Well, with all thats been going on here, I haven't had a chance to post,
but wanted to catch y'all up on the goings on at The Ferret Haven.
First off, I wanted to say "Thank you!" to two special people -- Debbie
Spring and Lynda Neas, who donated 15 pounds of Totally Ferret to the
shelter - it will truly come in handy and I am very grateful to you both.
We have some pretty sick kids here and some are doing better than others -
PeeDee, the little one that has prepucial adenocarcinoma had to have a
second surgery - to remove his prepuce, reroute his urethra and to remove
malignant tumors from throughout his body. We know he doesn't have long
here -- but as long as his bowl is full and he has his buddy, Bandit, to
curl up with --he is a pretty happy boy.
Garrett is still with us - and still taking all of his meds pretty well.
He's glad to be home after a short stay with Carole (thanks a lot!).
Emily, Tigger, Trella, Ben round out the old timer crew - all are doing
well and we hope to place in some foster homes in the near future.
We are trying something with our ferret room - we ripped up the carpet,
padding, tack strips, painted the walls and ceiling with a scrubbable paint
and we are experimenting with putting down a laminate floor -- its called
Swiftlock made by Armstrong and has a 25 year warranty against staining,
water, dents and scratches. We are learning the tricks and tips of putting
it down and keeps us very busy.
We did get another stray ferret released to us -- she was found in Norfolk,
VA and we have contacted the local SPCA/humane societies in case her family
is looking for her.
Finally, we have a strange case at the shelter that somebody out there may
have seen before.
The problem child that we have right now is an interesting case - the
docs (very experienced ferret vets) are both stumped as to what might be
happening. Background: Shelter ferret, biter - in rehab. Silk has been
here for almost 6 months and has come a long way from her shredding habits.
She is turning one year old this month. About 2 weeks ago, she seemed
quiet. Eating, drinking, normal stools, etc but not as playful. Next day
she was about the same. The third day she had 'crashed' overnight -
diarrhea around her tail/anus, and lethargic. borderline dehydrated. She
stayed at the vets all weekend and we ended up doing exploratory surgery.
Found NOTHING. No tumors, no enteritis, no abnormal looking organs --
nothing. She spikes a fever of up to 105.8 and then a couple hours later
normal. (She's done that for over a week and finally her temp has stayed
normal). Inserted a feeding tube, as Silk was being force fed (and since
she was biting, we felt it was safer for everyone), took biopsy samples and
sent them away. Blood tests showed only 2 things abnormal: white cell
count was 54,000 and her proteins were slightly down. The Aleutians test
was negative. white cell count has since dropped to 20,000. Biopsy
results showed normal tissue. (stomach, intestines, spleen, etc.) She was
on amoxi/metronidazole, now on baytril. She has a lot of nasal discharge,
but her lungs are clear.We added another antibiotic, Septra, but was soon
dropped as I felt that she was having some reactions to it. We have also
noted in her urine high levels of glucose, but consider diabetes a very
remote possibility as she shows no other signs (excessive thirst,
urination, etc). Bev - the vet said that her last blood test showed mostly
adult white cells, but a small amount of immature cells. We are now
considering autoimmune disease...
I feed Silk 25cc of food by tube 4/5 times a day. She gets sulfacrate by
tube twice a day and baytril/pet tinic by tube twice a day. No other meds.
She has not lost any weight.
She is still lethargic with no interest in food. She has been treated for
more than two weeks and today she seems to be slipping away. I just get
that feeling - but there is NO REASON that I can see that this 1 year old
ferret is so sick. No one else here has anything like what she has. Her
cagemate is healthy.
We decided to drop one of her meds during a phone consultation with the
vet this evening - Septra and added one for the next couple of weeks --
ivermectin. She took 0.4cc by tube and we will repeat twice over the next
4 weeks. The vet saw increased eosinphils in her blood, so this is another
'rule out' for EG.
He wants to do a marrow extract - but honestly, its a painful and expensive
procedure. I'm not sure that even if we do find something out from a
marrow biopsy, that it will help us. If it is leukemia or some type
disease, her outlook is bleak and I am hesitant to put her through it.
Keep some good thoughts going for her.
Lisa Leidig, Head Ferret
The Ferret Haven "By-the-Sea"
http: www.ferrethaven.org
Want to help The Ferret Haven By-the-Sea? Register at iGive.com
by cutting and pasting this link:
http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?CID=1236&MID=854
[Posted in FML issue 3106]
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