My friend's early neuter Hagen ferret is having some problems that are
potentially life threatening, and we've never seen this in a ferret before,
so perhaps one of our wise vets could give us some pointers.
 
About a month ago, Billy's ear started leaking a lot of yellowy fluid and
appeared to be bothering him quite a bit.  We assumed it was probably a
yeast infection or something of the like, so I suggested she take him to the
vet.  She did, and discovered that Billy had two small polyps in his ear
canal that were irritating the ear.  The vet recommended surgery to remove
them, but it is expensive surgery, and my friend decided to hold off a bit
and work out her finances (okay folks, let's please not flame her for her
decisions, I'm only mentioning this because it is relevant to the story).
 
Last week she called me in a panic, as Billy had suddenly taken a bad turn.
He was standing in his cage with his nose to the ground and his mouth open
and his eye (on the side with the ear polyps) closed.  She gave him fluids
and forced food into him and took him to the vet.  The vet was mystified,
but suggested that the polyps were causing an infection in his middle ear,
and causing fluids to drip back into his throat and thus making him feel
pretty grim.  They eye would not open however, and as the polyps were
slightly larger, the vet felt they may be pressing on nerves near the eye.
Billy perked up a lot at the vet and seemed better, except for his eye.
 
The vet said that surgery to correct the problem would probably need to be
done by drilling through the skull at this point (the middle ear infection,
not the polyps) and this was becoming increasingly expensive - now we are
talking about thousands of dollars for a bone specialist to come in, and
this is definately beyond my friend's means.  However, the vet suggested
they try him on antibiotics to see if that would clear up the infection, and
the polyps would have to come out.  Billy went home with some antibiotics.
 
The next day, she phoned me in yet another panic.  Billy appeared to be
totally non-responsive, and appeared not to be able to swallow anything at
all, and was becoming dehydrated.  I suggested he was probably comatose and
needed vet care immediately.  So off to the vet Billy went again, and sure
enough he was comatose - he was not swallowing fluids because he was not
conscious.  My friend at this point decided Billy needed his suffering ended
and wanted to have him euthanized, which was a painful decision but one she
felt was best for Bill.
 
The vet however, wanted to give him one last chance, and asked if he could
keep him over night.  He put Billy on sub-q fluids and gave him a steroid
shot and put him in a kennel for the evening.
 
In the morning, I went to see Billy.  I walked into the back of the clinic
and said "Hi Bill!  It's Auntie Sheena" (yeah we're weird) and he popped out
of the cage and into my arms.  His eye is still closed and he walks on an
angle.  The water in his cage was gone, apparently he had drank it all.  he
was responsive and alert and giving him sub-q fluids was not an easy task
this time around :-)   He received another steroid shot and as soon as we
returned him to the cage he started eating voraciously, although about 10
minutes into his chow fest he stopped and rested, food in mouth.
 
Billy's gone home now and will be having the polyps removed, but our vet has
a different theory.  He suspects Billy has suffered a stroke, which has
caused the nerve damage to his eye and the comatose state he was in.  He
said there is a good chance Bill will recover much of his motor function and
maybe even will be able to open that eye, but we wonders about a ferret as
young as Bill (about 1 year old) suffering a stroke.  And I wonder if this
is all coincidence or if the polyps in his ear have anything to do with it?
 
Vets?  Does this sound like a stroke or could it be caused by the polyps?
I've never seen anything like this before, and as I am very fond of little
Billy I would appreciate information on what could be the problem here.  By
the way, Billy is the ferret that we suspected was incompletely neutered
this summer, as he was mounting his female cage mates.  I'm sure it has
nothing to do with this, but I really can't help wandering about the
genetics and practices of these ferret farms ferrets.  A pet store here in
town told us they would no longer carry ferrets, as they discovered an
alarming statistic - something like 20%, perhaps higher, of ferret farm
ferrets die between leaving the farm and getting to the stores, from flight
mix ups, complications from surgery at that tender age and respiratory
infections and the like.
 
Any thoughts on Billy's condition are greatly appreciated.  I should also
mention that the vet we've been dealing with is our wonderful Dr. Brondwin
and he insisted on not charging Billy's owner's anything for the last few
days of care.  He's such a wonderful man.
 
Tah,
Sheena - [log in to unmask]  | "To Err is Ferret ... To Forgive|
VP - Ferret Association     | "... Well, That's Our Job"      |
     of Greater Vancouver   (The Wherret Shelter is temp. closed)
  We're on the Web! http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/fagv/
[Posted in FML issue 1757]