a 3rd. She said all 3 were partly soft and hard. She is no longer doing the implants until the company can fix the problem. She has turned it in to the appropriate agencies. I am now giving the 3mg melatonin pills to my melatonin ferrets.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? I feel I paid alot of money and don't even know if they got the full effect from them.
[Having them remain afterward and slowly soften is normal
and to be expected, I gather. We have never had any of the
capsules removed afterward.
I have never heard of nausea with them before. Did the vet
use any distracting treat which may have gone bad during
the implant? Oils and the like sometimes do go bad and that
WILL cause nausea. There could easily be something else in
common rather than the implant so those questions need to
be asked. It seems strange to hear of two cases but at the
same vet hospital without other reports of nausea, and
makes me wonder about more common causes of nausea
perhaps being just as possible as culprits. Anesthesia?
Just a quick warning: check with the treating vets if people
write to you. That became important in the past when things
like myofasiitis, the ECE mutant, the nastier coccidia, etc.
came up because there were always people who lumped
anything and any recollection into a reply. The vet records
will be much more accurate, obviously.
Yes, I don't have it handy, but it is either the USDA or the FDA
or both which collect such reports of possible adverse effects
from veterinarians. Then they usually either check the product
(like with a recent human injectable drug call that led them to
finding particulate in their own sampling or they see if other
vets or physicians are reporting the same thing, and they
consider alternative explanations, too, because sometimes
those are the correct answer. On the other hand sometimes
there will be a manufacturing problem with a batch of any
medication, or even a storage or handling problem including
with the distribution chain. So, there are many possibilities,
making comparisons of actual treating vet records essential
before drawing conclusions.
-- Moderator (SDC)]
------------------------------------
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/