Hi folks,
We had a bit of a scare at our household this week. One of our ferrets,
Jasmine, managed to get ahold of a rubber stamp, and before I discovered
her dragging it into a hidey hole, she had managed to ingest a chunk
of rubber approximately 1/2" x 1/4". At the time, I didn't know if
she had eaten it, or just chewed it off. Anyway, the next morning,
said ferret was having trouble defecating, simply leaving a gooey
brown puddle in several corners, like she tried to 'go' a few times
but was unsuccessful.
We monitored her for a few hours, and then, since it had been about
12 hours since I caught her with the rubber stamp, and she hadn't
had a bowel movement (that we noticed) since then, we thought we had
better run her into the vet.
The vet explained that in sitations like internal blockages with ferrets,
the items causing the blockage may or may not be visible on an X-ray,
so he ordered X-rays, followed by an oral administration of barium.
The vet said that in his experience, most of the time the barium
would cause the ferret to pass the item causing the blockage, and if
it didn't, the barium would show up on an X-ray, allowing him to
determine the location of the blockage (in case the material causing
the blockage did not show up on the X-ray). If barium did not cause
the blockage to be passed, surgery would have been required. The
original X-ray showed the piece of rubber, and it looked like it
was lodged in her stomach, so they administered the barium and kept
her overnight to moniter her feces.
Luckily, the next day, Jasmine passed the piece of rubber, so
surgery was not required, and we were able to take her home, where
she has been eating, playing and pooping normally.
The vet gave me an itemized list of what it would cost for everything
from diagnosis to surgery so there would be no surprises. I thought
I'd include the list to get some opinions from you fellow ferret
owners / veterinarians as to whether the charges were reasonable.
Here's the estimate -- Note, items are in Canadian dollars.
Item Unit cost Units Charges
1. Exam - larger exotics 39.00 1 39.00
2. Barium - oral administration 22.50 1 22.50
3. X-Ray - 2 views - 1 film 65.50 1 65.50
4. X-Ray - additional - 2 view 47.50 1 47.50
----
5. Fluid therapy D - 101-325 cc 20.00 2 40.00
6. Injections in hospital - B 15.00 5 75.00
7. Anesthetic - iso - 1st 15 m. 52.50 1 52.50
8. Anesthetic - iso - ex. 15 m. 31.50 3 94.50
9. Operating rm. fee per 15 min 17.00 4 68.00
10. Gastrotomy - small 209.50 1 209.50
[Posted in FML issue 1044]
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