SQUEEK: We think about Squeek everyday. Please continue to update us on his
progress. I'm sure Squeek is enjoying the sun and fresh air with you to help
him enjoy it... Here's to good luck coming your way!
 
SYLVIA:
>I would love to hear from any of you that have had the experience of having
>a little fuzzie splinted.
 
Well I have good news and bad news for you if your experience is anything
like ours.  A few years ago our Edith had a very bad break in her front leg
when she was young.  The vet splinted it and YES she recovered 100% and
noone would know that she broke her leg except that she backs off of high
places instead of jumping forward.  However, the whole experience was quite
harrowing and Edith did suffer many setbacks and if I had it to do over
again I would not (never never) splint a break but rather confine the little
one to bed rest (I know impossible but probably easier than dealing with a
splint in our case) or go for the surgery to install a pin.  This is what we
dealt with and oh I so hope you don't have this same experience but do be
ready for it.  The skin underneath the splint got infected and wore down to
raw meat, it caused so much pain for Edith that she barely moved and became
quite obese which deterioted her general wellbeing making her prone to flus
and colds and so she was sick for several weeks, the splint moved a few
times and had to be redone and in the process reversed the healing process,
once the splint dislocated her shoulder, the skin infection was difficult to
heal - she was on internal antibiotics and external too.  During this time
we carried her around in a sling around our neck as she was very scared to
be alone and wasn't able to walk around and follow us.  They tried to keep
the splint on for 4 weeks.  In this time we must have gone to the vet 12
times and to the emergency vet twice.  The splint only stayed on for about
3.5 weeks.  Afterwards when they removed the splint for good I almost passed
out.  It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen just a raw bleeding
stump of flesh and stunk - oh puke!  The bone did not even feel like bone
underneath it felt like marshmellow.  Anyways, the vet recommended
amputation.  We decided we would wait a few days and make a decision.  In
the time following removal of the splint we concentrated on physical therapy
and dealing with infection and also dealing with Edith's depression.  We
gave massages several times per day, we had swimming lessons in the bathtub,
we applied some pressure to her paw to get her to push back as she just
tried to ignore her arm and get along without it, etc, etc.  We applied
antibiotics and aloe and vitamin E to the skin.  She was taking antibiotics
orally too.  We held her under her belly for her to relearn walking and
running so she would burn off some calories (she was really severely
overweight).  Anyways, everything worked out great, the recovery was
actually quite speedy after the splint was removed and her muscle came back
and her strength came back.  We learned that of splints, the best one that
worked for us actually looked like a body cast.  The first couple we had
were on the arm only and they had a tendency to move and they pushed into
her armpit and caused bruising and bleeding in there.  The body cast wrapped
around her whole body and her opposite arm a little and then down the bad
arm.  But, then this caused problems when she started gaining a whole ton of
weight etc.  If the splint goes past her paw beware of shoulder dislocation -
this is what caused it with Edith.  If she was wrapped up with that colored
plastic kind of sticky gauze/tape stuff beware.  In our experience it got
tighter and tighter and started to act like a tourniquette.  Well anyway -
my advice if it is possible is to go back and get an orthopedic surgeon to
install a pin in her leg and keep her quiet for a few days.  If you decide
to go with the splint monitor it very closely and plan for multiple trips to
the vet - beware of infection, dislocation etc.  In any case, Monty will
want to help with Sylvia's recovery.  I wouldn't recommend separating them
as this may have a poor effect on Sylvia's spirits which she really needs to
keep up.  Good luck, keep us updated.  Perhaps everything will go smoothly
with this but we did have a very ferret-experienced vet and things went
really really badly for us.
 
ABBEY:
>Sunday morning Abbey had a Grand Mal seizure - stroke I think. tle
 
We have Abbey in our thoughts and prayers. With you going to bat for her,
she is sure to make a speedy recovery.
 
Charlene
[Posted in FML issue 1586]