Dear Dr. Williams,
(and anyone else who can help)
 
I am sending this to the FML and to Accupath, since I don't know which you
will see first.  Last week our 3 yr-old (?) spayed female, Emma, suddenly
got sick.  Maybe she had been getting sick for a day or two--she is normally
slow to wake up and less active than our male Rikki, so it is hard to tell.
Only when I held her for a long time and she continued to look sleepy did I
realize that she was sick, and that I could feel her backbone sticking out.
I pinched her skin and sure enough she was dehydrated.  We took her to a vet
clinic here in Istanbul, taking along all the printed matter I had from the
FML and Ferret Database because the vets here have never seen a ferret.  In
the night emergency room, they rehydrated her with subcutaneous injections
and told me to bring her the next day, when a more experienced vet was on
duty (it is a big fancy clinic, mainly for wealthy residents with their
expensive imported dogs).  She would eat nothing at all, not even her
favorite vitamin treats, Ferretone, or Di-Vetelac (have you ever seen this?
From Australia. It is a low-lactose milk substitute for infant/ill animals,
and my ferrets love it as an occasional treat).  She looked terrible --
listless, dull, and later developed that clumsiness in the hind end that
made me really worry about adrenal problems or insulonoma or something.  She
was passing tiny, mucousy dark stools now and then, and I gathered some up
to take to the vet.
 
I used a needle-less syringe to give her water, but I think she ended up
breathing some in, because she occasionally sounded raspy when breathing,
and when the vet did an X-ray the next day, he found water in her lungs as
well as what looked like a large hairball in her stomach.  They injected
some penicillin (mentioned in a ferret book, but perhaps outdated?) and said
come again the next day to see if the water would leave her lungs, and to
decide whether she needed surgery.  Meantime, I was feeding her warm
hairball laxative and syringes of Duck soup made with Di-vetelac (not
appreciated).  She perked up that night (24 hours ago) and got her coat
condition back, so I was heartened.  Then she began eating and hiding her
cat & ferret chow, and drinking Di-vetelac with gusto.  She is much better,
but still not her old self.  She is passing the kind of stool you would
expect with a largely liquid diet and hairball laxative--ochre-colored and
soft to runny.
 
Unless she hid it somewhere in the room we are using as a sick bay, I don't
think she has passed the hairball.  I am taking her to the vet again this
morning for another antibiotic shot and check-up, but of course since she
looks better I don't want to rush into surgery until I hear from you.  The
vets at the clinic seem competent enough, but opening up my little Emma is
another thing entirely.
 
Have we done anything wrong so far?  Was the penicillin even necessary if
the water in the lungs was from breathing it in during force feeding? Is
it the wrong antibiotic?  How long should I wait for her to pass this thing?
Your advice would be much appreciated, as we were SO worried, and still are.
Thanks in advance!
 
Yours,
 
Sue
[Posted in FML issue 1340]